Under the Riptides

by Tara Eldana

He’s waited for her for centuries, and now it’s almost too late… Adrian, a merman and heir to the throne of Crystal City, lives deep under the ocean riptides. He’s waited a lifetime for Mara, his destined mate, and now time is running out. She must come willingly with him to the city before the deadline or he forfeits his right to rule. The only problem? Mara thinks she’s human and is deathly afraid of the water. She belongs with him, but he’s asking more than she can give… Mara has had an unreasonable fear of water for as long as she can remember. Thinking herself a simple Kindergarten teacher from Michigan, she believes the mystery man she makes love to when she sleeps is only a figment of her lonely imagination. On vacation in Hawaii, Mara is thrilled to discover her dream lover is real flesh and blood—until he asks her to forsake everything she knows and follow him under the riptides, the very last place she wants to go.

136 pages, Paperback

Published November 25, 2015

About the author

Tara Eldana is a recently retired, multi-award-winning staff writer for a weekly community newspaper chain in metro Detroit. She became hooked on romance fiction when her eleventh grade English teacher rejected the book report she wrote, saying the book was too easy for her, and insisting she read and report on Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca."

After complications after surgery 10 years ago, and covering numerous murder trials and other crime stories on her beat, she decided to write what she loves to read - stories with happy endings.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll start off by saying that the idea behind this book is fairly original and it really had some potential. Mermaids haven't been very explored in mainstream paranormal fiction, so I thought that was a refreshing change.

There are quite a few problems with the book, though. The writing has a tendency to be clunky, especially with the dialogue between characters or descriptions of scenes. Having the male lead (Adrian) not speak English was an interesting thought, but not executed very well - it came across like Tarzan-speak.

Mara's acceptance of Adrian as a mer-person and her soulmate was very fast and hard to believe. We went from, "Oh, that guy's hot" to "I love him FOREVER" in a really short span of time. Additionally, Adrian was incredibly possessive of Mara in a way that wasn't attractive and quite a bit disturbing.

Overall, the characters weren't compelling (Adrian was super-caveman Alpha, while Mara was whiny and way too accepting), the writing was mediocre, and the plot left quite a bit to be desired. Again, the idea was interesting, but in the end, this was more like the ocean version of Twilight.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars for this different story!!

Review copy kindly provided via Reading Alley in exchange for an honest review

That was an interesting and different short story with quite fast pace but some things were a bit strange for me, well it was definitely not a common idea that's why i liked it, the development of it though it wasn't so convincing for me. Mara is a kindergarten teacher and decides to take a vacation ok this one i get it the thing that was a bit off is that she meets Adrian who is a merman/sea creature and she learns that and everything is ok so easily, i find it very difficult for a person to learn something like that and accept it so easily. I think if she was a little confused or having many doubts about it, it would be a lot better. Having said that, i liked the twist with her character in the story and i found very cute when Adrian didn't understand many english words.

[Jeremy Reppy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a light-hearted romance involving a human and merman, where the human (Mara) has to overcome her fears and challenge her self-perception, but she has only a limited time to decide whether to accept what Adrian (the merman) has to offer, as he is destined to rule if she is willing to be his of her own volition. I would give this story 3.5 stars. One criticism is that Mara cannot swim and is supposed to be afraid of the water, but that fear is overcome to easily/quickly. There are also hints that her mother, who is suffering from dementia, might have some insight into why Mara is fated to be with Adrian, but this is not further developed.

I received a copy of the ebook from Reading Alley in exchange for a review.