I had just finished reading Alaskan Pebble Gifters series when I came across Omega from the Ocean book being referred to. Well, since I had a chance to meet one of the mermen in A Nest for Ansel, I was very curious to know what had been going on with the merfolk. I had been warned this was a reconfiguration of The Little Mermaid, and since I had read the original, I knew it was going to be über-miserable because fairytales during that time, especially those written by Hans Christian Andersen, required boxes of Puffs Plus and an empty thirteen-gallon trash bag next to the bed. Fairytales weren’t cute back then. They were worse than cautionary tales, scaring you away from certain behaviors. You weren’t meant to be happy. Gah, and don’t even think about reading them late at night to your children!!
Seafoam is an omega merman who is to become a sacrifice to the Sea King when he reached the age of twenty-three. Who knows what happened to the previous such tributes to the Sea King? Nothing good because no one ever sees them alive again. So he’s ignoring the mandate that no merman was to approach the shore and interact with humans. Verboten! But Seafoam doesn’t care. His brother, Seahorse, is a healer, a midwife for the few omegas that were able to get pregnant. (Fertility was doled out to alpha mermen as a reward from the Sea King, and he was a frugal with that even less than he was with the warmth from his lair.)
Everything about the merman world is dark and cold. No one even remembers being warm. They work in darkness with little warmth until they die and turn into seafoam. In other words, life was more than sucky. It was bleak.
So to escape the fact that no alpha wants him, Seafoam wanders about the shore, visiting the Greek houses and having sex. He learns a bit of the English language. He lusts after a thirty-something guy whom he nicknames The Prince. He wants to meet him but is too scared to do so. So he spies on the human, gathering as much visuals so he can later masturbate and dream.
Weirdly enough, this guy is actually a dragon shifter… except he hasn’t ever shifted. He needs a hoard to do so. He needs an omega to bond, too. He can’t do either, and he and his mothers wonder if he has a terrible medical problem. Maybe. He is also obsessed by the myths of mermen and has come to this part of the world because he wishes to study the myths surrounding the mermen of Rixton. He has his degree(s) addressing this subject as well as tons of books. Perhaps he might actually find them...
Well, the two meet, and sparks fly, and the Sea King must die, and Peter still can’t find his inner dragon, and…
Well, there’s a lot to read.
Book length and pace: Definitely novel-length but not too long. The pace was just as it should. There were several places where I had to come up for air because of intensity! Gah! These were excruciating because I knew how painful the upcoming chapters would be, keeping in mind the usual nature of a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. You WILL need to take a few breathers so be forewarned! I didn’t see any rushing, but at the very end, I really wished there had been some kind of an epilogue that was more than a day to two in the future for readership aftercare. But from what I gather, that’s for another book that won’t be out until she finishes another novel or two in the Alaskan Pebble Gifters series. No cliffhanger fortunately.
Characters: All of them were keepers! I was amazed on how many there were and how well they were fleshed out. Of course, the main characters are Seafoam (aka Jack [Daniels]!) and Peter, both who are extremely sympathetic. I appreciate the time it must have taken her to develop these two because they were some of the best I’ve seen in the past few years. But I can’t forget Peter’s mothers or all the mermen Amy Bellows introduced to us. Especially Moray! (What a cutey-pie! Can you imagine a cooing, baby mermale kept in a bucket of seawater? Way too cute!) I appreciated how well a reader could get into Jack’s and Peter’s heads. You WILL know these two inside and out! And it was so natural! One of the things I look for when it comes to any subgenre of romance is intimacy. This book has its moments, but the best was at the near-end, almost like aftercare for the reader because of the previous, highly intense fight for the future of freedom. Especially since Peter was able to bring his inner dragon out and finally realize what/who his hoard was. I can’t do it justice. Just go read it.
Hero/Hero interactions: Superb. Realistic. Without the usual I’m-afraid-to-tell-him stupid nonsense. If courage was required and action was necessary, then both of these characters presented themselves. There was a beautiful balance between humor and seriousness, and I appreciated the maturity level of both Jack and Peter whether alone or together. They had admirable qualities and did not shirk their responsibilities no matter the threat or cost. Better yet, I appreciated their interactions with the other characters in this book. I loved the levels in each personality as I continued to read. I won’t say it’s like an onion… maybe a bag of freshly made french fries? Hahahaha!! Jack does have a love for warm bread, french fries, and churros. And why not? The smells are so divine! It was fun watching him discover the physical world ashore, things we humans take for granted. Just as Peter felt. I loved being part of that experience.
World-Creation: All was quite elaborate and highly detailed. I discovered so much more when I reread it, I wondered how I could have missed it in the first place. (It’s not that unusual for me to read a book twice within a few days if I really liked it. Sometimes the excitement of the storytelling pushes my speed-reading to quickly, hence the rereading so that I don’t miss anything. I was surprised with all the mythos involved in this story told in a way that wasn’t like someone was banging me over the head with a two-by-four. The exposition was detailed but not distracting from the tale. Great woodcrafting!
Continuity and editing: Unfortunately, like other indie books, I still see a lot of punctuation errors. There were misspellings, missing words, and wrong words correctly spelled. Really could have used a clean-up editor. (I don’t know why anyone would allow a book so rife with mistakes to go live?) Oh well…
Realism: For the fairytale this book really is, I still found it so easy to suspend my disbelief. I also didn’t at all imagine any singing lobsters or over-friendly fish or psychotic chefs running around. Nor did I even think of Ol’ Hans either. But I will say that this story was intense. So intense that I had to put it down and give myself a break. (Especially when Peter negotiated his way out of the catacombs, only to discover he had unknowingly bartered away one of his own gestating children, much to his horror! That Sea King was certainly a bastard!) And when the final battle takes place, there will be deaths, maiming, and terrible injuries. No punches pulled. That is reality.
My recommendation? BUY IT! I can’t wait for any more books even close to this universe!
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