The book was a fun easy read. At times I found it a little odd. I wish the fact that the MC was trans was mentioned beforehand. There were a lot of things that would've been clearer. I really enjoyed the sensual scenes. The author doesn't shy away from describing things. I loved the idea of there being a merman!
I really loved JK Pendragon's writing. I thought they wrote in a way that was almost poetic. Everything felt melodious.

Overall, I liked this book. I'd give it more of a 3.5 than a 3. The pacing could have been better and it could have been more descriptive, parts of it seemed a little rushed. But the writing was good and the characters interesting.

I would read this again and I did recommend it to my best friend. It is worth checking out at the very least.

This short story around 100 pages follows a fisherman named Ian who discovered an injured selkie (S'mika) washed up on to the shore and decides to take him home to help nurse him back to health. Ian is trans and a med school dropout who left home out of the fear that his parents would not approve if he did not pursue med school. I really enjoyed this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely loved this MM romance.

Such a great book with a solid storyline and great characters.

I eagerly look forward to reading more from this author.

A definite recommend!

Absolutely entrancing! J.K. Pendragon paints such a vivid picture, I can imagine every inch of this rustic life in a rural Canadian fishing town. I enjoyed the mellow pace of Sea Lover, and how the author takes their time to reveal the main character, Ian.

Ian has given up a whole life: family, friends, university, and home, to start again as an anonymous fisherman where no one knows their story. Finding their place in the world as a trans man, is an emotional journey with plenty of ups and downs.

The love story between Ian and S'mika is beautifully written. I'm glad these two found each other - and the ending is just perfect.

Ian enjoys his life of solitude. Leaving medical school, he settles in a small Canadian coastal community finding peace and comfort in his cottage and in being a fisherman. His days are quiet and he enjoys this new found existence. His quaint existence is suddenly disrupted when he stumbles upon an injured merman. Bringing him back to his home, he tends to him, restores his health and in that time, a relationship develops. This unexpected bond with S’mika has Ian questioning the need to be alone. Theirs is a story of acceptance, understanding and finding the gifts in being unique. This is a journey of a friendship that leads to love.
Albeit, a short story of one hundred pages, each page is beautifully written and had me wanting more.
My thanks to NetGalley, the author and Less than Three Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

I feel like I shouldn't have enjoyed this novella as much as I did. You get dropped right into the story of a fisherman finding an injured merman and the adventure that happens from there. It's a quick read, and I definitely wish there had been more detail in certain places, and no, I'm not talking about the spicy parts, but more of the dramatic moments I wish had a bit more detail and angst. Also, I wish the discussions of a queer fisherman would have taken place a bit more, because that would have been good representation for a "macho-man" run industry.

I really loved everything about Sea Lover, everything about it warmed my heart and as a girl growing up on the east coast dreaming on mermaids, this book really hit all the right places for me. I found this book to be extremely memorable, relatable and heart-warming and I'm happy to see the inclusion of more and more LGBTQ characters in literature.

Ian is a trans fisherman who is trying to figure out his life. He'd been in medical school, but with all the treatment for his transition he didn't feel comfortable any longer. He loves the sea and has moved to a remote cottage to pause and ponder how best to move forward with his life. Ian's coming into his own working for a boat owner, Mike, and on a crew that sometimes spends days at sea fishing. While doing some shore fishing he finds an injured body on the beach, and is shocked to discover it's a merman. Ian rushes the merman to his home, calling upon his rusty medical training.

S'mika is unwelcome in the sea. He broke his ranks, loving another merman despite his assigned role as a fisherman for a stronger merman. There is an unique hierarchy to his life, and wanting more than his station allowed meant that he was cast out--violently, it seems. Ian is able to nurse him back to health between fishing trips, and S'mika is both a fast learner (of language and customs from the TV) and good company for lonely Ian.

This novella brought back images of the movie "Splash" from my childhood, but with a different context. S'mika's emotional journey into adapting to life on land was interesting, as was Ian's transition from lonely curmudeon to caring partner. S'mika is a hoot, giving Ian what-for about his limited social life, and being generally playful and engaging, coaxing out a happier side to Ian.

Is a totally interesting read with great mer-person details, and a happy ending I'd be interested to explore further.

This sexy and quirky, but also tender and lyrical, romantic comedy from J.K. Pendragon surprised me.

The story itself is certainly more Splash than The Little Mermaid , but something about the writing style was so magical and nostalgic.

It really read like a classic fairy tale, in the style of Hans Christian Anderson.

And the relationship between Ian and S'mika was so patient and gradual. It really was a refreshing approach to the often hurried genre.

It made me long for a happy ending for these seemingly star-crossed lovers.

I likely won't read this particular offering again, but J.K. Pendragon is an author to watch. So far, I'm impressed.

Sea Lover is a short, sweet story about love between an injured merman and an anti-social fisherman. S'mika, the merman, is adorable. While not much is learned about the society S'mika comes from, enough is revealed to give him an intriguing backstory. When he first meets Ian, the fisherman, S'mika doesn't speak any English, though he quickly picks up the language through conversation with Ian and by watching TV. My favorite parts of the story are S'mika's learning moments and the way his personality blossoms. I also appreciated that Ian, the main character, is trans. He's not out to anyone in his small fishing village but he opens up to S'mika and shares about his journey, including the choice he made to leave his old life and ambitions behind. Their relationship is slow to build and is not without misunderstanding and miscommunication but I love how things are resolved between them. Overall, a cute queer story for lovers of merfolk and the sea.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the novella, local fisherman, Ian, finds an injured merman washed up onto the beach. He brings the merman home to care for his wounds. The longer S'mika, the merman, stays, the more feelings they develop. In the midst of this one of Ian's friends, Bobby, is fighting with his father about leaving for college.

I had trouble understanding Ian and S'mika's relationship in this novella. Because of the length and the fact that S'mika can't speak English for the first few chapters, it felt a little rushed. I also thought that the relationship between Bobby and his father took away space that was needed to help develop S'mika and Ian's relationship. That said both of the main characters were very sweet, and I liked how sassy S'mika could be. It's a cute summer read, but I wished I connected more with the love story.

This novel has an interesting start. We're thrown right in to the story as Ian, a fisherman, comes across a mermaid on the beach. As a reader, you can immediately bond with Ian as we both share in this discovery. And it really is an original discovery, the author's description of the mermaid is really unique. He's described as a seal boy, though not a selkie, as he has a long 'velvety' tail. I really like how it's possible to imagine how this kind of mermaid would have evolved- seals and humans must have had a common ancestor as some point since they're both mammals.

There's lots of character exploration as Ian and S'mika the mermaid get to know each other. And entertainment too as S'mika discovered human things (everything from legs to sex!).

The story isn't plot heavy which some people might find a bit disappointing. This book isn't for anyone looking to see a mermaid and fisherman go off on exciting adventures together. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a heartwarming story that explores LGBT+ characters and offers an original look at mermaid mythology.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I started this story. All I knew was it was m/m and had something to do with a merman. I’ve read some seriously odd fishy stories in the past so I was cautiously optimistic.

This was a good story! It’s short, only 100 pages, but filled with the sweet innocence of this merman, S’mika. He is a self-declared genius…and has no filter. He learns English by watching hours of television and asking Ian to read to him while he asks questions and figures out words. He is very childlike but that was also why he was so endearing to me. His backstory sounds very lonely and sad, so being rescued by Ian changes his life, and Ian’s too.

There is a beautiful correlation between Ian being trans and S’mika being a seal-man.

"There was so much of the world S’mika knew nothing about, except for what he saw on the minuscule television screen. But how could he ever experience the world without being gawked at and treated like a test subject.”

Ian admits that he has a “pathological fear of anyone finding out anything about him.” S’mika loves Ian completely and unconditionally and he helps Ian get over those fears. The love scenes were filled with consideration, curiosity, and joy.

I really loved the innocence of S’mika when Ian tries to explain what being trans means.

“I was born with female genitalia, and I had surgery and medicine to fix it.” He looked at S’mika. “Does that make any sense?”

“No,” said S’mika, and his face broke into a little smile. “So not important.”

This story doesn’t try to be anything but what it is, a really sweet love story between two lost souls.

Thank you Netgalley for the copy of this book!

Thank you to NineStar Press for giving me an e-book arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This short story follows a fisherman named Ian who discovered an injured selkie (S'mika) washed up on to the shore and decides to take him home to help nurse him back to health. Ian is trans and a med school dropout who left home out of the fear that his parents would not approve if he did not pursue med school. The parallel between S'mika's tail and Ian's struggle with not being born into a male body was a really cool plot point. I loved the writing of S'mika and Ian together as they learned to communicate and love each other even with the cultural barriers. While this book was relatively short, I feel like it was a very interesting story which was a pleasure to read.

A downside to this book being so short is that there were many unresolved problems that I felt could have been addressed a little further to provide a hint of what would come in the future for the characters and give closure to the readers. Furthermore, I wish there was more added about S'mika and his world in the book as well as Ian's background. However, I feel like the writing showed that both of those areas are laced with trauma, which makes it harder for the characters to disclose so the lack of information is not unjustifiable.

This was an alright read for me. I found the plot intriguing- a fisherman rescues a merman who is injured, and they fall in love. I just felt the execution was a little lackluster. It didn’t engage me as much as it could have, and I found the dialogue awkward and stilted in places when it didn’t have to be.

The side-plots didn’t feel all that attached to the main story and whilst it’s understandable that very little time would be dedicated to other characters (and the conflict) because it’s a short novella it did distract me. As for the conflict, there essentially was none and what there was, was very easily resolved. In a sense that was nice because it made the story very light and fluffy, but it also meant there was no real payoff.

I liked Ian as a character, I went into this not knowing there was trans rep and was very pleasantly surprised. S’mika was alright as a character, but I didn’t care a great deal for him honestly. The setting was lovely, and the pacing was a little fast but again it was a novella so that is understandable.

Overall, this was an enjoyable quick read for me.

This had everything going for it but it did not work for me in the end.

Ian was a lovely character, well-rounded, and a good choice as a protagonist. The initial meeting between him and S'mika also worked great to drive the plot forward and had me hooked.
However, I hated that S'mika did not know the language and had to learn it entirely from scratch (in a supernaturally fast way as well) and therefore has a very stilted speech. He also talks in the third person about himself; which makes him sound like a child. In general, their relationship read very platonical to me (Ian calling him kid; funny antics; language barrier;...) and I did not feel the sexual tension. It doesn't help that they've only had a few days together before it turns serious.
Whatever Ian was thinking or feeling, the text did not convey that. The plot is fine but the underlying emotions were missing for me to be invested.

This was a cute book.
I really enjoyed how simple the story was and the friendships.
I didn't really feel the relationship between Ian and S’mika as anything more then friends. But it's fine. I think it still worked.
That boat scene was unreal though! Was so intense.
Overall I'm glad I read this book.