As always, my most sincere thanks to the publishing house and the author for sending me an advanced copy of this masterpiece, I enjoyed it deeply and I felt very lucky to have read it so early.

I hoped, from the moment I saw the beautiful cover, that the book would be amazing. I knew, after reading the first chaper, that it would be more than that.

I was more than pleasantly surprised at the quality of the writing, the richness of the story, the roundness and depth of the characters… I was hooked. I was rooting for Benigno from the very beginning and my heart ached with his as the plot advanced.

I fell in love with these characters. The beauty of this found family is unmatched. The romance was, as well, so charmingly well written that I felt myself dragged into it and worrying for the characters as if they were alive outside the page as well, which in itself speaks for a writer’s talent and hard work.

I gave it five stars, and if you’d have told me this was a debut novel I wouldn’t have believed you. To me, everything was perfect. The story, the characters, the Puerto Rican heritage and the words in spanish (and I was privileged enough to understand them without consulting the glossary, which made the reading experience more fluid and uninterrupted). The ending had me sobbing, and if a book makes me cry then I instantly hold it in high esteem.

I will buy the book as soon as it is released, and I can’t wait to see the illustrations on paper because the digital copy does them no justice.

Please read this for yourselves if you love mermaids and stories that stick with you for a long time. This is my favourite historical romantasy story BY FAR.

I absolutely adored everything about When the Tides Held the Moon and I couldn't put it down. I devoured it in a day and just want to go back to the beginning and read it again immediately.

The entire book is beautifully written and illustrated. The family in the found family was full of interesting characters I loved. The romance was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time and perfecly paced.

I could have kept reading another hundred pages about Benny and Río, I wasn't ready to let them go.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!

I enjoyed reading this a lot and the art throughout was excellent. The cover is gorgeous. Benigno and Río were interesting characters to follow and I enjoyed their early relationship especially. I liked seeing them getting to know each other, share their love for music, and talk about their pasts.

I feel like the pacing slowed a little in the second half, but I still thought this was an excellent read! The prose was gorgeous and I loved the sections from Río's POV, how distinctively poetic and rhythmic they were.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Wow what can I say! I LOVED this book. Prose is beautiful and felt like a breath of fresh air. The characters were all interesting and came alive on the page. The romance was so sweet, just a lovely comforting read overall. The illustrations were a gorgeous added touch throughout. I will definitely be picking this up when it comes out!

I sincerely tried writing this review several times because it felt impossible for me to do it justice. The characters, the relationships, the story, the writing - it was all done so well. No notes. (New Girl reference, anyone?)

I can only say that I was completely *swept away* by this absolutely beautiful novel that weaves an emotional tale of a forbidden love between a human blacksmith and a captive merman in 1910s New York City. The story’s themes of self-discovery, loyalty, and the power of love resonate deeply as Benny navigates the expectations of those around him, the complexities of his heart, and the moral dilemmas that come from loving someone from a different world.

Not all of the illustrations were viewable for me on my kindle, likely an eARC issue, but the ones that did load properly were absolutely gorgeous. It added so much to the story to have the character art in there, and for it to be done by the author as well just makes it so special. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

A beautiful story of self-acceptance, of found family, and of an incredible love between two souls, When the Tides Held the Moon is an absolute must-read for 2025.

I received an early copy of this novel on NetGalley and a HUGE thank you to the author for the opportunity to read her debut novel!

This book here has all the elements for me to like it: a found family, mermaids (well, a triton to be precise), it is set in a historical context (US, 1911) and has a Porto Rican main character.

The story follows Benny, an orphan who has dealt with quite a bit of trauma before moving to New York. And, once there, shitty job aside, he ends up joining the crew of sort of exposition of strange people (very circus like, everything). The boss of this fair has decided he wants to add a merman to the show, so the kidnapping begins... and ends with Rio, the merman, caiged in the same acuarium Benny built.

Now, pros and cons I found on this story:

The thing I liked the most was the relationship between Benny and Rio. It was a slow burn and they became friends over time spent together. I loved how Benny´s asthma also played a role in the story and somehow, with Rio´s help, Benny became better to the point he learned to swim and was braver by the end of the novel.
All characters have different backstories, which also contributed to my overall enjoyment and the illustrations are outright gorgeous. There was so much love put into this book and I anyone can tell.

The things I didn´t enjoy that much include the character of Sonia (the clingy girl with an unrequited crush for Benny, who made things very difficult for everyone... and who was forgiven by the power of the script), the annoying amount of Spanish words and phrases especially at the begining of the story (and Spanish is my mother tongue; if it was too much for me, who understood everything without the need of the glossary, imagine someone who knows nothing of it), and the mysterious fact that Rio seemed fine within his cage... until he didn´t.

Overall, there are one or two plot holes, but it doesn´t make the book less enjoyable. I recommend.

This is one of the most beautiful and heartwarming book i've ever read. My heart aches thinking about it, you will feel so much for the MC and his little found family. The romance is absolutely perfect, the author is demisexual and i think it shows in the way the romance was written i loved it so much. If you like to feel joy and hapiness read this

Oh my goodness, this book is phenomenal! Venessa Visa Kelley weaves an enchanting tale set in 1910s America about a young Puerto Rican trying to make it in NYC when he gets roped into constructing a cage for a merman that he ends up helping to capture. Through a chain of events, he winds up back with the merman and finds a family with the “circus freaks” while also falling in love with the merman. This is beautifully told, the illustrations are gorgeous, and the characters are so real. Everything is weaved so wonderfully, the plot, the characters, the setting, it’s all just amazing. I cannot recommend this enough! One of my top reads of the year for sure.

4,5/5

Oh boy I was invested in this story. Is it a bit slow, demanding a bit of time before being really engaging (though it has a really strong start) ? Yes, at least for me, needing a bit of time to adjust. But once I was hooked and free of reading with my mind fully on it, I couldn't stop.

The prose is beautiful, a bit slippery at time but doing its job. I usually prefer third person pov's, but I wasn't bothered by the first peron pov here. It is suitable and helps a lot with conveying the main character's thoughts and language related important facts. It is poetic prose, readers who prefer simpler ones might be annoyed by it. I wasn't. It felt justified and suited to the story, deeply poetic and symbolic in multiple levels.

I didn't expected to like it that much, though I hoped I would. The setting is full of its times complexities, rich and grim, joyous and horrendous. It is perfectly conveyed in the story, without taking that much place, but never forgotten. The character has to deal with some pretty big discriminations, like some of the other characters, and while it does impact them as it should, it doesn't reduce them to it, which is something really important to me.

The romance is beautiful, in its loud quietness, its slow but steady built. It has a deep sense of finding your home, finding yourself and being able to act for the persons you love and for yourself. I feared that given how the protagonists meet, I would have a hard time accepting that feelings would be born. But it wasn't the case, because the author managed to balance it all very nicely, with our main character feeling bad about his part in his future lover's fate. The emotions and rancour are there as they should be but evolve into something else, in a believable manner.

As for the baseline of the plot that comes quickly once the set up is done, I won't say much apart from: I deeply hate one of the character (as I should, given the narrative), and love the crew our main character finds himself in. A little family, doing its best despite everybodies flaws, helping each other in the end.
There a nice build up of clues about some "secrets" I really enjoyed too, leading to the reveal at the end, a reveal that managed to be clear without being too much.
I have to say I would have like to have more information on our main charcter's past, and to see more of him after the final event, but it is only a little "criticism", nothing that would change much of the story.

All in all, a very good and touching story, beautifully written!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced digital copy.
This is a masterpiece. The writing is so beautiful and poetic, every line played with my heart. I loved that the characters weren't perfect and that everyone was so distinctly different and yet they were like a big family. I loved the illustrations the author scattered across the pages and I can't wait to hold this in my hands once it comes out. I can't put it into words how much I loved this book.

“Río,” I whispered, out of breath, and not from wheezing. “You make me feel like I’m kissing the tides.”
“Benigno,” he whispered back. “You make me feel like I am holding the moon,” (221).

I am over the moon about this book. I am so inexplicably sad that it’s over. Everything from the romance to the action to the found family was exquisite. And the art!!! That was such an amazing addition.

I am truly at a loss about what else to write here. The beauty the prose had to offer was lovely, combined with a mer-romance was something I didn’t know I was missing. If you love mermaids and found family, this is the novel for you.

Please read it my mermaid/ocean loving friends!

“Benigno, surely you know,” he breathed. “You are my heartsong,” (249).

THIS BOOK!!!!
first of all, historical fiction, fantasy and romance are my three roman empires. And when an author combines all three of the genres, it’s holy in my eyes. To be honest, even though i keep reading synopsises, i forget them instantly, so going into this book i didn’t know a lot (don’t judge me if my selection also based on the cover).
This book is a beautiful queer historical romantasy set in the beginning of the 1900s in New York City. The book mostly takes place in a circus and the found family there also made me like it even more.
The writing was extremely lyrical and beautiful as well as the illustrations!!
(as a person who doesn’t communicate her feelings, this book is exactly the opposite🥲 beware!😂)

Would definitely recommend every single person!

This was just gorgeous in every way shape in form! The setting (both location and time) are so well done that you are transported back to Coney Island in the time when Sideshow Attractions were a big hit and people were sold on an American dream that often went undelivered. The characters were absolutely amazing, I adored Benny and Rio and their lovestory was beautiful and compelling, but all the rest of the "acts" were full formed and added so much to the story. There's a lot more than a love story as well as the book sometimes subtlety, and sometimes not, dives into issues of race, gender, and poverty in a way that felt very poignant, even with the setting in the past.

It's hard to believe this a debut novel, it felt like a seasoned author with the lovely prose and the, excuse the pun, perfect amounts of ebb and flow of the storyline. The illustrations were such an amazing addition and the cover is gorgeous.

I loved the cover and description and was so glad I got to read this book. It had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed how well everything flowed together. It had that romance element that I wanted and enjoyed the overall story being told, it had that element that I wanted from this genre and had that feel that I was looking for. Venessa Vida Kelley has a strong writing style and was glad I got to read this.

when the tides held the moon

i loved every single bit of this book. it was an absolutely beautiful ride from beginning to end. i'm going to attempt to write this without spoilers!

"You only swallow ashes if you know what it’s like to go hungry."

morgan's menagerie of human oddities were incredible. they were each complex in their own ways and added so much to benny's finding himself.

“I cannot take your burdens” ... "But if you let me, I can bear them with you for a while.”

rio, oh big beautiful majestic rio. not only did he speak beautifully to benny but the words he gave to his mother were POETRY.

“All I know is that he misses the moon. If I could, I’d ride a rollercoaster to the sky just to steal it for him.”

their love was LOVE and i could FEEL it.

"Ain’t no being free on the outside unless you’re free on the inside."

benny had an experience when he was younger that made him lock up his true self and the way that not just rio, but others in the menagerie help him free his true self and be okay with it was such a joy to witness. some who went through the same trials and others who already accept that people can love whoever the hell they want.

“I believe you can lift two thousand pounds.”

the friendships, the relationships, the love, the support, the encouragement. were there some tough cookies? of course. but the camaraderie that was found made my heart smile.

"Don’t waste your damn life trying to smother a spark what wants to be a blaze.”

this isn't a "smut" book or even very spicy. i had no idea going in if i was about to figure out how a merman and human would get it on. they don't, what they do is much more beautiful and deep. it wasn't an issue for me, but i wanted to include this in case it would be for you.

the ONLY issue i had while reading this is a very subjective and personal issue. i'm an only-english speaker, and spanish is drizzled through the book, as the MC is a puerto rican immigrant, so him speaking spanish added to his depth and the believability of his character, which is why it didn't affect my rating bc it was important he spoke his native tongue. i had to translate EVERYTHING bc i didn't want to miss a single thing, even though a lot of times, the phrase was explained right after. i did learn that kindle has a translation feature right in the book, though so that was cool.

Que hijueputa libro and for those not B2 in Colombian, what a fucking good book.


I started this with my expectations high, which means I was also really scared I would be disappointed. I am very glad I was not.

This book is a ride, it took me, as always, a good 30% of it to get into the story, but then I couldn't stop, and then at some point in the 50-something% I fully believed risking my sleeping schedule just to keep reading was worth it (it was)

The illustrations, the care put into Benigno and his connection to Puerto Rico y Tití Luz, the story, I simply loved everything and you could see it was made with love too. If I could go directly to Venessa's house and give them an ancheta to congratulate her I would in a heartbeat.

A simply beautiful book, I'd love to live in this world forever.


Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an arc in exchange of an honest review.

When the Tides Held the Moon is a knockout debut from beloved fanartist Venessa Kelley. Kelley intersperses their art throughout the book, adding depth to an already amazing story. I loved all the details and the way Kelley infused their own Boricua experiences into Benigno.
Benigno is an immigrant blacksmith in New York who winds up building a tank for the local fair's new exhibition: a real merman. Benny quickly forms a bond and names the mer Río. The two share deep truths while both are trapped in boxes they must breakout of if they want to truly live freely. This book is full of heart and hope and I look forward to reading any future works from Kelley. Thanks to Kensington and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I adored this book.

I've been following Vanessa's work for years now and I read this story back in the early days when it was still a fanfiction. I had been apprehensive to start, because interspecies romance isn't necessarily my cup of tea. But I kept seeing the artwork Vanessa created and I fell in love so I gave a chance to the story as well and what a wise decision that had been.

This all to say that when I got the chance to read the "new and improved" original novel through NetGalley, I got incredibly excited. The artwork is still just as gorgeous and perfectly intersperses the text. It's all reminiscent of the old classics that feature small illustrations throughout the book, makes everything come alive.

Not that the characters needed any help coming alive on the pages. They were all fully fledged, complex, lovable characters. Even the villains' motivation could be understood. They all felt real.

Vanessa has a very immersive way of writing, I enjoyed every second of the book. It made me feel all sorts of emotions. The romance story line was beautifully done, but what I loved even more was the forged family they all created.

So all in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone would like a cosy, but thought-provoking book to curl up with.

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley is a captivating historical fantasy that weaves romance and queer identity into a beautiful New York fairytale. Benny’s journey from a struggling blacksmith to a hero in love with a merman is both heartwarming and poignant. The lush illustrations enhance the enchanting narrative, making every page a delight. This is a must-read for anyone who cherishes stories of love, courage, and found family.

My heart. This book has my whole heart. I've been fortunate to follow Venessa's meteoric rise from book-related fan art to designing covers for some of my favorite authors, and now to publishing her own book. (And believe me when I say she's found a spot among my favorite authors.)

This book is beautiful. The writing is tender, funny, sincere, and deep. I highlighted passages I wanted to file away forever. The main characters felt real and their struggles, their hopes, dreams, their love, were expertly crafted I want to wrap them both in bubble wrap and keep them safe. This book had everything I love: perfectly imperfect characters, supportive and loving found family, friendship, love, heartbreak, humor, and tears. The characters are diverse in a way that feels natural and real, and Benny and Rio are perfection. I can't wait for the world to meet them and I am so happy I got a chance to read this book early.
The artwork in the e-book edition adds so much to the story, and every single drawing made me love Venessa's art more, and drew me deeper into the story. I look forward (though not patiently!) to the printed artwork in the finished book.