Jennifer Laslie

When disaster strikes, Meriya must decide whether to stay on land or return to the sea.Washed ashore after a natural disaster, Meriya finds herself in the human world, injured and running out of time. Unsure whether her family survived, she must determine the better course: stay on land, and thus become human, or return to the sea calling to her.When young Rowan claimed a mermaid rescued him after a boating accident which took his father's life, no one believed him. Now, with Meriya recovering in his pool, he must do everything in his power to keep her a secret.Can Rowan convince Meriya to stay in his world or will her betrothed and the secrets swirling in the ocean's depths prove a stronger pull?

Mermaid Adrift

Eleanor Luhar

I actually received an ARC of this book via the author's newsletter almost two years ago, but I have so many books to read (and so little time) that I only got round to reading it now. Oops!
I have always been a huge fan of mermaids. One of my all-time favourite series, even to this day, is the Ingo series by Helend Dunmore. Not quite your stereotypical mermaids, but I adore it nonetheless.
As the title suggests, this is a story about a mermaid. It begins five years in the past when Meryia, our purple-scaled protagonist, encounters a ship caught in a storm. Humans are dangerous, but for some reason, Meriya is compelled to save the boy - she knows she is physically unable to carry the older man - and return him to shore. He seems to be unconscious so she is safe from discovery, but she bears a small tear to her tale. Likewise, the boy has a wound on his forehead as a memento of the day's events.At the 'current' time, Meriya is betrothed to a boy who has teased and taunted her for years at school, she can't seem to do magic - and every mermaid can do magic - and occasionally, she still wonders about that boy she rescued all those years ago.
When Meriya decides to study the underwater volcanoes near the kingdom for her school assessment, she finds herself witnessing a full-on eruption. After hitting her head and being badly burned, she wakes in a strange enclosure which she soon discovers to be a garden pool.
Rowan has been obsessed with proving mermaids exist ever since he was rescued by one the night he lost his father. So when he finds Meriya washed up on the shore, he can't believe his eyes. As someone who works with marine animal rehabilitation and care, he takes it upon himself to keep her safe and attempt to help her heal. He decides to keep her in his saltwater pool and tend to her wounds while she's still unconscious.
Without going too far into detail, Meriya treats her captor with a mix of fear, hostility and contempt for quite some time. She has heard too many stories about humans to be able to trust him that easily. Rowan does his best to show her that humans aren't that bad, and even protects her from his rather nosey best friend, Nick.
A lot happens. Nick becomes more of a threat than Rowan anticipated, and Meriya hears news telepathically from Cayson that the eruption has wiped out almost the whole kingdom. There's a lot more, too, but you'll have to read it yourself to find it all out.
I did find this a little bit cliché and stereotypical at times. But then again, cliché isn't always a bad thing! Sometimes it's nice to have something a little more light-hearted, cute and magical and reminiscent of childhood fairy tales. Plus, Laslie included a rather unique element that I liked: the concept of the Ocean being Her own character. I'd be interested in learning more about Her!
So overall, I definitely did enjoy this. It has possibly rekindled my love for mermaids (not that it ever truly died) and I may have to go and re-read the Ingo series again sometime soon. (Because I definitely don't have enough new books to read.) 3.5 to 4 stars for this book.

Mermaid Adrift

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