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Twisted
Black tentacles lashed out from below his waist. Purple scales crawled up his body to his neck, where mottled skin took over. His face was cruel and his smile was cold, but the sea witch was offering a deal.
“Humanity for your voice,” he whispered, his dark eyes boring into mine. “Simply win the princess, and your greatest wish comes true.”
I thought I’d resigned myself to watching the humans from afar. So what if I’d always dreamed of a life on land? I was a merman, and my father was the trident-wielding king of the sea. To yearn for more felt selfish.
Or it did . . . until I lost my heart to a princess. Until my father, in his rage, wove a spell to keep me from human shores forever.
Until I was forced to beg for the help of a monster.
Now I’m voiceless, and stuck on an island with him for one full turn of the moon. Everything I want depends on me holding my silence, and on winning a princess’s heart.
Except . . . my skin is beginning to prickle with awareness when I feel his eyes on me. I shiver when his tentacles slide and caress my flesh. And when he coils around my wrists to hold me in place, something inside me comes alive.
But I can’t possibly be falling for a monster . . . right?
This steamy romance novella is very (VERY) loosely based on the original Little Mermaid folk tale. It takes place in the same world of magic and mythical monsters as the rest of the books in this series but can be read as a standalone story.
“Humanity for your voice,” he whispered, his dark eyes boring into mine. “Simply win the princess, and your greatest wish comes true.”
I thought I’d resigned myself to watching the humans from afar. So what if I’d always dreamed of a life on land? I was a merman, and my father was the trident-wielding king of the sea. To yearn for more felt selfish.
Or it did . . . until I lost my heart to a princess. Until my father, in his rage, wove a spell to keep me from human shores forever.
Until I was forced to beg for the help of a monster.
Now I’m voiceless, and stuck on an island with him for one full turn of the moon. Everything I want depends on me holding my silence, and on winning a princess’s heart.
Except . . . my skin is beginning to prickle with awareness when I feel his eyes on me. I shiver when his tentacles slide and caress my flesh. And when he coils around my wrists to hold me in place, something inside me comes alive.
But I can’t possibly be falling for a monster . . . right?
This steamy romance novella is very (VERY) loosely based on the original Little Mermaid folk tale. It takes place in the same world of magic and mythical monsters as the rest of the books in this series but can be read as a standalone story.
120 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 3, 2023
30 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 24, 2024
3.75⭐ for the story, it was an interesting story, so for most readers it'll definitely be more than my rating is, but I'll have to round it down, because I think it could've been just a liiiitle bit more developed.
This was an interesting take of The Little Mermaid and I appreciated the ideas implemented, the only problem I've had was the story just not pulling me in as much. Certain parts were really intriguing and I loved the Ari and Urso coupling, I always prefer the villain, but in this case both MMCs had enormous potential and their love story wasn't told with as much vigor and passion as one would expect - based on the previous installment.
I wasn't particularly satisfied, but I will say it's a refreshing take on the original.
🔵 The Little Mermaid fairytale as inspiration
🟢 Ari, the merman picks Urso, the sea witch
🟣 Interesting ideas that weren't developed enough
🟡 Ari's infatuation with princess Erica was questionable
🔵 Ari and Urso didn't have enough time on-page when they got together
🟢 Like the cover
🟠 Still in doubt about the ending
🌶️ Sex was interesting, hot, there definitely had to be more of it; t/b
Ari is a merman who lives in the ocean with his brothers and his father Triton as the ruler. Triton knows about Ari's infatuation with humans and disagrees with it. When Ari finally sees a princess dancing on a passing ship, he falls in love and wants to become a human - we all know how the story goes.
"A strange feeling bubbles up in my chest. I have not heard my own name spoken by another in centuries, and to hear it in his voice? I am electrified."
But then Ari's feelings for the princess become very questionable since Ari doesn't see her ever again until the very end of the story, yet he claims he's infinitely in love with her, she's the one and he goes as far as to make a deal with the sea witch Urso to become a human. For her. The woman he's seen dancing on a ship for 5 minutes.
I get infatuation and wanting to desperately come close to the object of your desire, but this guy didn't even see her for at least a month after that and he didn't miss her either.
Urso, the cruel sea witch, has fallen for Ari the minute he saw him, as we find out much later on. That would've been fantastic to know upfront, right? 🥴
Urso's internal dilemma about helping or eventually killing Ari wasn't addressed enough. He was trying to take Ari's voice, yet at the same time somewhere along the way started helping the guy to become a fully fledged human.
Urso was changing his mind about Ari but how was I supposed to know what he was thinking? The motive, where's the motive? Urso's internal dialogue was missing.
How he went from "he'll be a part of my collection" to "he's the one for me" and almost nothing's written down about it? There was no pining. No tension. Nothing. At least I didn't feel it, because it was lukewarm and you can't do lukewarm for a character like Urso.
"He was a beautiful creature in his own right—I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before. His sleek tentacles moved as if they had minds of their own. His scales glittered in the sun. Everything about him made my heart beat faster than any aspect of the princess ever had."
A very interesting part of this story was Ari's asexuality, he procreated not with sex and he also didn't feel any lust - but with becoming a human, he started to feel the sexual desire.
Urso had sensitive tentacle ends and tentacles usually scare the shit out of me, I don't like them, but I will occasionally read about them - what I really liked in Urso's anatomy was the ends of his tentacles being as sensitive as Ari's dick, so Urso could fuck Ari with a tentacle and actually ejaculate. Ari would also suck Urso's tentacle and I reeeaaally liked that, but I did want it to be spicier.
It was good, they were good together, but considering Urso was a villain and Ari was having his first sexual-awakening ever, the spice could've gone up a notch. It needed more passion for sure.
“Say it,” he whispered, leaning down to lick my ear. “Say it, little prince.”
“I belong to you,” I cried desperately, straining against his hold, thrilling in the fact that I couldn’t move.
In the end they experience sex together and that's it, that's the binding force, Ari stays a human and alone in that little villa on the beach, Urso lives in the sea and comes to visit and ... What happens then? What happens when one can live indefinitely and one has a human lifespan? None of it was determined. A conclusion to the love story wasn't satisfying and the love story itself wasn't as special as it should've sounded.
The princess was a useless addition, she had absolutely no particular important role in this story. The princess comes into play at the very end of the story and their interaction is awkward, to put it mildly.
Not for one second was Ari's love for the princess and him doing all the work to become a human because of and for that love believable. Ari was like "man, this is awkward, I don't know you and I don't even want to know you, get on your boat and go, bye bye now".
Ari saw her dancing and actually wanted to be human, he didn't want her, he was pumped up to get legs, he couldn't care less about the girl, if you ask me, he couldn't feel lust and desire until he was human, so this whole agenda of getting legs for the princess wasn't working.
We do get a bonus story and in it we find out that Ari and Urso do in fact spend a lot of time together on land, which makes me think again - if Urso could give Ari his legs, why couldn't he do the same for himself? Isn't he an all powerful villain? Can't he switch from legs to tentacles? Can't he give Ari a longer lifespan? What is he even doing in the ocean?
So many questions.
I loved these two, I did. I just felt like their story could've been so much better.
This was an interesting take of The Little Mermaid and I appreciated the ideas implemented, the only problem I've had was the story just not pulling me in as much. Certain parts were really intriguing and I loved the Ari and Urso coupling, I always prefer the villain, but in this case both MMCs had enormous potential and their love story wasn't told with as much vigor and passion as one would expect - based on the previous installment.
I wasn't particularly satisfied, but I will say it's a refreshing take on the original.
🔵 The Little Mermaid fairytale as inspiration
🟢 Ari, the merman picks Urso, the sea witch
🟣 Interesting ideas that weren't developed enough
🟡 Ari's infatuation with princess Erica was questionable
🔵 Ari and Urso didn't have enough time on-page when they got together
🟢 Like the cover
🟠 Still in doubt about the ending
🌶️ Sex was interesting, hot, there definitely had to be more of it; t/b
Ari is a merman who lives in the ocean with his brothers and his father Triton as the ruler. Triton knows about Ari's infatuation with humans and disagrees with it. When Ari finally sees a princess dancing on a passing ship, he falls in love and wants to become a human - we all know how the story goes.
"A strange feeling bubbles up in my chest. I have not heard my own name spoken by another in centuries, and to hear it in his voice? I am electrified."
But then Ari's feelings for the princess become very questionable since Ari doesn't see her ever again until the very end of the story, yet he claims he's infinitely in love with her, she's the one and he goes as far as to make a deal with the sea witch Urso to become a human. For her. The woman he's seen dancing on a ship for 5 minutes.
I get infatuation and wanting to desperately come close to the object of your desire, but this guy didn't even see her for at least a month after that and he didn't miss her either.
Urso, the cruel sea witch, has fallen for Ari the minute he saw him, as we find out much later on. That would've been fantastic to know upfront, right? 🥴
Urso's internal dilemma about helping or eventually killing Ari wasn't addressed enough. He was trying to take Ari's voice, yet at the same time somewhere along the way started helping the guy to become a fully fledged human.
Urso was changing his mind about Ari but how was I supposed to know what he was thinking? The motive, where's the motive? Urso's internal dialogue was missing.
How he went from "he'll be a part of my collection" to "he's the one for me" and almost nothing's written down about it? There was no pining. No tension. Nothing. At least I didn't feel it, because it was lukewarm and you can't do lukewarm for a character like Urso.
"He was a beautiful creature in his own right—I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before. His sleek tentacles moved as if they had minds of their own. His scales glittered in the sun. Everything about him made my heart beat faster than any aspect of the princess ever had."
A very interesting part of this story was Ari's asexuality, he procreated not with sex and he also didn't feel any lust - but with becoming a human, he started to feel the sexual desire.
Urso had sensitive tentacle ends and tentacles usually scare the shit out of me, I don't like them, but I will occasionally read about them - what I really liked in Urso's anatomy was the ends of his tentacles being as sensitive as Ari's dick, so Urso could fuck Ari with a tentacle and actually ejaculate. Ari would also suck Urso's tentacle and I reeeaaally liked that, but I did want it to be spicier.
It was good, they were good together, but considering Urso was a villain and Ari was having his first sexual-awakening ever, the spice could've gone up a notch. It needed more passion for sure.
“Say it,” he whispered, leaning down to lick my ear. “Say it, little prince.”
“I belong to you,” I cried desperately, straining against his hold, thrilling in the fact that I couldn’t move.
In the end they experience sex together and that's it, that's the binding force, Ari stays a human and alone in that little villa on the beach, Urso lives in the sea and comes to visit and ... What happens then? What happens when one can live indefinitely and one has a human lifespan? None of it was determined. A conclusion to the love story wasn't satisfying and the love story itself wasn't as special as it should've sounded.
The princess was a useless addition, she had absolutely no particular important role in this story. The princess comes into play at the very end of the story and their interaction is awkward, to put it mildly.
Not for one second was Ari's love for the princess and him doing all the work to become a human because of and for that love believable. Ari was like "man, this is awkward, I don't know you and I don't even want to know you, get on your boat and go, bye bye now".
Ari saw her dancing and actually wanted to be human, he didn't want her, he was pumped up to get legs, he couldn't care less about the girl, if you ask me, he couldn't feel lust and desire until he was human, so this whole agenda of getting legs for the princess wasn't working.
We do get a bonus story and in it we find out that Ari and Urso do in fact spend a lot of time together on land, which makes me think again - if Urso could give Ari his legs, why couldn't he do the same for himself? Isn't he an all powerful villain? Can't he switch from legs to tentacles? Can't he give Ari a longer lifespan? What is he even doing in the ocean?
So many questions.
I loved these two, I did. I just felt like their story could've been so much better.
July 5, 2024
I'm obsessed with this gender swapped Little Mermaid story where the villain gets his prince 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
April 6, 2023
Solid short read!
April 6, 2023
Magic
This was such a fun twist on the tale of the little mermaid! It had just the right level of spice and sweetness to have me craving more!
This was such a fun twist on the tale of the little mermaid! It had just the right level of spice and sweetness to have me craving more!
April 27, 2024
Another great monster romance by Cole Burne!
And what a spin on The Little Mermaid. Enjoyed the carrying, the caretaking, and of course the tentacles.
NSFW infos:
25/6 year old merman (merfolk are per se asexual, discovers pleasure in a human cis male body for the first time) bottoms for tentacles, goes through journey of exploration, enjoys wearing feminine-coded clothing (long flowing dresses) in epilogue
Cecaelia (tentacled sea witch, six black tentacles, dark purple scales, white hair, human-like upper body, thickl tentacle-like tongue) rims, puts his tentacles in other MC
Being held down with tentacles
Carrying
Nicknames
My little prince, little princeling
And what a spin on The Little Mermaid. Enjoyed the carrying, the caretaking, and of course the tentacles.
NSFW infos:
25/6 year old merman (merfolk are per se asexual, discovers pleasure in a human cis male body for the first time) bottoms for tentacles, goes through journey of exploration, enjoys wearing feminine-coded clothing (long flowing dresses) in epilogue
Cecaelia (tentacled sea witch, six black tentacles, dark purple scales, white hair, human-like upper body, thickl tentacle-like tongue) rims, puts his tentacles in other MC
Being held down with tentacles
Carrying
Nicknames
My little prince, little princeling
June 18, 2023
I could’ve read hundreds more pages of this, a great balance of romance and plot for a short solid monster romance/retelling. Truly a gem.
March 31, 2024
Urso and Ari
A quick, sweet read. Loved it.
A quick, sweet read. Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews