Mermaids Don't Date Krakens

by Amy Horikami

I’m Serena. I’ve got all the looks of a beautiful, blonde, and a killer swimmer. Except for one fact that makes me a failure, a dud in my family's

I’m a mermaid who CAN’T sing! Oh, and did I mention I HATE fish! Anyway, I’m more off-key than a walrus searching for his mate.
But sadly, our voice is supposed to do just that; help us find our mate, among other things.

So, instead of going to the prestigious school that my sister, Pearl, is going to for sirens who excel in such matters, I’m off to summer camp to teach supernaturals how to swim, and who do you think comes walking up to me all smug and grinning like he just caught a golden trout! My rival! Jake Tentrill, from the Kraken family.

Could things get possibly worse?

Welcome to Camp Spellbound. Where enemies turn to lovers and not everything or everyone is who or what they seem.

Dive in today!

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal

199 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 19, 2024

About the author

Hello! It's fun to have you here, and I can't wait to share with you the stories I've written. (I think that's my favorite part about being an author is gushing over the books I write with other people!)

With that being said, not only am I an author, but a homeschool mom to four beautiful children, and married to the man who inspires most of the swoony scenes you'll read (insert sigh); which goes to say that I'm happily married and he's the best thing that's happened to me.

Along with writing books, I love art (hence my children's books), photography, trying to new recipes, and going on adventures! (Cruises, hikes, strawberry patches, Disney...you name it! We just recently went to Universal Studios (Harry Potter World) and LOVED it!

I love getting out and exploring the beautiful earth my Heavenly Father has created for me and hope to explore Europe one day. (Gotta see those castles for inspiration ;)

Reviews

[Emily ✞ || [fallon's vrs] · Rating 3 out of 5]

✨3.75 STARS✨

brief content warning
🧜🏻‍♀️ some monsters, like krakens, mermaids, werewolves, and vampires
🧜🏻‍♀️ a character is a witch
🧜🏻‍♀️ non detailed kisses
___________________________________

”As if I could ever forget your name, Serena Oceana. It’s written in my soul.”

I have no idea how I found out about this, but I’m glad I did, because this was cute and such a pallet cleanser. It’s not the best quality of writing, but the story was engaging, and it was a quick read.

this was a good story, albeit cheesy at times. Jake was such a good guy, I loved that he was so devoted to Serena, and that he wasn’t the flirty, playboy kind of mmc that’s in a lot of paranormal/fantasy romances.

also, this gave me such monster high deja vu. I had a blast to the past, thinking about all my favorite times watching monster high and playing with the dolls as a little girl. I think the author got some inspo from the movies

Serena was a little annoying, but she had a good heart. I would recommend if you don’t mind subpar writing. the story overshadows the bad writing, imo

𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓹𝓵𝓪𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰: we are monster high - monster high cast
___________________________________

𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓻𝓮: ya paranormal romance
𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓼: summer camp, she hates him, fated mates
𝓪𝓰𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓬: 11/12+
𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓶𝓪𝓽: kindle unlimited

read if you like:
🏕️ cute summer camp romances
🏕️ quick and easy to read
🏕️ no stakes
🏕️ funny friend groups
🏕️ golden retriever mmc
🏕️ mermaids and krakens
🏕️ monster high
___________________________________

negatives:
🌊 the writing was juvenile
🌊 this was in serious need of an editor
🌊 the ending was abrupt
🌊 it was a little cheesy at times
___________________________________

detailed content warning

➸ Christian content:
none

➸ spiritual content:
a mention of demons (in ghost stories)

➸ sexual content:
3 non detailed kisses; looking at lips; seeing a guy kiss his girlfriend on the cheek

a mention of lulling lovers to one’s doorstep; mention of mermaids smelling alluring; mention of ogling; Serena’s shirt gets wet and transparent and Jake looks away; Jake lends Serena his clothes when hers get dirty (extra clothes) and he tells her he likes seeing her in his clothes (jokingly); Trent asks if Serena is ‘taken’ and tries to sit next to her; mention of a midnight swim date; a few mentions of Jake being shirtless

➸ language:
1 dud, 2 drat, 1 dumb, 1 jerk, 1 merlin’s beard

➸ drugs/alcohol/smoking:
none!

➸ lgtbq+:
none!

➸ magic/witchcraft:
there are switches in this story; Serena drinks a potion that gets rid of poison ivy rash; a little girl (who’s a witch) turns 2 boys into toads when they wouldn’t stop making fun of her

➸ violence:
seeing a chest cut from a sea monster attack (non detailed)

➸ other:
none!

➸ possible triggers:
none!

[Sarah Ryder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this ebook on a whim because it looked fun and cute (and I was curious about a supernatural summer camp, not gonna lie, haha) and I ended up liking it more then I thought I would!

Serena and Jake are both so cute and fun, love the friend group they’re all awesome, and it was just all around FUN. Do I wish it was clear whether this is a totally supernatural world or one with humans in it too? Did I want a bit more clarification about their magic? Sure to both but the story doesn’t NEED it so its lack of answers in that department isn’t frustrating because the story works just fine without it. I DID want a bit more conflict between Jake and Serena’s families so they’d have to fight harder to stay together (or I’m just sadistic, jury’s still out, heehee) but the implications of what would happen that kept Serena uncertain was good enough.

If you want a light supernatural/urban fantasy summer camp love story reminiscent of a Disney Channel movie like Camp Rock or High School Musical then I think you’d really like this book! I’m curious and eager to try the next one!


‼️Content‼️

Violence: a sea serpent attacks characters (not detailed); injuries and blood (not detailed)

Sexual: kissing (not detailed)

Drugs/Alcohol: characters drink magical potions to heal themselves

Other: magic; supernatural races/creatures; magical powers

[Hunter]

I’m very impressed with how much I enjoyed this book. Fated mates has never been a trope I cared for. But I loved it in this book.

Another thing that normally would have turned me away from a story, was the FMC in this book. The FMC here was weak, ran away from her problems, prejudice, and sometimes very rude. But it worked so well in this story! The author was so consistent with Selena and her growth was very realistic. I never even got frustrated with her. I also loved (even though she was wrong in her thinking as to why she couldn’t get close to Jake) how she would remove herself from the situation when Jake would get too close to her. She never lead him on, or tried to give him false hopes. Even though she was misguided with some of her beliefs, you could tell she was trying to be a good person and do the right thing.

Jake was absolutely wonderful. A heartthrob.

I really enjoyed the world building. You’re not bogged down with details about it, but given enough that you’re interested and excited to see more of it.

I am very excited for the next book!

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this book !!YET!! There were way too many typos to recommend right now. (I found close to 100. ) That’s another thing, the story was so good I didn’t even care that there were so many typos, I still couldn’t put it down.

It would be an injustice to this book to recommend it to friends before all the typos gets fixed.

Content: clean, no spice, some kissing

(Dear author if you read this I highlighted all the typos I found and can send them your way! You wrote such a great story!)

Favorite quotes:

He shook his head, running his hand through his hair, a crazed look on his face. “As if I could ever forget your name, Serena Oceana. It’s written in my soul.”

“How do you know I’m a mermaid?” I could be a witch for all he knew. While I knew who he was, the most popular guy in our high school. No one ever noticed me. Plus, I was younger than him. He gently set me down, my heart practically beating out of my chest from embarrassment. Then he leaned close and took in a big deep breath. “Because you smell like fish,” he smiled smugly. I saw red. How dare he!

I hated crying in front of him, but my traitorous tears slipped down my face. He laughed. How dare he laugh at my situation! “I’m going to drive you, fish legs. Now, let’s go!” He waved at me to follow him.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

IF YOU ARE THE AUTHOR OR A FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR, THIS REVIEW IS NOT FOR YOU. REVIEWS ARE FOR READERS.

Okay, here's the thing: I picked this book to read out of morbid curiosity, because the premise looked silly and goofy. However, as I kept reading, I began to suspect something was off about this book. I am about to make a bold claim based off of little besides my own speculation, but I think AI was used in some capacity to write this book. I find it extremely suspicious that the author has released more than twenty books in the last five years. Additionally, all the covers of said books have what I believe to be AI art. This book, Mermaids Don't Date Krakens, was released TWICE, with each book having a different cover. It's not the same book with an alternative cover, it's listed and sold as two separate books. However, I started reading the one that was published to see if perhaps it's a revised edition that fixed the typos in the first edition. Spoiler: it's the exact same book with the same problems, just a shiny new cover. I know everyone has their own opinions about the ethical use of generative AI and its place in the creative industries, but I personally find it to be unacceptable. The only reason I finished the book was to look for evidence for or against my theory.

However, even if we were to be generous and say this book WASN'T written with AI, the book itself needs a lot of work and should not have been published in this state. While reading this book, I could feel rage coursing through my veins. I highlighted MANY of the typos and grammatical errors I found, and my repeated annotation was, "Does the author know basic grammar?"
The most repeated mistakes were the incorrect use of action tags, the incorrect use of words, and the incorrect use of puncuation. It felt like the author wanted to make the writing seem fancy, so a bunch of semicolons were added in places they just SHOULD NOT be. Some words are used wrong. Proper nouns are inconsistently capitalized (as in, thing that SHOULD be capitalized are not). I'm going through my annotations right now to try and pull some quotes to demonstrate what I mean, but I just don't know where to begin. To put it into perspective for you, I have 211 annotations in the text, and the e-book is only 199 pages. Chapter 13 alone had 40 annotations.

An example of the misuse of semicolons from Chapter Two: "She had a certain aura around her that only witches had, and her companion smelled like; flowers?" [sic].
An example of an incorrect use of action tags, capitalization, and punctuation from Chapter Four: "He grinned, 'you caught me.'"
Another example from Chapter Four:: "Drew leaned forward, 'good thing too. Someone needs to keep an eye on him.'"
A sentence that just DID NOT have a subject from Chapter Five: "'Are we allowed to be in our water form?' Hoping he knew I was asking if I could play as a mermaid, wondering if he played as a Kraken."
An example of a word being used incorrectly from Chapter Eleven. The context here is that Jake is paying for something using his card. "He ignored me as he put in his passcode." The correct word would be PIN (personal identification number).


The WHOLE book was like this. Frankly, I'm appalled that the book was published when the diction and syntax was in this state. And this is going to sound mean, but BECAUSE the grammar was so bad, I started to drop the "this book was written by AI" theory.

I haven't even TOUCHED the actual content of the book. However, since neither you nor I want to be here forever, I can summarize the issues with the content into two things: the immaturity of the characters and lack of engaging story telling.

The characters are supposed to be in their twenties, but they act like middle schoolers. Serena, the FMC, is incredibly immature and cowardly, not in a "this is the beginning of her character arc" way but more in a "I have never met a more incompetent person in my life" type of way. Jake, the MMC, serves as nothing but a hot hunk for Serena to fall in love with. The other characters are very flat and one-dimensional, and are nothing more than physical manifestations of Serena's conscience. There's this giant "fight" halfway through the book between Serena and Jake, and everyone acts like they broke up after a two-year-long relationship, despite the fact the characters met two WEEKS ago and WEREN'T EVEN DATING. I put "fight" in quotation marks because I don't know what the hell was going on. Serena, being the fantastic main character she is, created a fake issue in her head AGAIN and literally ran away from it AGAIN. Serena repeats OVER AND OVER AGAIN how her and Jake are so "different" and "could never be together" but there is no evidence given to support either of those claims. In fact, out of all of the characters, I think that Serena and Jake are the most similar to each other, solely for the fact that they are half-aquatic (which really says something about their characterization hmmm).

The story telling itself is bizarre, simply because I could not suspend my disbelief at any point. I am convinced the author has never been to camp before (or worked a job for that matter) or has siblings. The latter I say because whenever Serena called her sister Pearl, their conversations were always like, "Hi sis [because of course "sis" wasn't capitalized], I miss you and love you and I'm super proud of you." "Aww thanks sis, i love you too". Like naw bro, where are the insults and mean nicknames??
The other thing I said is because at one point, Serena asks to be switched from a swim counselor to a hiking guide because she didn't want to work with Jake. And the camp managers let her??? That would be like if I worked at a restaurant as a hostess, then one day I asked to work as a chef instead and they let me switch, even though being a chef is outside my skills and qualifications. Serena switching jobs made NO sense. There's also a GAPING plot hole where it's implied that Jake (who chose Serena's application out of all of them) hired Serena with the sole intention of flirting with her, which seems pretty illegal and unethical.
I'm also pretty mad at the climax and ending of the book. I won't get into it, but there's this huge "fight" (it lasts like one paragraph so not a fight) between Jake and a supposedly menacing and dangerous sea serpent. However, the sea serpent is NEVER described, so the "scary" scene where Jake fights to protect his "love" fell flat on its face due to a lack of description and interest.

I could go on, but honestly I'm exhausted after writing all this. You know what they say about curiosity killing the cat. It's me, I'm the cat. My sanity was not worth the sleuthing.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute Story

This is exactly what it promised to be. A cute story about summer camp. It has a younger vibe - I would have loved this story as a teenager. But light weight and an easy listen (I had Alexa read it to me) while doing dishes.
No swearing 🚫 🤬 🚫🌶️ just kisses (not descriptive).

[JennJoWa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Fantasy RomCom was a fun quick read with a little twist at the end. I usually feel a little old for young romance books; however, the vibe just made you feel good. I appreciated how the main male character Jake was the good guy while the female main character Serena “grew up” while attending the supernatural Spellbound Camp. I also enjoyed reading how Serena worked through and overcame preset prejudices and insecurities within herself.

[⚔︎ FireBreathingBQueen ⚔︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a short cute romantic book… i finished it in one sitting in under two hours i’d say

[Heather Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very clean and sweet story! It was well written and a quick read, which was a great change of pace for me. Amy is a wonderful story teller and this book is great for all ages.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever felt like you'll never find your special someone? Serena feels that way. She's a mermaid, but she thinks she's defective. She can't sing, and everyone knows that it's through your voice that a mermaid finds her fated mate. But she can swim, so she signs up to be a counselor at Camp Spellbound. Unfortunately for her, she meets Jake, super hot and super nice, but he's a kraken, and everyone knows that mermaids and kraken don't get along.

A non-spicy romance where you get to feel the emotions as Serena struggles against herself and her perceptions of society. Will she allow herself to follow her feelings or will she just have the most miserable summer of her life?

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short and sweet story. I struggled a bit to get into the story as the author seemed to tell more than show. There were a lot of I statements that could have been reworked to show what's going on rather than tell us. That made the flow a bit choppy. This would be cute for middle grade or so in it's simple writing and clean story.

[Jane P. Blast · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Rating this differently as it's not my usual brand of literature

This is some good old fashioned clean fun.
A quick, insta *forbidden* love that was right to the point of a HEA.

3☆s because it was cutie, fast paced and enjoyable.
Excessive use of ! had me screaming dialog in my head lmao

[Katrina]

I think if the characters were around 16 and 18 instead of in their twenties, the book would have made more sense. Serena was a bit immature and was forever running away. The ending felt a bit rushed and too easily resolved. As a YA book, it is alright though.

[Devanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute!

I love this style of fantasy fun romance books! And mermaids have always been my favourite. I love how the different species are portrayed in this series, in definitely getting the next one!

[Zee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this more than I thought I would 😂. A few spelling mistakes here and there, but a pretty enjoyable read all the same.

[Jenni Canedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It is so cute and nothing bad happens! It's such a feel good story and has a happy ending! Love love love this book ❤️

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

No. It really had potential but.... something was just off about it. Like everything they did just annoyed me 😆

[Arianna “Onna” Spain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sweetest book about soulmates I’ve ever read.

[Tabitha Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was super cute! I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading the rest of the series!!

[Amanda Fite · Rating 5 out of 5]

cute story I enjoyed reading it