Marine biologist and human/mermaid hybrid Fred has finally chosen between her two suitors - she's marrying Artur, High Prince of the Black Sea. Dashing, manly, and most importantly actually interested in her rather than swanning of with some other woman for months at a time without even a word, Artur is obviously the better choice. And now that the Land Dwellers are aware of the Undersea Folk, her watery kin are in need of a media savvy spokeswoman like herself.
But though Artur and his father seem happy to accept her into the family, they don't represent the Undersea Folk as a whole. Fred's long-exiled father has not be fully forgiven for trying to overturn the rightful Royal family, and his remorseful reappearance for the first time in Fred's memory is only the first in a series of significant events that sees Fred's incipient marriage under threat - and in almost as much trouble as the peace of the Undersea Folk.
This is a lightweight novel that, though enjoyable enough in the reading, carried little resonance for me once I closed the cover. I did like that Fred wasn't wedding obsessed, but her actual aversion to all things wedding organising should have been a hint there was a problem.
This mild pleasure was considerably outweighed by my finding Fred a little irritating, though not enough for memorability, and I felt confused about her allergies - on page 36 she is mildly disappointed that "goliath grouper was strictly catch and release. Pity. She'd heard grouper were delicious." But on page 38, when she sees mermaid Rashel "chomping on the head of a grouper and offering the body to her mate" Fred is allergic to fish.
The final in a trilogy (parts one and two are reviewed here and here), I'm certainly ready to let go of Fred and partake of some more substantial fare when I next partake of something fromt he paranormal sphere. - Alex
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