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Sea Fey #2
The Selkie
From the Deepest Ocean
While the technology of the war to end all wars had changed the face of Europe, some things stayed the same; the tempestuous Scottish coast and the surrounding sea remained a place of unfathomable magic and mystery. Sequestered at Fintry Castle by the whim of her mistress, Hexy Garrow spared seven tears for her past -- all of which were taken by the waves.
Came the Deepest Love
Joining the water those tears completed a ritual, and that ritual summoned a king. He came for Hexy -- and for something Hexy didn't know she had stolen. He was a man of myth, whose eyes held the dark secrets of the sea, whose silken touch was the caress of the tide, and whose nature went against all Hexy had held to be true. And he'd come not to collect her for the ocean, but for himself.
While the technology of the war to end all wars had changed the face of Europe, some things stayed the same; the tempestuous Scottish coast and the surrounding sea remained a place of unfathomable magic and mystery. Sequestered at Fintry Castle by the whim of her mistress, Hexy Garrow spared seven tears for her past -- all of which were taken by the waves.
Came the Deepest Love
Joining the water those tears completed a ritual, and that ritual summoned a king. He came for Hexy -- and for something Hexy didn't know she had stolen. He was a man of myth, whose eyes held the dark secrets of the sea, whose silken touch was the caress of the tide, and whose nature went against all Hexy had held to be true. And he'd come not to collect her for the ocean, but for himself.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 4, 2003
About the author
Melanie Jackson
181 books182 followersMelanie, an award-winning author of more than fifty novels, stories and poems lives with her writer husband in the California Gold Country with their cat (also a writer who has a page on myspace) and their dog (who is hoping to get a page on facebook as soon as she masters typing). Melanie likes gardening but hates the deer who also like her garden, and she volunteers at a local animal shelter.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 21, 2013
In many ways, “The Selkie” resembles most run-of-the-mill romance novels: poor writing, heavy foreshadowing, and predictable plot. But I tend to forgive these sins in a book that captures my imagination. “The Selkie” fails to do so for four reasons. First and foremost, sister is fcking a seal! In order to produce an image of a magical-man-seal good enough to convince the reader to suspend reality, the author ends up describing a totally physically unappealing hero (slicked back hair, small ears, weird eyes, total lack of body hair, etc.). Moreover, the hero and heroine have no connection beyond a magical physical attraction (i.e., no banter or other reason for me to believe they suit one another), and perhaps as a corollary of that fact, the plot is no fun for any character. I’m always game for a good meet-join-marry-pregnancy plot, but these two characters get so little joy from the process that I felt totally unattached to them. Finally, the author commits the cardinal sin of romance novels, creating a female protagonist who is no more than a pawn; she makes terrible decisions, constantly creating her own peril, either because she’s simply an idiot or is too weak to fight one bewitching force or another (e.g., a man's prejudices, her employer’s will, or a mystical creature’s enchantment). A listless heroine donking a sea animal? No thank you.
May 20, 2026
My book for Romance on the Rocks Podcast Season 2 Episode 10, Love in the Deep, is The Selkie by Melanie Jackson. This is an historical and paranormal romance published in 2003. The story is set in 1920s in Scotland. The best analogy I can think of for this book is that it’s Outlander meets The Secret of Roan Inish meets True Blood.
Let's Talk About the Author
Melanie Jackson is a novelist who writes mystery novels as well as paranormal and historical romances.
My Spiciness Ranking
I'm ranking The Selkie somewhere between Green Pepper and Poblano. (If I really had to choose, I'd put it in the Poblano category.) There were a couple of sex scenes that were very wordy and descriptive. However, the wordiness and descriptions were weirdly not actually sexually explicit and the scenes were vague. There was a lot of weird salty sweating. That's about it.
Let's meet our main characters.
The Main Characters
Hesiod “Hexy” Garrow is an American of Scottish descent. She's working as an assistant to an American actress who's inherited a Scottish castle from her late husband.
Ruairidh “Rory” O’Uruisg is a Scottish Selkie Prince. He's making an unexpected visit on land to investigate some recent murders involving his People.
The Storyline
This book involves a myriad of mythical sea creatures including finmen, mermaids, merrows and, of course, selkies. For those not familiar, Selkies are creatures that shapeshift between seal and human forms by removing or putting on their seal skin.
Hexy is working as an assistant/secretary/personal maid for an American actress and the two women are staying at a Scottish castle located on the coast. The castle belonged to the actress's late husband and she bounces around between her newly inherited castle and London with Hexy in tow. Hexy has horrible Spring allergies and one evening she is sitting on a rock at the beach and her eyes are tearing up really badly. Well, apparently there’s some ritual where if you cry so many tears into the ocean, it summons a selkie. So Hexy unintentionally summons a selkie to her.
But not just any selkie, the selkie prince Rory. He happens to be in land investigating some murders involving his People when he feels the "summoning." And, because he took human form and left his seal skin on the beach, it gets mistaken for someone's fur coat. But not just anyone's fur coat.
The actress Hexy works for thinks she left her fur coat at the beach and sends Hexy to get it. Hexy accidentally grabs Rory’s skin. So there’s this misunderstanding where he thinks she summoned him and stole his skin to keep him from returning to the sea. But, she explains it was all an accident. However, the actress has gone off to London and taken the fur with her (cause they thought it was her fur coat). So Rory has to wait for it to get mailed back so he can return to the sea.
During this time of a whopping few days, Hexy and Rory of course have an instant attraction. And, of course, fall in love. They end up having sex and somehow she’s pregnant by morning with twins and they both know she’s pregnant.
During this time, Hexy and Rory also figure out she’s actually part fae and part selkie via her Scottish lineage and Rory is also part fae and selkie so it’s this special match made in heaven thing. Why? Because it gives them both special abilities and will help them revive the selkie People that are dying off due to a severe lack of selkie women.
In the midst of this budding and weird romance, Rory continues investigating the deaths of his People and some local humans and there’s evil finmen (aka mermen) involved. There’s a particular merman/finman who is killing these selkies and humans to eat their souls to grow his demonic power. Obviously, he must be stopped but there's a lot of debate amongst the selkies on how to proceed on this matter. (Who knew there was so much bureaucracy under the sea.)
Hexy finds herself inexplicably and overpoweringly drawn to various places despite Rory asking her to stay put at he visits his People and tries to handle the murdering merman problem. I won't share more than that because I don't want to completely spoil the book for you if you're feeling inclined to read it.
What I Enjoyed About the Book
Scottish vibes and mermaids.
What Challenged Me About the Book
The writer, Melanie Jackson, uses a pretty advanced vocabulary. I consider myself fairly well read and love words like ennui and ubiquitous. But I had to keep looking up words throughout this book because I couldn't even glean context in the sentence structure at various points. Overall, this book was kind of boring as a whole and confusing at various points. For example, the hero’s name is Rory and Hexy’s brother’s name is Rory Patrick.
Final Thoughts
This book was kind of boring as a whole and confusing at various points. (For example, the hero’s name is Rory and Hexy’s brother’s name is Rory Patrick.) Overall, the book was okay. Jackson tied everything together in the end and various mysteries/plot lies were resolved. If you're into paranormal/romantasy novels with an underwater theme and a hint of mystery and not too much spice, this may be the book for you.
Let's Talk About the Author
Melanie Jackson is a novelist who writes mystery novels as well as paranormal and historical romances.
My Spiciness Ranking
I'm ranking The Selkie somewhere between Green Pepper and Poblano. (If I really had to choose, I'd put it in the Poblano category.) There were a couple of sex scenes that were very wordy and descriptive. However, the wordiness and descriptions were weirdly not actually sexually explicit and the scenes were vague. There was a lot of weird salty sweating. That's about it.
Let's meet our main characters.
The Main Characters
Hesiod “Hexy” Garrow is an American of Scottish descent. She's working as an assistant to an American actress who's inherited a Scottish castle from her late husband.
Ruairidh “Rory” O’Uruisg is a Scottish Selkie Prince. He's making an unexpected visit on land to investigate some recent murders involving his People.
The Storyline
This book involves a myriad of mythical sea creatures including finmen, mermaids, merrows and, of course, selkies. For those not familiar, Selkies are creatures that shapeshift between seal and human forms by removing or putting on their seal skin.
Hexy is working as an assistant/secretary/personal maid for an American actress and the two women are staying at a Scottish castle located on the coast. The castle belonged to the actress's late husband and she bounces around between her newly inherited castle and London with Hexy in tow. Hexy has horrible Spring allergies and one evening she is sitting on a rock at the beach and her eyes are tearing up really badly. Well, apparently there’s some ritual where if you cry so many tears into the ocean, it summons a selkie. So Hexy unintentionally summons a selkie to her.
But not just any selkie, the selkie prince Rory. He happens to be in land investigating some murders involving his People when he feels the "summoning." And, because he took human form and left his seal skin on the beach, it gets mistaken for someone's fur coat. But not just anyone's fur coat.
The actress Hexy works for thinks she left her fur coat at the beach and sends Hexy to get it. Hexy accidentally grabs Rory’s skin. So there’s this misunderstanding where he thinks she summoned him and stole his skin to keep him from returning to the sea. But, she explains it was all an accident. However, the actress has gone off to London and taken the fur with her (cause they thought it was her fur coat). So Rory has to wait for it to get mailed back so he can return to the sea.
During this time of a whopping few days, Hexy and Rory of course have an instant attraction. And, of course, fall in love. They end up having sex and somehow she’s pregnant by morning with twins and they both know she’s pregnant.
During this time, Hexy and Rory also figure out she’s actually part fae and part selkie via her Scottish lineage and Rory is also part fae and selkie so it’s this special match made in heaven thing. Why? Because it gives them both special abilities and will help them revive the selkie People that are dying off due to a severe lack of selkie women.
In the midst of this budding and weird romance, Rory continues investigating the deaths of his People and some local humans and there’s evil finmen (aka mermen) involved. There’s a particular merman/finman who is killing these selkies and humans to eat their souls to grow his demonic power. Obviously, he must be stopped but there's a lot of debate amongst the selkies on how to proceed on this matter. (Who knew there was so much bureaucracy under the sea.)
Hexy finds herself inexplicably and overpoweringly drawn to various places despite Rory asking her to stay put at he visits his People and tries to handle the murdering merman problem. I won't share more than that because I don't want to completely spoil the book for you if you're feeling inclined to read it.
What I Enjoyed About the Book
Scottish vibes and mermaids.
What Challenged Me About the Book
The writer, Melanie Jackson, uses a pretty advanced vocabulary. I consider myself fairly well read and love words like ennui and ubiquitous. But I had to keep looking up words throughout this book because I couldn't even glean context in the sentence structure at various points. Overall, this book was kind of boring as a whole and confusing at various points. For example, the hero’s name is Rory and Hexy’s brother’s name is Rory Patrick.
Final Thoughts
This book was kind of boring as a whole and confusing at various points. (For example, the hero’s name is Rory and Hexy’s brother’s name is Rory Patrick.) Overall, the book was okay. Jackson tied everything together in the end and various mysteries/plot lies were resolved. If you're into paranormal/romantasy novels with an underwater theme and a hint of mystery and not too much spice, this may be the book for you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2018
Unique enough to hold my attention. I like the fact that I haven't come across seal shifters in a book before. Love the Scottish setting!
March 30, 2025
There was no romance here, it was magical, fated insta-love, she is the one who was foretold who can carry the selkie babies. Listless, clueless FMC, spends a lot of the book drugged by the MMC's magical selkie sweat. Like really. Could be considered dubcon. And then just very basic problems: typos, inconsistent use of phonetic spelling for the Scottish accents, extremely stilted prose, characters know information they have no reason to, inconvenient things just disappear from the plot, and there's a lot of dropped threads. Some stuff with faeries, the circus, the brother who knew she was a selkie incubator but didn't tell her? He died in WWI but also maybe it was the evil sorcerer? The sorcerer who was defeated in like two pages?
January 13, 2019
It is refreshing to read a romance that has writing of a college level vocabulary. The supernatural world of the selfie also appealed to me. Not the best romance I’ve read, but she kept me reading and anxious with tension.
February 27, 2020
3.5 stars!
Very good and intriguing selkie romance. The plot was a bit slow at times, but there is a lot of Scottish mythology including finmen, merrows, selkies, fae. Loved the ending!!
Full review at Sirenita’s Grotto! Check out my profile for more mermaid reviews/website
Very good and intriguing selkie romance. The plot was a bit slow at times, but there is a lot of Scottish mythology including finmen, merrows, selkies, fae. Loved the ending!!
Full review at Sirenita’s Grotto! Check out my profile for more mermaid reviews/website
September 6, 2018
2.5 stars this book had a original premise but we just kind of disappointing.
December 9, 2019
It was alright.
May 22, 2025
I just couldn’t get into it. It felt too slow and often times I stayed away from finishing it.
November 8, 2014
While I was expecting a Selkie - it IS titled The Selkie after all - the time period was surprising. Set in the 1920s - a time period mostly neglected in Romancelandia - in a drafty old castle in Scotland, well, at least in part.
There is a bit of insta-lust but it's likely due to the compulsion spell. And...I can't help but wonder if the h's employer set her up. Let me explain.
Our h doesn't realize she's a speshul snowflake - a rare person who can fully mate with a Selkie. She also has no idea that her Irish roots stem from a line with Unseelie blood. I doubt her employer does either but...her employer I suspect does know the summoning spell, recognize the H's skin for what it is, and quickly realize that the h's allergies will cause her to unintentionally perform the spell.
So she goes out at the request of her employer (she's a companion - combination lady's maid and confident) to find her employer's fur coat left on a rock supposedly. She's got hay fever bad, though in this case it's more apt to call it yew fever. She sits on a rock, feels a bit sorry for herself, her nose runs, she sneezes, her eyes water, etc. Then she finds the "coat" and takes it back to the castle. Her employer packs it and takes it on a trip. H shows up at the rock, looking for his fur, and discovers the spell. He goes hunting and ah... Let the games begin.
There's a bad guy naturally, who must be vanquished. The bad guy has managed to get inside the h's head so she's compelled to take some awful chances. It gets the bad guy killed and she also finds what happened to her brother but...
It's an interesting read, somewhat convoluted, but interesting.
There is a bit of insta-lust but it's likely due to the compulsion spell. And...I can't help but wonder if the h's employer set her up. Let me explain.
Our h doesn't realize she's a speshul snowflake - a rare person who can fully mate with a Selkie. She also has no idea that her Irish roots stem from a line with Unseelie blood. I doubt her employer does either but...her employer I suspect does know the summoning spell, recognize the H's skin for what it is, and quickly realize that the h's allergies will cause her to unintentionally perform the spell.
So she goes out at the request of her employer (she's a companion - combination lady's maid and confident) to find her employer's fur coat left on a rock supposedly. She's got hay fever bad, though in this case it's more apt to call it yew fever. She sits on a rock, feels a bit sorry for herself, her nose runs, she sneezes, her eyes water, etc. Then she finds the "coat" and takes it back to the castle. Her employer packs it and takes it on a trip. H shows up at the rock, looking for his fur, and discovers the spell. He goes hunting and ah... Let the games begin.
There's a bad guy naturally, who must be vanquished. The bad guy has managed to get inside the h's head so she's compelled to take some awful chances. It gets the bad guy killed and she also finds what happened to her brother but...
It's an interesting read, somewhat convoluted, but interesting.
May 16, 2025
This was a odd one and at the end, I'm not sure I was so much of a fan of the overall book as
a confused one.
The heroine is Hexy, and she is a companion to a rich/spoiled but yet kind young lady who
quickly leaves the story and Hexy is left alone in a Scottish Castle while it is being rebuilt.
She is prone to allergies and often her eyes run with tears, never would she have imagined that
those tears would inadvertently summon a Selkie.
Our hero is Rory (who shares the same name as Hexy's brother), and his kind have a tradition of being summoned by a weeping women whom they will sleep with and produce a child with before returning to the sea. But that was not the case for Hexy - she accidentally mistook his pelt for her employers fur coat and he sticks around until he can get it back.
Surprise, Hexy and Rory sleep together and produce a child only to have Rory return to his world
to deal with Selkie politics, leaving Hexy to think he was kidnapped by a finman. So she heads out to save him.
There were aspects about this book that was a bit disturbing. Like the fact that Rory basically
drugs Hexy with the salt his body produces - he does this intentionally and most time against her
will. Or that fact that this was an weird world of Selkie and Druids and yet Hexy openly didn't
question any of it or the fact that Rory seemingly impregnated her while she was drugged and not
in her right mind.
Overall, this book left a sour taste in my mouth.
a confused one.
The heroine is Hexy, and she is a companion to a rich/spoiled but yet kind young lady who
quickly leaves the story and Hexy is left alone in a Scottish Castle while it is being rebuilt.
She is prone to allergies and often her eyes run with tears, never would she have imagined that
those tears would inadvertently summon a Selkie.
Our hero is Rory (who shares the same name as Hexy's brother), and his kind have a tradition of being summoned by a weeping women whom they will sleep with and produce a child with before returning to the sea. But that was not the case for Hexy - she accidentally mistook his pelt for her employers fur coat and he sticks around until he can get it back.
Surprise, Hexy and Rory sleep together and produce a child only to have Rory return to his world
to deal with Selkie politics, leaving Hexy to think he was kidnapped by a finman. So she heads out to save him.
There were aspects about this book that was a bit disturbing. Like the fact that Rory basically
drugs Hexy with the salt his body produces - he does this intentionally and most time against her
will. Or that fact that this was an weird world of Selkie and Druids and yet Hexy openly didn't
question any of it or the fact that Rory seemingly impregnated her while she was drugged and not
in her right mind.
Overall, this book left a sour taste in my mouth.
March 31, 2012
What a wonderful surprise! The cover on this led me to expect the usual overwrought, purple prose romance. Instead it is an elegantly written, well researched romantic fantasy written in an old fashioned style.
People who are fans of mass produced romance might not like it. It is a different style- more Bujold than Moning. The leading man is not a bohunk, the leading woman is not a vampire slayer. But I loved it- very fairy tale and lovely.
I think it would get better reviews if it was published as a fantasy instead of a romance, honestly, and had a more descriptive cover. I recommend it for romantic fantasy fans. It is not explicit enough or fast paced enough to appeal to PNR fans.
People who are fans of mass produced romance might not like it. It is a different style- more Bujold than Moning. The leading man is not a bohunk, the leading woman is not a vampire slayer. But I loved it- very fairy tale and lovely.
I think it would get better reviews if it was published as a fantasy instead of a romance, honestly, and had a more descriptive cover. I recommend it for romantic fantasy fans. It is not explicit enough or fast paced enough to appeal to PNR fans.
February 4, 2012
Even though I gave this book an average rating, it ended up being a pivotal book for me. I probably picked it up because it had the folklore element of selkies, and I've enjoyed fantasy and revisionist lit for a very long time. This book became my introduction to what would come to be known as paranormal romance.
August 22, 2012
While Melanie Jackson has a lovely way with prose, The Selkie storyline was very two dimensional. Throughout the book, I felt that it was an imaginative story trapped in a shallow romance novel. I kept hoping that it would somehow rise above it, but sadly, it never did.
September 25, 2009
This was way too slow moving for me. 5 chapters in and not nothing was going on, so I gave up.
January 7, 2010
I do enjoy stories about selkies... this one is set in the 1920's in Scotland, although that doesn't make so much of an impact. Fun, quick read.
August 17, 2011
Yea, I get that it's a romance, but this was way too cheesy for me. Wasn't convinced of their "love" at all.
March 4, 2013
I'll have to write more later.
Elegantly written, wonderful visuals, excellent storytelling, overall a beautifully told sweet romance. i loved it!
Elegantly written, wonderful visuals, excellent storytelling, overall a beautifully told sweet romance. i loved it!
June 27, 2013
I loved it and I do believe she us going to be a fav author.
August 14, 2013
for some reason I just didn't like this story, it had a good base, it just didn't click.
Want to Read
November 21, 2013Need some brain trash.
January 16, 2016
Great Read different and enjoyed it.
I found my self being pulled more into the plot and my imagination taking over . I really enjoyed this book .
I found my self being pulled more into the plot and my imagination taking over . I really enjoyed this book .
January 23, 2016
Loved it.
December 4, 2016
Feel good fantasy
This was a feel good fantasy. Even when the language was difficult to comprehend at times, I figured out the meaning and was a nice read.
This was a feel good fantasy. Even when the language was difficult to comprehend at times, I figured out the meaning and was a nice read.
Read
April 27, 2012it was interesting
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews