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koistyfishy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 Nill's Tooth Stars ⭐
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5
The whole time thinking about what to write in this review, that TikTok sound clip of "Paige, you were good. I'm waiting for you to be great" played on repeat in my mind, as that is exactly how I feel about this book.
Do not get me wrong, it was enjoyable the same way a Marvel Movie is, and contains so many annotateable and memorable lines. But going in I wanted the next Endgame or Guardians of the Galaxy, and instead was given Black Widow. The one that is not "technically" bad, but it's not "technically" good either.
This book is a Dual POV story that follows Maren, a little <s>mermaid</s> syren, who was hungry for experience and adventure after growing tired of her life under the sea. She makes a deal with a sea witch to turn her human but is lied to about what life is truly like with feet. Soon Maren finds herself married to an abusive prince, where she is expected to be seen and not heard. On the voyage home, our dear Captain Ramsey captures their ship and takes her and the prince hostage...but soon Maren learns that things are not always what they seem on board with the Brethren of Blood.
Before I elaborate on what kept this from AMAZING I want to touch on what I did like. The worldbuilding is absolutely exceptional. Considering this is standalone, there is not often a lot of time given to this to set the foundation, but it was there. I could smell the ocean, I felt like I was on that Pirate ship. There was a fully-fledged magic system and lore that truly paid homage to the vibes of The Little Mermaid mixed with Pirates of the Caribbean. I also really enjoyed the writing as a whole and the style. It was easy to follow and as I mentioned, the number of lines I highlighted in the book truly gives a testament to how much I enjoyed the general quotability of the book.
It was clear that a lot of time and care was put into understanding the life of a pirate as well as the mechanics of sailing a ship. My vocabulary-loving brain practically squealed at the amount of nautical terms that I learnt reading this.
So why then is this only good? Firstly there are a lot of action scenes in this book but every single one of them felt like they had this intense build-up to a climax that would be instantly over or brushed off very quickly. I honestly thought I must have been missing pages or chapters as the story would move on and not line up. It was like aspects of the plot were just missing, conversations were not had and the consequences of the events weren't ever shown.
We were just told things happened and not shown how they happened. Big events would just be mentioned in a passing line and wouldn't have the reaction expected. I would have not minded this if it happened once or twice but it happened numerous times, to the point that I got frustrated. This bled into the smut and the inopportune time that the smut happened. More time was spent on explaining how to have sex with a mermaid than the death of the Edonia
There were also factors of the plot and writing that felt like they were added purely to elicit a shock from the reader. Added to create a feeling of being unhinged for the sake of being unhinged.
The relationship switches from lust to love with the main characters feeling very quickly. They both lack some characterization and development. For a captain who has been mourning his dead wife and his daughter for so long to move on almost instantly because he found someone to warm his sheets felt weird. I would have liked to see him going through that emotional struggle to accept this. And I felt that any time anything was borderline serious or crossing into that emotional exploration, it would move on very quickly into action or smut.
The tropes you can expect in this are:
▶ Enemies to Lovers
▶ The Little Mermaid X Pirates of the Caribbean
▶ Touch Her You Die
▶ Hidden Identity
▶ Revenge Plot
▶ Morally Grey MMC
Ultimately it's still good...I'll still recommend this as I had fun with it but it had so much potential to be more...
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5
The whole time thinking about what to write in this review, that TikTok sound clip of "Paige, you were good. I'm waiting for you to be great" played on repeat in my mind, as that is exactly how I feel about this book.
Do not get me wrong, it was enjoyable the same way a Marvel Movie is, and contains so many annotateable and memorable lines. But going in I wanted the next Endgame or Guardians of the Galaxy, and instead was given Black Widow. The one that is not "technically" bad, but it's not "technically" good either.
This book is a Dual POV story that follows Maren, a little <s>mermaid</s> syren, who was hungry for experience and adventure after growing tired of her life under the sea. She makes a deal with a sea witch to turn her human but is lied to about what life is truly like with feet. Soon Maren finds herself married to an abusive prince, where she is expected to be seen and not heard. On the voyage home, our dear Captain Ramsey captures their ship and takes her and the prince hostage...but soon Maren learns that things are not always what they seem on board with the Brethren of Blood.
Before I elaborate on what kept this from AMAZING I want to touch on what I did like. The worldbuilding is absolutely exceptional. Considering this is standalone, there is not often a lot of time given to this to set the foundation, but it was there. I could smell the ocean, I felt like I was on that Pirate ship. There was a fully-fledged magic system and lore that truly paid homage to the vibes of The Little Mermaid mixed with Pirates of the Caribbean. I also really enjoyed the writing as a whole and the style. It was easy to follow and as I mentioned, the number of lines I highlighted in the book truly gives a testament to how much I enjoyed the general quotability of the book.
It was clear that a lot of time and care was put into understanding the life of a pirate as well as the mechanics of sailing a ship. My vocabulary-loving brain practically squealed at the amount of nautical terms that I learnt reading this.
So why then is this only good? Firstly there are a lot of action scenes in this book but every single one of them felt like they had this intense build-up to a climax that would be instantly over or brushed off very quickly. I honestly thought I must have been missing pages or chapters as the story would move on and not line up. It was like aspects of the plot were just missing, conversations were not had and the consequences of the events weren't ever shown.
We were just told things happened and not shown how they happened. Big events would just be mentioned in a passing line and wouldn't have the reaction expected. I would have not minded this if it happened once or twice but it happened numerous times, to the point that I got frustrated. This bled into the smut and the inopportune time that the smut happened.
There were also factors of the plot and writing that felt like they were added purely to elicit a shock from the reader. Added to create a feeling of being unhinged for the sake of being unhinged.
The relationship switches from lust to love with the main characters feeling very quickly. They both lack some characterization and development. For a captain who has been mourning his dead wife and his daughter for so long to move on almost instantly because he found someone to warm his sheets felt weird. I would have liked to see him going through that emotional struggle to accept this. And I felt that any time anything was borderline serious or crossing into that emotional exploration, it would move on very quickly into action or smut.
The tropes you can expect in this are:
▶ Enemies to Lovers
▶ The Little Mermaid X Pirates of the Caribbean
▶ Touch Her You Die
▶ Hidden Identity
▶ Revenge Plot
▶ Morally Grey MMC
Ultimately it's still good...I'll still recommend this as I had fun with it but it had so much potential to be more...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, and Kidnapping
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts
rhi_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Cannibalism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, and Self harm
lizzie_b99's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A delightful mix of The Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Twilight . I really appreciate the detailed trigger warning list at the beginning of the book and the focus on self-acceptance throughout all the fantastical, graphic shenanigans. There was some unnecessary repetition of words/topics in the text, and I noticed more spelling errors near the end, but I really enjoyed this take on The Little Mermaid, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Love that Halle includes some recommended readings by her, but also other authors in her Afterword. I like the focus on accepting the monster within, but I'm a little unsure about how I feel with how far this book pushes this idea. It is a dark, gothic book, though, so that probably goes with the genre's territory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Body horror, and Cursing
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Rape, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts
sierrayak's review
adventurous
dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Emotional abuse, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent
kkxmac's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Self harm, Torture, Cannibalism, Child death, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, and Emotional abuse
angelamarcela2's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I enjoyed this book- it is definitely a dark romantasy retelling of the Little Mermaid with a few twists. What drove me into wanting to read it was the supposed Pirates of the Caribbean vibes, which ultimately came from the location of the plot, the language, and the captain being a little “Jack Sparrow”-like.
I wish there was a bit more emphasis or building on Marrens 10year gap in the story which we know was a large issue in her marriage with Aerik. But if that gap was worth her literally ending his life, I think it’s worth exploring in the novel!
The spice scenes were okay- they come off a little “rapey” in nature, but the author does issue a trigger warning for such. After all is it DARK romantasy.
All in all I did enjoy the book- I think the author does a great job at bringing the reader to the location and writes with vivid imagery. The book was entertaining for me enough to get through in only a few days. Fans of this genre and pirates of the Caribbean will absolutely love this book.
I wish there was a bit more emphasis or building on Marrens 10year gap in the story which we know was a large issue in her marriage with Aerik. But if that gap was worth her literally ending his life, I think it’s worth exploring in the novel!
The spice scenes were okay- they come off a little “rapey” in nature, but the author does issue a trigger warning for such. After all is it DARK romantasy.
All in all I did enjoy the book- I think the author does a great job at bringing the reader to the location and writes with vivid imagery. The book was entertaining for me enough to get through in only a few days. Fans of this genre and pirates of the Caribbean will absolutely love this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Blood, Rape, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
seaofbooks3's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Cursing, Blood, Torture, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Sexism, Physical abuse, Murder, and Emotional abuse
millenialglowworm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I’ve never read a mermaid or a pirate story before picking this up. I’m glad that Halle’s work was my first! I love the characters in this story and even though there is tragedy and horror elements, it was full of adventure and 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️!! I’m also glad Halle answered a question I had through out the book about the HOW of mermaid….relations 😅. Ramsey and Maren’s banter had me laughing. I’m usually not a reader who relishes on the setting of a book but Halle does a great job of describing the scenery and feeling of all the places the book takes place. Halle is definitely one of my favorite authors!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, and Body horror
Moderate: Gore, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping
Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and Confinement
bekahzabel's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
ark Fantasy Romance Little Mermaid Retelling? Yeah I was sold, and this may cause a canon event.
3.75🌟/5 & 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (it got pretty hot in there wowza)
Definitely check out triggers before reading if you have any.
Syrens, Sea Witches, Pirates, & Krakens
Enemies to Lovers
Touch Her & Die
Found Family
Morally Gray MMC & FMC
Dom/Sub
BDSM
What can I say, I was into it. Devoured this, and suddenly I’m a Karina Halle fan.
3.75🌟/5 & 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (it got pretty hot in there wowza)
Definitely check out triggers before reading if you have any.
Syrens, Sea Witches, Pirates, & Krakens
Enemies to Lovers
Touch Her & Die
Found Family
Morally Gray MMC & FMC
Dom/Sub
BDSM
What can I say, I was into it. Devoured this, and suddenly I’m a Karina Halle fan.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Death of parent, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Violence, Toxic relationship, Death, Child death, and Kidnapping
awaywiththefairies's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This book is all spice basically and I really didn't like the dialogue between the two characters how sometimes a certain control is idealised.. however the writing will pull you in and even though I didn't love the character development , the world is well written and charming and I still wanted to see what would happen at the end.
Take note of content warnings
Take note of content warnings
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Torture
Moderate: Gore, Kidnapping, Cursing, Blood, and Rape