I wanted to enjoy this so much more than I did. Especially because of the representation sadly I could not finish as I wasnt connecting to the story and it became a chore to complete.

Well that was incredibly fun and unique.

A Novella about mermaids and shipwrecks and folklore and being true to oneself, so Surface Tension was about a bunch of different things. Valentine Wheeler spins a lovely tale here, and keeps up the pace throughout. There are no breaks in the story, no chapters or change of perspective, and it's very well done.

I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. It was an okay story with some new mermaid myths that will spark your interest. But overall not a very strong story.

Well the author created "A Whole New World"...lame joke, but true. My favorite part was the setting and originality of the storyline. I don't think I've ever thought about a scientist being on the mermaid side, as opposed to the human side. And I loved Ydri! Still don't really know how to pronounce the main characters names, but oh well.

The ending is different than what I was expecting. Not a good or bad thing, just different. It was a fun read, not long at all, so I'd recommend giving it a go.

Sarai is a member of a ships crew who falls into the sea and is rescued by a mermaid and held under the sea for a week or so. She finally gets to land and doesn’t remember a thing after falling into the sea. She gets a job working in the castle with her cousin, bit doesn’t enjoy and job for long. She long for her life on the sea. She goes back to the sea and is captured again by a different mermaid Ydri, which it turns out to be a mistake because they can only take someone once. I really enjoyed this story. It was fun to read and there is great ending, but the ending is not what you expect. Surface Tension is a book that I would recommend to others.

Escaping to the sea is Sarai’s only wish but who knew she’d find freedom and love under the surface. The book begins with strong character development of indepenant and fearless Sarai escaping the confines of the medieval trappings of being female in that time. She finds solace and freedom on a ship but is also forced to dress like a man to fit in. After surviving a shipwreck her cousin helps her find work in the local castle, but once again she feels confined and not befitting of menial women’s work to keep her happy. While lamenting her poor luck one day on the beach she is kidnapped by a mermaid for the purpose of scientific observation according to Ydri, the mermaid that abducts her. They strike up a romance but the plot thins at this point. Ydri is a vague and nebulous character that we hardly get to know. Their romance seems stretched thin as well, considering Sarai was abducted against her will. There’s some suspense that builds surrounding cooperation with humans and mermaids, but it wasn’t quite fleshed out when there is still work on building connection between Sarai and Ydri. There is intrigue with Ydri’s mermaid city and some of the history surrounding her kind and I wanted much more of that, and more time for Sarai and Ydri to fall in love. Still, it was a short and entertaining read.

Sarai is washed ashore two weeks after her ship sinks. She suffers from memory loss that causes her to react strongly to certain triggers as she tries to get her life back together back on land. She's hopeless at so many jobs, that even her cousin Gretchen, can't help her save her position. While she wonders the shore after a particularly nasty day on the job, she is captured by a people that she thought were only a myth. They bring her to their city to be examined. Ydri, her keeper, is kind in her experiments (not like alien probing), despite what the stories tell of merpeople. Sarai's natural curiosity takes over from there, and the story gets good from there.

I enjoyed the world building, especially for the world under the sea. For we don't see much of it, but it is still vivid and realized. I also enjoyed the little details of the mannerisms Sarai notes of Ydri that helped me really see what Wheeler was going for with her mermaids. That said, Ydri is not as strong a character as Sarai. I could see why they were drawn to each other, but some of the story beats involving them did fall flat to me. I thought the kingdom on land wasn't as well crafted, which was disappointing. I want to say it is because Sarai is the narrator, and what happens on land isn't as important to her due to her affinity with the sea, but I would have loved to see Wheeler give more attention to the surface kingdom.

Sarai is a great lead, though. She is an extremely complicated person with some simple needs. For example she's a farmer's daughter but is pulled by the ocean, so she runs away from home to be a sailor. She's also really smart, and can match Ydri on an intellectual level. Her relationship to Gretchen, her cousin, is sweet. Gretchen is a nice touch, she helps round out Sarai's character while still being fairly dynamic herself. The brief cameos by the Queen were also fun; there's enough mystery about her that there could be another book just about her.

This is a slower paced novella, but if you like a lot of build up, with a great underwater kingdom, then you'll like this story. I honestly believe this type of story would be better served with a longer word count. That way, more details can be given, and Ydri can have more screen time to help flesh out her character more.

Surface Tension starts out with some Little Mermaid vibes, with a sailor (a woman in disguise as a man) going overboard her ship during a storm. A mermaid saves her, but she doesn't realize that until much later, as merfolk have a way of wiping clean the memory of humans the humans they "experiment" on. Our human heroine wakes up on the beach with no memory of the last week, and sets out to find a job on land. After weeks of failing, she ends up back at the ocean, meets the mermaid again, and is held captive under the sea for a long while. This is where the star-crossed-lovers plot takes hold, with the mermaid Ydri trying to be kind but also not get in trouble, and the human Sarai trying to escape but also being aware that she'll drown immediately without Ydri's magic.

The story ends with the two of them together, but it's not exactly what you might expect. If you're looking for a Little Mermaid retelling, this might not do the job for you, but it is very sweet and there's no sex, if that's something you're looking for.

Content Warnings - References to drowning, character believes she's drowning before the mermaid saves her.

Suzanne received a copy of this book from the publisher for review via NetGalley.

I picked up Surface Tension because it's an f/f romance with bi rep that has mermaids, and I need more of that in my life. It's inspired by The Little Mermaid but goes off and does its own thing.

The good:

- The author is autistic and bi, making for own voices bi rep, yea!

- Serai's yearns to be out at sea and make her own life to get away from a less than ideal father, and she does it. The beginning, where she meets an awful storm with her crew mates on the high seas, drew me right in.

- The Ariel-esque character has the same grotto and love of human objects that you would expect, but with a more scientific bent, which is neat.

- All of the icky parts of The Little Mermaid story are taken out so no one loses their voice to get legs, etc.

- The under sea sections have the germ of a good idea, but...

The not-so-good:

- The setting isn't fleshed out much. It's your typical European fantasy setting - vaguely medieval with a town, castle, forest, and ocean. I wanted more, especially from the under sea sections.

- The one side character with any teeth, Nicholas, could have served the plot better.

- I'm not sure I understood the point of the mermaids having four tentacles.

- The end smacks of colonialism, which I did not like or expect.

After such a wonderful beginning I was left disappointed.

Lesbian! Mermaids!

Lesbian! Mermaids!

LESBIAN! MERMAIDS!

Clearly that is all I need to say. But also that this sweet and short romance between a untradional mermaid and her human lover is a lovely piece of candy fluff to fill and afternoon.
Well worth the read. Plus, we always need more books with lgbt characters, and especially fantasy books with lbgt characters.
Lesbian Mermaids!

Look, this is a lesbian romance about a mermaid scientist and a farmer-girl-turned-sailor, and if that doesn’t have you one-clicking the heck out of this story, I don’t know what will! It’s a sweet, fairy-tale-like romance, and it was a delightful read.

“The mast swayed beneath her, the ship banking hard as it came about, and she gripped the edge of the basket with both hands and wrapped her hands in the webbing, closing her eyes. Back home in a storm, she’d be huddled in front of a warm, blazing fire. She’d have her father beside her and a book in her hands. She’d be warm and dry and safe.
She opened her eyes, the fear sliding away. She’d be safe at home. But out here, she was alive.”


Sarai wakes up on a beach after a shipwreck, with only disjointed memories of the storm that wrecked her ship. What she does know is that she doesn’t want to go back to her life as the daughter of a pig farmer, so she eventually seeks out her cousin Gretchen, who works at the castle. Sarai is just biding time, trying to figure out to do since she loves the ocean but knows she’ll have a hard time getting a new position on a ship without any references. While walking along the beach, she thinks she spies the figurehead of her ship, and wades in, only to be grabbed by something and drug under the water. Turns out, she’s been kidnapped by a mermaid scientist, Ydri, who intends to keep her captive for fourteen days, and who’ll then release her with some gold to make up for it. The catch, though, is that it’s revealed that she’d been captured before in the aftermath of the shipwreck, so the mermaid’s magic will not be able to wipe her memory. During their experiments, Ydri and Sarai become almost-friends, but it’s what happens after she’s released that may have impacts on both the human and mermaid worlds. What common ground can a woman who loves the sea and a mermaid scientist have?

“There’s nothing wrong with what you’ve shown me!” Sarai reached toward Ydri, but she pulled away, and Sarai’s hand dropped between them. “There’s nothing wrong with being curious, Ydri. There’s nothing wrong with sharing, with making friends. That’s how you learn new things.”


Despite being a novella, the story moves at a leisurely pace. It reminds me a bit of a fairy tale retelling, and there are little homages to Disney’s The Little Mermaid, from Ydri’s cache of human artifacts to one character long to be “part of your world.” Once Sarai is kidnapped, however, the story really starts. Ydri, the mermaid scientist, is fascinated by humans and their society, and secretly wishes they would have more contact with the humans, though it’s forbidden by their council. For all the things Ydri learns about her, though, she’s forbidden from revealing anything about their magic, which frustrates Sarai to no end. Despite their growing friendship – and other feelings – they’re hampered by the captor/captive relationship, and that, after fourteen days, Sarai will be returned to the surface and they’ll never see each other again. Both women, of course, are strongly against this, both being curious about the other culture and both, eventually, convinced that mutual cooperation could only help both cultures. When push comes to shove, however, Ydri chooses her family over Sarai, and she’s returned to the surface, once again forced to make a new life on land while her heart remains under the sea. Ydri’s such a wonderful character, curious and motivated to fulfill that curiosity, and I simply loved her. Compared to her, Sarai felt much more anchorless and aimless, though she does her best to form a new life for herself after each time she’s returned to the sea. I loved how she stood up to Ydri, though, about the unfairness of the one-way exchange of information, and how she stepped up when Ydri came to her with news vital to the town, and how brave she was in being the messenger of that bad news.

If you’re as leary of tentacle sex as I am, it’s good to know that besides a few kisses and some mild petting, there’s no sexual content. It’s much more focused on the initial relationship between Sarai and Ydri, which, considering they’re in a captor/captive relationship, is a very good thing that the romance takes a bit to develop. I did find some of the dialog a bit too contemporary for a fantasy-esque story, but I loved the banter between Sarai and Ydri. I thought the ending was quite sweet, and I honestly would love to read more of Sarai and Ydri’s adventures!

Overall, I think some people might find the gentle pace a bit off-putting, but if you’re willing to settle in for a comfy ride, you’ll be well rewarded!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This novella felt very fresh in it’s aproach to a wlw mermaid story. It was not my favorite aesthetic for it, but definitely interesting and surprising.

I think I liked all the characters (that say more than 2 sentences that it), which is also unusual and pretty nice.

Sarai is pretty cool and Ydris curiosity and devotion to understanding humans (was her cave of objects an hommage to Arielle tho?) was intriguing. Gretchen is the supporting relative everyone needs and Nicholas was also just really likable.

Unusual was the story because of the mermaids abducting humans to study them and the kind of magic the mermaids use. I didn’t necessary like those parts of the story, but it also didn’t bother me. It was more like ‘ok just go with it’.

The ending is pretty nice, uniting both societies and also Sarai and Nicholas teaming up to go on their adventure, with the mermaid by their side - That’s a nice dynamic.

All in all I enjoyed the novella. But since parts of it were so unusal and a bit weird, I don’t know if I would have wanted the story to be longer than it is. Unless it would just be sailing adventures of Sarai, Ydri and Nicholas.

After reading this book I have two main thoughts:

1) We need way more f/f mermaids stories
2) I wanna go on an adventure at sea!!

This story was really a delight to read, beginning with Sarai, our main character, falling off a ship during a storm and landing on land, realizing later she lost a few days memories. I wasn't that interested in the beginning when she was on land, maybe because she was still lost about what happened and what to do now, even though I really like seeing her relationship with her cousin Gretchen.

And then Sarai went back to the beach, into the sea, and was abducted by Ydri, a mermaid who studies how humans work. There we get some answers and Sarai reluctantly agrees to stay and answer Ydri's questions.

The real story began there for me, reading Sarai and Ydri getting to know each other. I absolutely loved every description of the merpeople and everything about this world, it seemed so magical, at some point I really thought I was under the sea.

I think the descriptions were my favorite part of this book, but Sarai and Ydri's developing relationship were a close second, along with some supportive characters like Gretchen, or Irene and Nicholas we meet later in the story. I kind of wish it was longer though, it would have been so good to read about these characters and their adventures!

I received this book from Netgalley and NineStar Press in exchange for an honest review.

This was a short story and I like the premise that it deal with two species humans and merpeople.

It starts with Sarai who wash up from shore after falling off a ship. She left her family farm after having a fight with her father because she wanted to have adventures.

When she goes to see her cousin Gretchen for a place to stay after she wash up from shore her cousin get her a job but as she works she realize it's not working and decide to leave. When she goes to the beach she sees something in the water that turns out is a mermaid name Ydri who abducted her so she can study how humans work.

When Ydri break the rules Sarai has to leave but when danger is coming Ydri comes to warn Sarai who have to convince everyone what coming.

I wish this book was longer because I would've like to know more about merpeople but I did like what we had learn already and more of Sarai and Ydri bond.
This was a short story and I like the premise that it deal with two species humans and merpeople.

It starts with Sarai who wash up from shore after falling off a ship. She left her family farm after having a fight with her father because she wanted to have adventures.

When she goes to see her cousin Gretchen for a place to stay after she wash up from shore her cousin get her a job but as she works she realize it's not working and decide to leave. When she goes to the beach she sees something in the water that turns out is a mermaid name Ydri who abducted her so she can study how humans work.

When Ydri break the rules Sarai has to leave but when danger is coming Ydri comes to warn Sarai who have to convince everyone what coming.

I wish this book was longer because I would've like to know more about merpeople but I did like what we had learn already and more of Sarai and Ydri bond.

I ARC received via NetGalley and NineStar in exchange for an honest review.

During a massive storm Sarai is washed off the ship she’s working on. Fortunately it wasn’t too far from the island she grew up on but when she wakes on the beach below the castle she feels quite out of place. Having lost her livelihood she contacts her cousin for assistance but she doesn’t seem particularly good and any of the jobs she’s given. She’s drawn to the sea and desperately misses her job on the ship.

I liked the premise of the story and really liked that I couldn’t predict where the story was going to take Sarai. I wasn’t pulled in by the way it was told though. The story has a historical setting with castles, villages and ships with sails but the language the characters used had a very contemporary feel in far too many tracts of dialogue. Also I often found the descriptions either felt a little too contemporary or they weren’t evocative enough of whatever the current scene was. I wanted a stronger sense of what it felt like to be underwater, on a ship, the stark difference between being underwater versus on land as well as stronger descriptions of the castle and village. I had a sudden thought when I was reading that I was reading about an alien abduction rather than merpeople.

The story is told from Sarai’s point of view and I enjoyed her as a character. Nicholas and Gretchen were good supporting characters but I wished I had a greater understanding and affinity for Ydri. A better characterisation with depth of personality would have made for much more dynamic and exciting interactions between Ydri and Sarai. I loved the way the merpeople were described and the image of them that formed in my imagination. At times, though, the unfolding of the story was a bit slow for me.

I still enjoyed the read though and liked the places it took my imagination which is probably why I wanted more from it.

Book received from Netgalley and NineStar Press for an honest review.