So this is another The Little Mermaid retelling, this one being a M/M and the mermaid being less of a mermaid and more of an octuman? Or however you’re meant to explain it – the water-dwelling creature has tentacles.

All in all, it was a good read. Not that good – as I rated it 2 and a half but because of Goodreads and its ratings (yes, another snide remark about how Goodreads needs to change their stars but then again, are you even a blogger if you don’t complain about this?) so then I had to rate it down to 2 stars.

The characters were cute. Yes, the story focused more on Ben and Lyle (I mean they are the main characters, so obviously) but I did like Ben’s parents. Though I did find Lyle a bit annoying – mostly his personality and the fact that he was a bit too whiny for my taste. Sure, I guess if you’ve been alone for a super long time, your personality might change, and you’ll probably be a bit needy and whiny.

Another thing that bothered me was the instalove factor – I think that’s mostly why the rating’s not higher. I can honestly say that I have no idea why or how people can look at someone and then go “Ah, yes. I want this person.” Yeah, sorry. But I do applaud whoever does do this – be extremely confident in love and knowing what they want, because sugar, I can’t even make up my mind on what to eat half the time.

Okay, so I knew from the blurb that I was going to love The Lonely Merman. I mean, a magical ruin, an enchanted pool, and a flamboyant merman with tentacles? Yes, please! What I did not know, however, was how deeply I would fall in love with Lyle, or how deeply I would get lost in the world Kay Berrisford created.

The setting alone is worth the price of admission, a secluded little spot, deep inside the forest, that has remained magically hidden from view for over a century. There is a single tower, seemingly torn from a castle and dropped into the trees, topped by exquisite stone dragons. A little further away there is an even lovelier pond, crystal clear, and prone to unusual aquatic frenzies. Haunting them both is a man by the name of Lyle, a Gothic beauty who is as enchanting as he is enigmatic.

The romance between Lyle and Ben is quite lovely, a slow-burning passion that brings two worlds together. Just as they have found one another, though, the cruel hand of progress threatens to tear them apart, with Lyle's curse promising a sad end to his cursed exile. This is a magical tale, with all the power and excitement of a fairy tale, driven by a love that is sweet, and kind, and just plain delightful. Lyle's story is a sad one, but that mythology is a big part of what makes the story so perfect.

Fittingly, The Lonely Merman is a fairy tale romance full of erotic promise, but with the sex left largely off the page. It is a story that is full of emotion, with a happily-ever-after that will leave you smiling for the rest of the day. Just an altogether lovely read.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5



It's Friday afternoon, and the last thing Ben wants to be doing is trudging through a wet forest in search of a public hazard. But duty calls, and turns out more exciting than Ben imagined when he encounters a magical ruin, an enchanted pool, and Lyle—a merman who's cursed to be landlocked many miles from the sea.

Lyle is flamboyant and exciting—he's got tentacles, for goodness sake!—and Ben falls hard. But Lyle's been hurt before and finds trust difficult, refusing even to reveal how to break the curse that imprisons him. Ben's just an ordinary guy, and can't help wondering if he can ever be the hero Lyle needs.

The Lonely Merman (Landlocked Heart #1) by Kay Berrisford has a terrific premise behind it and some wonderful mythology that the author has created for her story.  I trudged along with Ben  and tumbled headlong into a magical place, haunted by a cursed being waiting for his forever love.

How could you not want to read about that?

And for most of this story, Kay Berrisford has me hooked.  The plight of the forest, the woods surrounding the pool and the temple because of Ben and the way in which he endangered them all had me on the edge of my seat.  That was so well done.  A little less was the quick relationship between Ben and Lyle.  Really Ben seemed halfway more irritated than smitten, but maybe that was me.

But the back history and story Berrisford created for Lyle is a superb one.  I really wish she had given more page space to this portion of the story and world building because she absolutely held my interest here.  This is also where I felt let down at the end.  Everything that occurs to Lyle at the end happens "off stage" as it were and we are cheated out of a huge element of this story, an important one.

So yes, the main characters get their HFN, yes I love the idea of the story and so many of the elements here I felt it warranted a 3 star rating. But there are also enough holes that it came perilously close to 2 as well.  That's for all the sections of the story that the author didn't deliver and should  have been included to give the reader a satisfactory closure to the story and Lyle's part in it.

The title indicates that this is the first in a series so I'm curious if it's going to pick up Ben and Lyle's story from the ending of this one, an uncertain one at that or set off on another trajectory all together.  I'm invested enough that I'll pick up that story to find out.  For all you fantasy lovers, there's enough here that if you're looking for a quick read with some interesting aspects to it, The Lonely Merman (Landlocked Heart #1) by Kay Berrisford just might be the thing for you.

Cover art by J. Ang is interesting but almost too simple for this story.

this was quite fun, and i liked the fact that there was a bit of angst and is wasn't all plain sailing (no pun intended), but it was quite instalove-y. not just instalust, but instalove. i shouldn't really complain about that though, as the whole story had a fairy tale vibe with curses and things, and instalove is par for the course with fairy tales, really.

This was a cute short story [or novella I guess?]. The instalove factor is always going to make me roll my eyes a bit but it's what I've come to expect from these types of shorter writing and also it's much less annoying to me when it's a queer romance. Lyle wasn't exactly what I was expecting [he's more a fairy than a traditional merman] but for the most part the story was cute and had a good ending and I also liked the little silly things in the narrative like Ben calling Lyle a 'drama llama' several times [and he really is, I often thought he would make a better vampire or something than a merman]. Also just like, fair warning, there was a weird [but not explicit] foray into merpeople incest in the middle of the book that had me going 'what???' but I guess you've got to have one really weird unexpected thing in every book ;)

I'm a big fan of merman romances, I've always loved them, and will pretty much try any that I find. This was a cute story, but at the same time it felt like something was lacking while I was reading this.

I felt like we never really got a clear explanation of what Lyle looks like, and things seemed to be rushed through, quickly explained (the whole "show, don't tell in writing" definitely applies here) and the way the dialogue and writing was, it felt almost like this should have been taking place years in the past rather than the present.

However, I adored Lyle being called a "drama llama" and there were some cute moments between him and Ben. And y'know, merman!

I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sweet story. Ben's character was very relateable. The reader really feels for him. There were some aspects though that didn't really fit. The name for Lyle's character just never fit; it didn't have the right flavor to fit the character. Lyle's backstory when he finally shared it seemed a little unformed and haphazard. The book had great detail of events and action with the exception of Lyle's description and the intimate scenes. I felt like when the author got to those areas of the story they fast forwarded. For those reasons I didn't enjoy this book as much as I might have-- it had so much potential.

When Ben stumbles upon Lyle in the woods, Ben doesn't know what to think. He's repulsed by the creepy guy in an oversized cloak, yet at the same time he can't help being intrigued. They keep meeting more and more until intrigue becomes love, but love might not be enough to save Lyle, who is dying from a curse every day he remains trapped in the woods.

This was a very cute story. I liked the balance of Ben's conservationist need to inspect the tower and lake where Lyle lives and his need to understand and then protect Lyle. The magic involved was interesting too. Lyle's curse and the magic he uses to keep himself safe was very interesting to read about and was definitely the best part of this story.

What I didn't like was all the time skips and the moments when a character explained what happened five minutes ago instead of Berrisford taking the time to write out the full scene. It made the story feel choppy and rushed. What could have been a very interesting love story lacked the proper build-up because of those missing scenes, which unfortunately made a lot of the plot feel unnecessary. By the time I got to the end I was ready for the story to end.