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see_sadie_read 's review for:
The Merman's Kiss
by Tamsin Ley
1.5
Wow, that was...um, um, um...not good. By the end of chapter one I had highlighted half a dozen passages and written ragey notes in my Kindle; most centering on the fact that the female main character was literally passing out from drowning, a merman came up and grabbed her arm, she bloomed into instant lust (while still drowning), and turned around to jumped on his cock. Which she could do because she was of course naked. Women always seem to end up naked before meeting their mate in this sort of book. I'm talking like literally five seconds start to finish, without even looking at him, while dying! Um, um, um...no! That's a big fat NOPE for me.
And while the rest of the book wasn't as bad as the start, it wasn't great either. The two basically just wandered around in a pseudo plot that allowed them to have abbreviated sex in different places and left more questions than answers. Ok fine, it's erotica. I shouldn't expect much more. But I couldn't stand the representation of the female mermaids. So, I had a hard time even tolerating the rest of the plot and world-building.
I admit I liked the idea of males as caretakers and how they nested and desired children. I thought Zantu really cute. But the characterization of all females except the main character as nothing but aggressive sex maniacs just smacks of the good old patriarchal 'women are nothing more than slave to their lust and have no use or character beyond their sex and their ability to bear children.' Here they're even stripped of any maternity, making them failures even in the minimal worthiness western society allows women. Maybe, MAYBE the author was trying to flip that script and engage the stereotype, but I rather think not. It just made me angry.
The mechanical writing is fine. The editing is fine. The book will probably appeal to some, but I was not one of them. I feel I'm being generous giving it 2 stars and that based on the fact that it is structurally adequate.
Wow, that was...um, um, um...not good. By the end of chapter one I had highlighted half a dozen passages and written ragey notes in my Kindle; most centering on the fact that the female main character was literally passing out from drowning, a merman came up and grabbed her arm, she bloomed into instant lust (while still drowning), and turned around to jumped on his cock. Which she could do because she was of course naked. Women always seem to end up naked before meeting their mate in this sort of book. I'm talking like literally five seconds start to finish, without even looking at him, while dying! Um, um, um...no! That's a big fat NOPE for me.
And while the rest of the book wasn't as bad as the start, it wasn't great either. The two basically just wandered around in a pseudo plot that allowed them to have abbreviated sex in different places and left more questions than answers. Ok fine, it's erotica. I shouldn't expect much more. But I couldn't stand the representation of the female mermaids. So, I had a hard time even tolerating the rest of the plot and world-building.
I admit I liked the idea of males as caretakers and how they nested and desired children. I thought Zantu really cute. But the characterization of all females except the main character as nothing but aggressive sex maniacs just smacks of the good old patriarchal 'women are nothing more than slave to their lust and have no use or character beyond their sex and their ability to bear children.' Here they're even stripped of any maternity, making them failures even in the minimal worthiness western society allows women. Maybe, MAYBE the author was trying to flip that script and engage the stereotype, but I rather think not. It just made me angry.
The mechanical writing is fine. The editing is fine. The book will probably appeal to some, but I was not one of them. I feel I'm being generous giving it 2 stars and that based on the fact that it is structurally adequate.