A Mermaid’s Kiss-Joey W. Hill

A Mermaid’s Kiss
Joey W. Hill
Berkley, Nov 2008, $15.00
ISBN: 9780425223802

Half-breed Anna knows her life will be short and loveless; her destiny to die alone. As the daughter of the legendary Ariel, she feels unwelcome in the human surface world and as an undesirable in the oceanic realm of her mom’s race, the mermaids.

After several millennia of war against The Dark Ones, Prime Legion Commander for the Goddess, Jonah the Angel is burned out, suffering from battle fatigue syndrome caused by sending so many of his friends to die in mortal combat. He no longer cares about victory or the cause, as he just wants to join his fallen comrades.

During a particularly brutal fight, the enemy severs Jonah’s wing. In pain, he crashes to the earth looking forward to his end as the Dark Ones pursue him to finish the job. Instead Anna finds him, rescues him, and heals him; and not just his wounded wing. Jonah finds a new reason to live and win as he has found love; Anna reciprocates as she knows the pain of loneliness is over as she has own angel.

Moving from vampires to mermaids and angels, Joey W. Hill provides another powerful romantic fantasy that will grip the audience from the opening sequence when Jonah fell from grace to the sea and never slows down as Anna risks her life to save her angel. Anna and Jonah make their respective species seem genuine while the Dark Ones are a bit over the top (but then again millenniums of getting your butt kicked will tend to do that), but no one will care as the eternal war has come to the Mer oceanic abode.

Harriet Klausner