**Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.**

Tokuda-Hall has beautiful writing that brings you into the world of "The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea" with a different outlook on relationships and pirate-life; however, there is more focus on the former than the latter.

Unfortunately, I was only able to get through approximately 55% of the book before I had to stop. The story line is interesting and I kept reading to see what would happen next, but each twist seemed really obvious or poorly drawn out.

I'm hoping to pick this up again and give it another chance, but not anytime soon.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. All the opinions are my own.

I fell in love with the cover of The mermaid, the witch and the sea and I wasn't disappointed in the story, that's very captivating and interesting.

The pirate Florian (who is actually Flora) is ready to do anything to survive in a world dominated by men and she's sailing on the Dove, where on board is also lady Evelyn Hasegawa, an highborn lady, who is travelling towards an arranged marriage. When Flora/Florian discovers the plan of the captain and the crew to enslave their wealthy passangers, she decided to act. Attracted to each other, Evelyn and Florian fall in love and decided to do anything in order to control their own fates, in a world, above all for women, where they have to follow rules and others' wishes.

The mermaid, the witch and the sea is an amazing book, full of complex and interesting characters.
Flora/Florian is a desperate orphan that decided to become a pirate, but fell in love with an imperial lady and they fight together in order to be free and in love. In this book, there are so many plot twists, revelations, magic, mythical creatures and above all the characters stuck out, because they are amazingly written and well rounded.
I really loved this book! It's a skillfully written fantasy, set on high seas, with forgotten memories, mermaid's blood, witch's magic, love and connection.

The word mermaid in the title caused me to request this book wasn't quite what I expected. I though this would be a somewhat lighthearted tale but it's actually quite heavy and not what I need at the moment.

**ARC from NetGalley**
This book is intriguing from start to finish.I quite enjoyed the gender fluidity of the main character Flora/Florian and their journey from orphan to pirate to falling in love and beyond. The Sea holds her secrets and her favors close.

First off, take a look at that cover and how stunning it is? I’ll admit, the cover is what made me hit the request button before I learned what this book was even about. Then I read the summary and I was even more excited.

The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea is going to take you on a magically journey of you guessed it, mermaids, witches and the sea. Tokuda-Hall did an amazing job of a building a world that completely immerses the reader from the first page. Her characters were complex and all had motives of there own in why they did what they did. The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea is full of adventure and contains some twists that you might now see coming.

The ending of this book made me tear up and I think that Tokuda-Hall wrapped this story up in a satisfying way that will leave readers content. Their only complaint would be that they might want more!

Summary

A Love Story: In Three Parts. We have pirates, mermaids, witches, and politics. What more could a reader ask for? Evelyn is set to marry a very important man even though she would rather stay home with her handmaid. Flora is girl pretending to be a boy, Florian, on a slaver that is pretending to be a charter ship named, The Dove.

Evelyn’s and Florian’s stories weave together when Evelyn boards the Dove in order to travel to her newly betrothed. Florian is assigned to be Evelyn’s own personal guard which leads to Evelyn teaching Florian how to read. Their relationship is truly put to the test when the Dove is revealed to truly be a slave ship.

Thoughts on Writing and Creativity

I immediately like Flora/Florian. She was a girl trying to survive in a man’s world, and she had clearly earned her right to be in that world. I was hesitant to like Evelyn, but that’s because I don’t get attached to exceptionally girly characters. Being and exceptionally girly character isn’t Evelyn’s fault - I blame her parents. Evelyn eventually stands up for herself and becomes a more interesting character who is willing to make sacrifices in order to get what she truly desires.

I really loved the fairy tale feel of the interludes that broke up the main parts of this story, and the fairy tale feel of the witch’s tales that were told to Florian.

My biggest concern was how slow the beginning of this novel was. It was really dragging on, and then all of a sudden there was a mermaid involved. And I was invested. This is not to say that the beginning of this novel did not contain necessary plot building, but maybe that plot building could happen a little bit faster. After the discovery of the mermaid, the plot moved along quite swiftly.

I liked the bond between Flora and Evelyn and how the two of them found one another and fell in love. I liked the adventure they went on together and the characters around them. This was an interesting story of love and adventure.

Pirate stories are some of the best stories around. This is a fantastical ocean adventure full of mythical creatures and disguises. I loved the world-building Tokuda-Hall created. It was different from other pirate stories in tone and the characters are flawed and sometimes downright unlikeable.

Overall, I loved the moments I didn't like them as much as the moments I was captivated by their adventure. I liked most of the romance but also wanted a little more from the main pair.
I found the beginning and the prologue a bit confusing and it took me a bit of time to get into the groove of the story.

Queer, pirates and mermaids do I need to say more?

I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for letting me get this e-arc early.

This story has quiet a few stories from the imperial girl Evelyn who doesn't fit in, unloved by her family. Flora/florian an orphan who got a job on sea with her brother. Who hides her identity to stay safe only to come out a strong person. Rake, a red headed spy working for the supreme trying to help him and the sea take vengeance on those who drank mermaid blood.

Fate, love, deceit... A good read for anyone up for adventure. I only wish some of the holes that were left in the book were filled.

A solid 4 stars

I love books that have romance, magic, fantasy, adventure and this book has it all, spend a pleasant moment with this book, I pulled laughter, worry and I love the dark side that has the story.
The world that the author poses is spectacular, every detail and the narrative is wildly.
I connected quite well with the characters that has their unique essence.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book in advance in its publication.

Fans of action-packed swashbuckling romances in the style of 'The Princess Bride' will love Maggie Tokuda-Hall's "The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea."

The beautifully written and plotted story has tightly woven twists and turns, and nothing ever quite goes as planned. Our lovely leading heroes feel real and honest (and if their love-at-first-sight is a little too dreamy, it's what we expect from a romantic adventure). Topics of gender and roles are discussed thoughtfully but is not a main focus of the story; once everyone is on the same page, the adventure commences immediately. Even beyond our main characters, the friends and family and folks met along the way feel fully fleshed out, where it felt like they might wander off the page and have their own adventures some day.

"The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea" is one of those rare books that ends too soon as is enjoyable along the whole way. Recommended for everyone.

Description :
A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic.

Aboard the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl takes on the identity of Florian the man to earn the respect and protection of the crew. For Flora, former starving urchin, the brutal life of a pirate is about survival: don’t trust, don’t stick out, and don’t feel. But on this voyage, as the pirates prepare to sell their unsuspecting passengers into slavery, Flora is drawn to the Lady Evelyn Hasegawa, who is en route to a dreaded arranged marriage with her own casket in tow. Flora doesn’t expect to be taken under Evelyn’s wing, and Evelyn doesn’t expect to find such a deep bond with the pirate Florian.


Review:
This is a story about love, pirates, mermaids and adventure, what more could you ask for ? I truly enjoyed this book, though I felt at some points it seemed a bit rushed. The character development could have been a bit more thorough.
I will definitely recommend this one :)

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea is a stunning YA debut combining pirates, witches, and mermaids in a new and refreshing mythology. Tokuda-Hall’s lovers—a Black genderfluid pirate and a courageous royal—are fascinating both together and apart and their romance lives at the heart of this adventure, which takes unexpected twists and delights at every turn. A thrilling and queer adventure for readers looking for a bright new take on old favorites.

A book about mermaids AND witches? You bet I'm reading it. The sea, meh, that's here nor there on whether I care about the actual setting of the book to be honest. I enjoyed this book for the most part. It was super easy to read and well written. Nothing too hard to comprehend when I'm on the cliff of a book slump still. It was actually a breeze to get through and therefore a perfect book for me to read right now.

I do think however, that this book would have been an even more amazing trilogy. I have a feeling there might be a second book based on how the ending went. However, I do think that this book itself could have been written into a trilogy and I would have maybe enjoyed it more. I say maybe, because of course it could be crap as a trilogy, and I'm not taking blame for that.

I do think that The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea could have each been their own books in this series. The concept to each one "part" in this book, I would have read more about. I think that the bare bones of the plot was great and could have used more time to appreciate the authors writing. Everything happened all at once, which is never a bad thing, and who am I to judge stand alone novels right now, in my sort of slump. It's what is getting me onto reading the next book. But I would have much rather enjoyed more time for each story. And of course that's just my opinion.

This is, essentially, a LGBTQ romance novel that happens to place is a semi-fantasy alternative earth. I was expecting more emphasis on magic, more of a fantasy novel with a bit of romance tossed in. The writing isn't bad, but the romance is not particularly compelling. In fact I generally felt the romance got in the way of what would have been an interesting story. Maybe the author will write more non-romance stories in this universe?

Reading the Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall is a lot like driving through Texas.

Now, there’s a lot of ways I could go with this. If you’ve ever driven through Texas, you know what I’m talking about.

You know that moment you cross the state lines and your GPS tells you the next turn is in 853 miles. Yeah, that’s no fun.

I could also be meaning that by driving through Texas you get Buc-ees. Who doesn’t love Buc-ees? Amazing!

But in fact, what I’m actually referring to is the consistency of the drive. And it’s a glorious thing, but it doesn’t come without it’s downsides.

What do I mean?

Texas is flat (for the most part). And the highways are straight (for the most part). And the speed limit is consistent (for the most…you get the idea).

There’s nothing I love more about driving through Texas than the 80 mile-an-hour speed limit with almost no traffic in sight.

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea is a lot like this because it’s a good, steady adventure from start to finish. I didn’t feel there were any slow parts, even right there at the beginning.

It gripped my attention early, and didn’t let up.

But consistency has a price.

I like my stories to ratchet up the excitement as we get to the climax. But the pace really didn’t change at all.

Let’s dive into it in more detail.

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea Review

The book starts out with Flora, a small pirate girl on a ship full of ruthless men.

The captain initiates her into the crew after she slits the throat of a passenger. Her name is then changed to Florian and she starts to dress as a man.

It’s easier for her to fly under the radar of the lustful men if she pretends to be a man.

Then we switch to Evelyn Hasegawa who is a traditional Asian girl in a typical Asian household. Except Evelyn has a secret.

She loves women.

And that doesn’t sit with her traditional upbringing at all. Her parents seek to separate her from her love (her maid) by marrying her off to some important general who lives 7 months away by sea.

The ship she’s to be sent away on is a passenger vessel called the Dove. Except this is no passenger vessel, it’s a slaver in disguise, and it’s the ship that Florian serves on.

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea takes place almost exclusively on this ship during the long journey to the Floating Islands.

But the ship will never make it to its destination as Evelyn is set to be sold as a rich noble virgin to some lowlife on the black market.

Cue suspense and high-stakes drama.

The Mermaid

The book is aptly named the Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, since the book is split into three parts, each that focus on these three items.

The first is the mermaid.

Mermaid are a highly sought after black market item. Their blood has magical properties that allow the drinker to lose distant memories of pain and anguish.

The captain of the Dove has drank the mermaid blood so much that he’s forgotten his own name, and thus he’s called the Nameless Captain.

His penchant for mermaid blood also makes him a target for the Pirate Supreme, who protects the Sea and her children.

This animosity creates a nice side-story with some pretty exciting moments throughout the book.

The Witch

Witches are supposed to be extinct. But nobody can truly snuff out magic.

Kill all the currently existing witches and more will be born in the future. This is just a turn used to relate to any magic user.

Evelyn and Florian eventually meet a witch in the story, and the parts of the book that revolve around the witch are some of the most interesting in the whole book.

Tokuda-Hall outdoes herself with these sections. It’s pure brilliance and took a lot of creativity to craft the many tales, lessons, and details given by the witch.

The witch is neither good nor bad. She isn’t a complete ally, but she’s also not an enemy.

It’s difficult to explain, but suffice it to say, our heroes need to stay on their toes around her.

The Sea

The Sea is not just a body of water.

Think of her as you would Gaia, Mother Earth.

The Sea is an ethereal, god-like being. She is the Sea, but she has no body. Everything that lives in the Sea is her children.

But this is not some higher feeling, she is real and she has will and personality.

The Sea is all about protecting her children, and she is very jealous. She is the enemy of all who would hard her children or taken them from her, even if her children want to leave voluntarily.

This makes the Sea also a bit of a gray character.

Overly protective to a fault, yet powerful and benevolent at the same time.

Evelyn and Florian also have direct interaction with the Sea, and one of the most magical moments of the whole book involves the Sea.

Final Thoughts

The story keeps its pace throughout and held my interest. But as I noted earlier, I never really felt it ratchet up in intensity as we approached the climax.

I remained neutral.

My interest held, but never became enthralling excitement.

Additionally, there’s a lot of introspection/retrospection going on in the Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea.

What I mean is that the characters frequently stop what they’re doing to recall a previous event and recount in to themselves in great detail.

It was kind of jarring to frequently do this. It’s almost like the book just needed to start a lot earlier. Or flash back entirely Once Upon A Time style.

It might be this very thing that prevented the story from ever getting more exciting.

Just when you’re getting into it, we spend several pages looking back, taking you out of the moment.

It’s for these two reasons that I dock half a star each from the Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea.

4/5 stars

Not gonna lie, this was EXACTLY the kind of book my soul has been craving. Adventure, romance, magic, pirates, mermaids, witches ... it was all so much fun!!

When I say "fun," I should also mention darker aspects of the book, in case anyone assumes this is a 100% lighthearted ride. THE MERMAID, THE WITCH, AND THE SEA touches on slavery, colonialism, alcoholism, sexual violence, abuse, homophobia, and plenty of murder. The main driving force of the story is Flora & Evelyn's search for freedom ... and it isn't by any means easy.

But, oh, this world!!! Maggie Tokuda-Hall has taken generic fantasy elements and twisted them into a narrative that manages to feel both comfortingly familiar and wildly fresh. I'm a sucker for stories about stories, and there was literal STORY MAGIC! The characters were also fascinating, and there wasn't a single POV that I disliked (which is often tricky to pull off) from Flora/Florian to Evelyn to Rake; I read the whole book in 24 hours and they were the reason why. These kids see your heteronormative gender binaries - and your sharp moral codes - and LAUGH. Why stick to the rules when they could be pirate-witches embarking on an epic star-crossed romance with undertones of chaotic political intrigue?

Exactly.

The pace did falter a *little* in the middle, and admittedly, it did seem to lack the subjective spark that creates a 5-star book, but THE MERMAID, THE WITCH, AND THE SEA has so much to offer readers. I will never stop wanting breathless, diverse fantasies like this, and I'm excited to introduce it to readers this May! 4/5

3 stars!

Pirates, mermaids, the sea... these are all buzz words for me. I was looking forward to this book but was ultimately disappointed.

What I thought this book did well was the story itself and the LGBTQ+ rep. (If you’re curious, there is a sapphic relationship, a gender-fluid character, and a non-binary character.)

What I thought this book needed some work on was the writing and editing, the character development, the context of story, and the world development.

This book needed to be longer to establish more context.

I do think people will like this one though, and I’m excited to see how everyone else rates it!

I was so excited for this book (I mean, that cover!), and it did not disappoint! The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea tells a story full of stunning prose, quiet magic, and the soft sounds of the sea.

Florian, born Flora, is a pirate on a ship that tricks wealthy passengers and sells them into slavery. Evelyn is an Imperial lady, who boards the ship Flora works on, on her way to marry an important commander. They fall in love and escape, foiling plans unbeknownst to them.

This book had such great worldbuilding. The center of it is an ownvoices Japanese-inspired empire, and the author makes sure to display the negative consequences of the colonialism with characters who suffered under its regime. There are also pirates and mermaids and the magic of the sea.

There’s also so much diversity! Flora is Black and genderfluid. Although at first, Florian is just an identity she assumes, it is stated towards the end of the book that Florian is a part of her and that she feels comfortable using she, he, and they. Thus, this book takes the “girl dresses up as a boy” trope and turns it on its head. (Also, I use she to refer to Flora because that’s the pronoun used in her point of view.) Evelyn is Japanese-coded and queer. She had an affair with her maid, and she liked Flora when she thought she was male, as well as when she finds out that she is genderfluid.

The writing was so beautiful! It lent a gentle tone to the book, like the soft sounds of the sea lapping against the shore. The romance was also so soft; they sacrifice so much for each other.

Overall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea was a stunning debut, with its beautiful writing, lovely characters, and gorgeous prose. The worldbuilding was great, and the romance was so soft. I definitely recommend this book for fans of The Scorpio Races!

Superb! This book was captivating! The authors words brought this world to life, and it was beautiful. And it has two of my favorite things, mermaids and witches! You can’t go wrong with those! I loved this book. It was my first read from this author, and I can not wait to read more!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own