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Peculiar Tastes #5
The Captive Merman’s Promise
A merman meets the bruja who will change his life . . .
The women in the Palacios family are cursed to always lose their love. Until one day, Amada Palacios uses all her magic to transfer the curse into her own body. Now, Amada wanders the world alone, never getting too close or too intimate with anyone who might have the misfortune to love her. But when the curse begins to ache in ways it never did before, she's desperate to end her agony. Amada travels to Scotland in search of the Grand Master of the Abyss who is said to have a cure for any curse . . . for a price.
Ronán is a merman warrior of a dead kingdom. For decades he's been held captive by the Grand Master-Ronán is the main attraction in the Grand Master's oddities exhibit. Every night the captive merman weeps tears of pearl and sings the call of the deep. Every night he holds on to a sliver of hope that one day his captivity will end.
As Amada and Ronán's fates intertwine in the nights surrounding Samhain, their monsoon romance unravels a secret that will bind them together forever, or forsake them into the endless abyss.
Contains mature themes.
The women in the Palacios family are cursed to always lose their love. Until one day, Amada Palacios uses all her magic to transfer the curse into her own body. Now, Amada wanders the world alone, never getting too close or too intimate with anyone who might have the misfortune to love her. But when the curse begins to ache in ways it never did before, she's desperate to end her agony. Amada travels to Scotland in search of the Grand Master of the Abyss who is said to have a cure for any curse . . . for a price.
Ronán is a merman warrior of a dead kingdom. For decades he's been held captive by the Grand Master-Ronán is the main attraction in the Grand Master's oddities exhibit. Every night the captive merman weeps tears of pearl and sings the call of the deep. Every night he holds on to a sliver of hope that one day his captivity will end.
As Amada and Ronán's fates intertwine in the nights surrounding Samhain, their monsoon romance unravels a secret that will bind them together forever, or forsake them into the endless abyss.
Contains mature themes.
Audible Audio
First published October 4, 2022
61 people are currently reading
2884 people want to read
About the author
Zoey Castile
11 books151 followersZoey Castile was born in Ecuador and raised in Queens, New York. She started writing in her teens and pursued that love in her studies at Hunter College and the University of Montana. For nearly a decade, she worked as a bartender, hostess, and manager in New York City's nightlife. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @ZoeyCastile. You can also email her at ZoeyCastile@gmail.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
March 19, 2023
A fun erotic romance between a bruja with a family curse and a Merman being held under a predatory contract. This was enjoyable and a quick read that gave me what I wanted out of it. It is fairly insta-love, but I just kind of went with it.
April 24, 2023
Bruja with a sexy Merman? That should sell you on the book already. Short and incredibly satisfying.
October 13, 2022
So, it was fine. The villain is the best part of this book. The main couple though... they are so plain and boring.
August 30, 2022
My first dip into the Shadow Market. Pun intended. Slippery and delicious fun. Can't wait for more.
4 stars
3 on the spice scale
4 stars
3 on the spice scale
October 5, 2022
The Captive Merman’s Promise is part of the Peculiar Tastes collab series. This one is basically a witch meets merman romance as they try to unravel her family’s curse and outsmart a sorcerer.
The women in Amada’s family were cursed: they could not hold on to love. So she took the past, present, and future of the curse into herself 18 years ago to save future generations of the women in her family from hurting. She travels to the Scottish Highlands in search of the traveling Shadow Market where she found a lead that might be able to help her lift the curse. There she meets a sorcerer who wants her to stay in exchange for his help and she also meets Rónán, a merman warrior being held captive in a tank. This is a very insta love story, which I mean I expected with a novella, but I wasn’t super sold by their chemistry. It was fine and quick to read, lots of pearls lol I’ll still check out the others in the series.
The women in Amada’s family were cursed: they could not hold on to love. So she took the past, present, and future of the curse into herself 18 years ago to save future generations of the women in her family from hurting. She travels to the Scottish Highlands in search of the traveling Shadow Market where she found a lead that might be able to help her lift the curse. There she meets a sorcerer who wants her to stay in exchange for his help and she also meets Rónán, a merman warrior being held captive in a tank. This is a very insta love story, which I mean I expected with a novella, but I wasn’t super sold by their chemistry. It was fine and quick to read, lots of pearls lol I’ll still check out the others in the series.
October 10, 2022
I read this specifically because it was the group book for the Love in the Night Readathon. The premise wouldn’t normally interest me, but I thought the execution was lovely. I really enjoyed it.
September 18, 2022
I'm sorry but this was just dumb and the sex scenes were so cringe. If I hear channel one more time or how his semen turns into pearls I might barf.
March 5, 2023
cute! loved the merman anatomy lessons
October 18, 2022
More of a 2.5.
This was about Amada and Ronan. Amada is a bruja witch and Ronan is a mermaid from a lost kingdom. He's basically been kept captive by making a bad deal with a powerful man (who happens to be the villain). Amada is considering a deal with this powerful man and Ronan tries to convince her out of it.
It was insta-love steam. It was okay. I liked it for what it was, but I wasn't very invested in this couple. And I thought the ending was too easy.
This was about Amada and Ronan. Amada is a bruja witch and Ronan is a mermaid from a lost kingdom. He's basically been kept captive by making a bad deal with a powerful man (who happens to be the villain). Amada is considering a deal with this powerful man and Ronan tries to convince her out of it.
It was insta-love steam. It was okay. I liked it for what it was, but I wasn't very invested in this couple. And I thought the ending was too easy.
December 22, 2022
This is one of the beautiful books from The Peculiar Tastes Box that I just received! This one fit a prompt for a weapon on a cover for this month. I just love everything mermaid/merman.
This is like a reverse Little Mermaid with a bruja who is also cursed and they are trapped by a villain with his own long running backstory.
The steam was fascinating especially the descriptions cause.. merman! This is a short book but left it a little open to explore more of this world.
This is like a reverse Little Mermaid with a bruja who is also cursed and they are trapped by a villain with his own long running backstory.
The steam was fascinating especially the descriptions cause.. merman! This is a short book but left it a little open to explore more of this world.
November 4, 2022
3.5⭐️
i think this one would’ve been really good as a full length novel to go more into detail about the curse and to develop the relationship some more so that it wasn’t so insta-lovey
i think this one would’ve been really good as a full length novel to go more into detail about the curse and to develop the relationship some more so that it wasn’t so insta-lovey
March 21, 2023
4.5 stars
Read
June 7, 2023⛲️
October 15, 2022
Love learning about mer-people anatomy 👀
Read
October 19, 2022Dnf 21%
Escrita da autora tem um ritmo que me incomoda demais, aquela coisa muito cheia de ponto final que faz parecer que está tudo picado.
Já estava me arrastando por causa da escrita, mas a primeira interação do casal foi uma coisa muito pro lado instalove que me desanima completamente
Escrita da autora tem um ritmo que me incomoda demais, aquela coisa muito cheia de ponto final que faz parecer que está tudo picado.
Já estava me arrastando por causa da escrita, mas a primeira interação do casal foi uma coisa muito pro lado instalove que me desanima completamente
February 16, 2023
Very sweet, very weird little book. 3.5 stars.
May 11, 2023
WAIIITTT I LIKED THIS
January 22, 2025
Aaaah che bello un sirenetto e prigioniero, e lei che praticamente salva lui, e un rapporto ben bilanciato!
November 22, 2022
This had a surprise twist that I quite enjoyed.
March 17, 2024
I love merpeople so much
Read
November 29, 2025This was fine.
May 7, 2023
⭐️3/5 📚109/120
Y’all. Instalove is not my thing. Every time one of the characters was all dreamy and gone for the other, I puked a little. Thankfully, the universe, the whole magical, curse thing, and the monster smut were great.
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
La trope ‘coup de foudre instantané’ n’est pas vraiment mon truc, donc j’ai eu du mal avec l’attirance immédiatement et hyper intense de ces deux personnages l’un pour l’autre. Malgré tout l’univers, les créatures et la magie font qu’il s’agissait d’une bonne lecture.
Y’all. Instalove is not my thing. Every time one of the characters was all dreamy and gone for the other, I puked a little. Thankfully, the universe, the whole magical, curse thing, and the monster smut were great.
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
La trope ‘coup de foudre instantané’ n’est pas vraiment mon truc, donc j’ai eu du mal avec l’attirance immédiatement et hyper intense de ces deux personnages l’un pour l’autre. Malgré tout l’univers, les créatures et la magie font qu’il s’agissait d’une bonne lecture.
April 2, 2023
This was 100% an insta love but you know what, it's a 91 pages book so I don't mind. I read this for the pearl-turning-sperm and ended up legit digging this so much. I wish it had been a full book.
October 10, 2022
This was extremely disappointing. I felt no chemistry between the two. It was like they were just thrown together.
October 30, 2022
Review originally posted at https://smexybooks.com/2022/10/angela...
I enjoyed this book immensely.
In book four, we are back in the Shadow Market after the diversion into the Void haunted house. This book features a sexy Bruja looking for a way to rid herself of a curse laid upon her family centuries before. The Palacios family was cursed to always lose their lovers, until Amada took the entirety of that curse upon herself. She’s been alone for years, never even trying to get too close to anyone, knowing she would just lose them. But lately, her curse has become a painful ache in her body, and she needs answers to how to stop it. So she heads to the Shadow Market and an audience with The Grand Master of the Abyss.
There she meets a sexy merman, who is held captive by the Grand Master and is a featured performer in his oddities exhibit.
Like several of the previous installments in this series, this book features both instalust and instalove, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Lots of hot merman sex, with and without his tail, between two people looking for love and acceptance. The wrap-up of the conflict and HEA was pretty nice too.
CW- death off-page of a loved one, forced sex work, blood, gore
I enjoyed this book immensely.
In book four, we are back in the Shadow Market after the diversion into the Void haunted house. This book features a sexy Bruja looking for a way to rid herself of a curse laid upon her family centuries before. The Palacios family was cursed to always lose their lovers, until Amada took the entirety of that curse upon herself. She’s been alone for years, never even trying to get too close to anyone, knowing she would just lose them. But lately, her curse has become a painful ache in her body, and she needs answers to how to stop it. So she heads to the Shadow Market and an audience with The Grand Master of the Abyss.
There she meets a sexy merman, who is held captive by the Grand Master and is a featured performer in his oddities exhibit.
Like several of the previous installments in this series, this book features both instalust and instalove, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Lots of hot merman sex, with and without his tail, between two people looking for love and acceptance. The wrap-up of the conflict and HEA was pretty nice too.
CW- death off-page of a loved one, forced sex work, blood, gore
September 24, 2022
A bruja who is cursed to lose anyone who falls in love with her and a merman who is trapped in a contract after getting his heart broken. Amada Palacios has taken on the entire curse that has plagued the women in her family... at first things were fine, with only marks being left on her but recently she’s begun to feel unbearable pain. Now she has ventured to Scotland in search of the Grand Master of the Abyss who is said to have a cure for any curse...for a price. He offers her this: in exchange for 10 years of her life he will find a cure for her curse. She has the night to think it over, and that’s when she meets Rónán, a merman who had made a bargain with the Grand Master and is now his slave, put on display and forced to do everything he says. After Amada saves Rónán they feel a connection... but this does not go unnoticed by the Grand Master who wants Amada desperately... and he sends Rónán to convince her to take the deal... yet he can’t. Rónán is a merman warrior of a dead kingdom, he made the bargain for someone he loved only for them to break his heart... and now he is being held captive, yet Amada is the first person to capture his attention after all these years. Now Rónán and Amada must figure out how to break her curse, free him from his contract, and find out why The Grand Master is so obsessed with Amada. This was a cute read and I enjoyed the romance between two characters who have both been hurt by love and can recognize the pain that they’ve both experienced.
November 15, 2022
This was... not good. I realized this very early, but I persisted for three reasons: (1) I paid money into the kickstarter, (2) I almost never give up on books and this one was short, and (3) I hoped it would improve.
It did not.
The beginning happened far too quickly. This is the shortest of the novellas, and for what? Poor pages were needed. I was never given the time or reason to care about either Amada or Rónán. No chemistry in my opinion.
This was full of spelling and grammar errors. So full, I'm determined that literally nobody edited it. Not even the other authors. Ffs, for the next kickstarter, I will edit FOR FREE to avoid this mess of errors.
Also, this ticked a lot of boxes for words that should not be in sex scenes. Number one was "rump". Was it only used twice? Yes, but that's word that'll take anybody out of it. Also tired of referring to a woman's vagina as "her entrance". Phallus, likewise, not a sexy word. And don't get me started on the constant description of Rónán's "pearlescent come".
So why am I even giving this a second star? Literally because of Ammon (the Grand Warlock). At the very least he was a good villain, what with his clear backstory and motives. There was potential in this, but it read like the author just didn't want to put the effort in to reach it.
Zoey Castile, if you read this, please know I would love if you gave another shot at this. Edit it further, I would help. For free. My perfectionist ass would fix every spelling or grammar mistake. This could be so good, but it needs a lot of work.
Thankfully, I've heard this is the worst of the novellas, though that's got to be a low, low bar.
So, there. A generous two stars. I give one star to books I give up on entirely.
Peculiar Tastes:
The Death God's Sacrifice - 4 ⭐️
The Demon's Bargain - 3.75 ⭐️
The Hellmouth Guardian's Lover - 3 ⭐️
The Captive Merman's Promise - 2 ⭐️
It did not.
The beginning happened far too quickly. This is the shortest of the novellas, and for what? Poor pages were needed. I was never given the time or reason to care about either Amada or Rónán. No chemistry in my opinion.
This was full of spelling and grammar errors. So full, I'm determined that literally nobody edited it. Not even the other authors. Ffs, for the next kickstarter, I will edit FOR FREE to avoid this mess of errors.
Also, this ticked a lot of boxes for words that should not be in sex scenes. Number one was "rump". Was it only used twice? Yes, but that's word that'll take anybody out of it. Also tired of referring to a woman's vagina as "her entrance". Phallus, likewise, not a sexy word. And don't get me started on the constant description of Rónán's "pearlescent come".
So why am I even giving this a second star? Literally because of Ammon (the Grand Warlock). At the very least he was a good villain, what with his clear backstory and motives. There was potential in this, but it read like the author just didn't want to put the effort in to reach it.
Zoey Castile, if you read this, please know I would love if you gave another shot at this. Edit it further, I would help. For free. My perfectionist ass would fix every spelling or grammar mistake. This could be so good, but it needs a lot of work.
Thankfully, I've heard this is the worst of the novellas, though that's got to be a low, low bar.
So, there. A generous two stars. I give one star to books I give up on entirely.
Peculiar Tastes:
The Death God's Sacrifice - 4 ⭐️
The Demon's Bargain - 3.75 ⭐️
The Hellmouth Guardian's Lover - 3 ⭐️
The Captive Merman's Promise - 2 ⭐️
September 2, 2022
This one was really sweet - a bruja carrying a family curse looking to mitigate/remove/something it considers taking a deal from the Warlock of the Abyss...except on the way out she sees a captive merman being tormented by children. And it's...curiosity? lust? at first sight.
And then in a Little Mermaid-like twist, the Warlock turns Ronan "human" and sends him to convince Amada to sign the contract (the Warlock definitely has ulterior motives). Ronan and Amada kind of find kindred spirits in each other, in sharing their stories of their trauma - and getting some sexytimes (less "kinky" than the Nordbak/Robert/Herrera titles that use more bondage or D/s in their scenes but definitely "kinky" in the way alien romances are kinky). The author resolves the plot problem of the contract with the Warlock in a really interesting way, very clever.
And then in a Little Mermaid-like twist, the Warlock turns Ronan "human" and sends him to convince Amada to sign the contract (the Warlock definitely has ulterior motives). Ronan and Amada kind of find kindred spirits in each other, in sharing their stories of their trauma - and getting some sexytimes (less "kinky" than the Nordbak/Robert/Herrera titles that use more bondage or D/s in their scenes but definitely "kinky" in the way alien romances are kinky). The author resolves the plot problem of the contract with the Warlock in a really interesting way, very clever.
October 31, 2022
Very instalove bruja-merman romance with a new kind of pearl necklace. Enjoyable enough but it needed more of an emotional arc. It also includes villain POV, which is not my thing.
Characters: Amada is a 35 year old (possibly bisexual) Latina bruja. Rónán is an approximately 2000 year old merman warrior with nipple piercings.
Content notes: near-death experience (FMC), drowning, MMC held in captivity, torture (MMC is shocked if he doesn’t behave), murder, bullying, past death of MMC’s family, past death of FMC’s boyfriend (fell off rooftop), scars from punishments and past battles, condomless sex (FMC takes birth control tea), masturbation, on page sex, anal play, ocean sex, alcohol, gendered pejorative, gender essentialist language
Characters: Amada is a 35 year old (possibly bisexual) Latina bruja. Rónán is an approximately 2000 year old merman warrior with nipple piercings.
Content notes: near-death experience (FMC), drowning, MMC held in captivity, torture (MMC is shocked if he doesn’t behave), murder, bullying, past death of MMC’s family, past death of FMC’s boyfriend (fell off rooftop), scars from punishments and past battles, condomless sex (FMC takes birth control tea), masturbation, on page sex, anal play, ocean sex, alcohol, gendered pejorative, gender essentialist language
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews