What do you think?
Rate this book
The Merman #1-5
The Merman Boxset: Books 1-5
The Merman is a 5-book gay paranormal romance series from Raythe Reign. This series contains psychic powers, a mostly-naked merman lover, an evil scientist, and true love beneath the waves.
Gabriel Braven’s destined love is a merman, Prince Casillus Nerion. Problem is Gabriel doesn’t believe mermen are real. And worse, Gabriel’s parents died of drowning so he has no love for the sea.
But the sea is Gabriel’s destiny in more ways than love. Caught by high tide in a cave, Gabriel drowns, but does not die. Casillus brings him to the surface, but tells Gabriel that he must return to the waves or perish.
For Gabriel is becoming a merman.
NOTE: There are audiobooks and paperbacks for the individual novels. There is not for the boxset.
Raythe Reign produces escapist, romantic M/M shifter, fantasy, scifi, adventure, and urban fantasy books and graphic novels.
Gabriel Braven’s destined love is a merman, Prince Casillus Nerion. Problem is Gabriel doesn’t believe mermen are real. And worse, Gabriel’s parents died of drowning so he has no love for the sea.
But the sea is Gabriel’s destiny in more ways than love. Caught by high tide in a cave, Gabriel drowns, but does not die. Casillus brings him to the surface, but tells Gabriel that he must return to the waves or perish.
For Gabriel is becoming a merman.
NOTE: There are audiobooks and paperbacks for the individual novels. There is not for the boxset.
Raythe Reign produces escapist, romantic M/M shifter, fantasy, scifi, adventure, and urban fantasy books and graphic novels.
553 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 14, 2019
145 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
X. Aratare
90 books712 followersX. Aratare is the pseudonym for Raythe Reign's Gay(M/M) books.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 7, 2022
4.5 stars, I thoroughly enjoyed this whole series!! The end had me crying happy and sad tears. Gabriel and Prince Casillus made a sweet couple and Corey was a true friend to Gabriel through everything he went through. I can't forget Gabriel's sweet grandmother who took care of Gabriel when his parents were killed and changed her whole life around so she could help her grandson who she loved like her own son. ;-D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2023
3.4 stars (3/5 -3 stars and 2/5 - 4 stars)
The climax and the harsh ending actually saved this rather dragging series. I went into this series aware that there are 5 short stories with cliffhanger endings in between and I treated it more like a long novel divided into 5 parts. It had a good start and my fascination with deep sea fantasy helped with that but as it progressed, it felt dragging. I can compare this to a bedtime story except it's for adults.
The best parts of this story were the intense scenes in the settlement, the explorations in the water, and the battle at the end. Which is sad because I wanted it to be more. (Maybe, the other Mer stories will have that culmination.) There are not much merfolk MM stories and that attracted me to read this. I can imagine, there are so many things you can experiment on in a vast blue deep sea but though this book didn't lack in imagery, it was restricted by the MCs attachment to the land and his reservations about the water.
Despite the opportunities missed, this book was written really well. I empathized a lot with Gabe's transition and sometimes felt out of breath just from the descriptions. Their scene in the water and the imagery of their movements made it more graceful and beautiful instead of hot and steamy, which was a actually a plus. I didn't connect much with Casillus since everything is in Gabe's POV and he's more focused on his troubles and the looming danger but he seemed wonderful in all his scenes.
The climax and the harsh ending actually saved this rather dragging series. I went into this series aware that there are 5 short stories with cliffhanger endings in between and I treated it more like a long novel divided into 5 parts. It had a good start and my fascination with deep sea fantasy helped with that but as it progressed, it felt dragging. I can compare this to a bedtime story except it's for adults.
The best parts of this story were the intense scenes in the settlement, the explorations in the water, and the battle at the end. Which is sad because I wanted it to be more. (Maybe, the other Mer stories will have that culmination.) There are not much merfolk MM stories and that attracted me to read this. I can imagine, there are so many things you can experiment on in a vast blue deep sea but though this book didn't lack in imagery, it was restricted by the MCs attachment to the land and his reservations about the water.
Despite the opportunities missed, this book was written really well. I empathized a lot with Gabe's transition and sometimes felt out of breath just from the descriptions. Their scene in the water and the imagery of their movements made it more graceful and beautiful instead of hot and steamy, which was a actually a plus. I didn't connect much with Casillus since everything is in Gabe's POV and he's more focused on his troubles and the looming danger but he seemed wonderful in all his scenes.
February 21, 2020
A while ago I read the first book of this box set, “Transformation,” because of its merfolk theme. At the time, I found the plot interesting with the main character Gabriel Braven learning that he is not human, but transitioning into a Mer (basically, a merman with legs and gills) despite his fear of the sea following a traumatic experience in childhood. By the end though, I found that the dream-sex-scene went overboard in its details for a novella-length first installment in a novella series, and wasn’t overall invested enough to invest the sum necessary in it to keep reading. Having a temporary Kindle Unlimited subscription at the moment, I decided to check and see if the rest of this series was available on it, and sure enough, it was. So I picked up the box set to read.
In brief, the why I picked up “Transformation” and subsequently this box set: the plot of a human, Gabriel Braven, transforming into a Mer(man) with all the physical changes and emotional difficulties that entails is what captured my interest. I stayed for the combination of that and the plot about the tentacled-creature that was a potential help or danger to everyone Gabriel held dear. And I begrudgingly accepted as the books went along that - after all, it is a gay merman romance – there would be explicit sex scenes, usually one per book, each in a different setting/of a different manner. Thankfully the ones after the dream sequence calmed down at first to build back up as Gabriel and his lover, Prince Casillus Nerion, spent more time together, getting comfortable around each other and especially getting Gabriel comfortable with the long-term implications of what was happening to him. (I’m very much of the camp of supporting a strong emotional/intellectual/mental connection where the characters learn to understand each other before any physical stuff starts happening, and this book doesn’t quite hit those notes very well.)
With that background understanding spelled out for where I am coming from, on to the review!
The plot initially seems simple: Gabriel Braven is turning into a Mer, helped along in his transition by the Mer Prince Casillus Nerion, his fated mate, but he has some big mental roadblocks to accepting what his body is doing since he barely survived a boating accident as a child (which his parents did not survive) and fears the ocean and its depths. Gabriel must learn to accept what is happening to him, and then reconcile what that means for his family on land – his grandmother, Grace, and his best (and really, only) friend Corey, the only two people in the world since his parents died with whom he feels kinship. When we meet Gabriel, we learn that for the past year, his health as been declining mysteriously – he is a runner, but he gets tired and winded faster as time passes, and generally feels weak and maladroit all the time. When he is the only one to see a couple drowning, he realizes that he must overcome his fear of the ocean to help them. In so doing, he feels healthier and stronger than he has in ages as soon as he’s in the water, yet he still fears the sea on an almost visceral level. I latched on to every mention of how Gabriel felt in and out of the water, as well as his struggle with letting loose his fear of the ocean depths. Ms. Aratare keeps Gabriel’s physical ailments and improvements quite in the forefront for the first few books, with a steady-feeling idea of his progression from land-walker to ocean-dweller and the stress that puts on the body and mind. From his feeling winded and ungainly on land to the strange sensation of gills appearing on his sides and ease of breathing in the water, she rather deftly keeps the reader apprised of Gabriel’s physical changes. It is only from the fourth and very much in the fifth book of the box set that this element fell to the background (which saddened me), with mentions of Gabriel’s struggle to breathe, for example, only being tacked on as an afterthought, and rarely even represented in his speech through ellipses or dashes within his dialog or anything. Even prior to that, though, there were some things that didn’t quite seem to check out regarding his gills:
“As soon as Gabriel’s gills were completely submerged he started to feel better and let out a sigh of relief. Some strength surged back…” (place 4245, Book 4 Chapter 1)
What about the whole water in the lungs versus air? I assume Casillus just holds water in his and recirculates it to extract every molecule of oxygen while on land, but Gabriel can’t/hasn’t yet, and during that initial transformation he coughed up all the water in his lungs (for the first and only time). So why would just gills appearing without actually seeming to function help him feel so much better? Especially considering how advanced his transformation was at that point in book 4, I would have expected these elements to be even more noticeable and mentioned. As for Casillus, he made it very clear that he could only stay out of the water for limited amounts of time, though . I didn’t even touch on the emotional struggle Gabriel had to overcome his fear of the dark ocean after what it took from him, I’ll leave that to you, future readers, to discover – though in short, I did find it fulfilling and largely persuasive/believable.
Now to skip to the weakest point – my begrudging acceptance of the explicit sexual scenes in this series. As a novella serialization, it seems there had to be a “reward” for the reader in it for the sex that in each book, there was one sex scene. There was one scene in each book except for book 5, which had two (and at 30% of the box set length, is not surprising). If I couldn’t get this box set/series through Kindle Unlimited, after the scene in the first book and despite my intrigue at the transformation/emotional struggle elements, I would have been turned off from reading more of the story, honestly. As mentioned before, the first scene was a very explicit dream sequence of Gabriel’s which set a very high bar for the level of detail in future scenes. As it was a dream sequence, that balanced out things a bit with the explicitness with a dream-person he did not know yet. Overview of the scenes, rather blunt brief descriptions: book 2’s scene The mental feedback loop of Gabriel and Casillus’ connection played a rather prominent role in these scenes more often than not, and only encouraged the amount of descriptive detail which went into these chapters, as yes, each joining basically got its own chapter – to set the stage and give them room to play. Because of these … ways of doing it … in the scenes, I found them gratuitous more often than not, and taking up more page space than they really needed to serve the purpose of getting Gabriel and Casillus closer and overcoming Gabriel’s fear through his closeness with Casillus.
What I found much more persuasive in getting Gabriel over his fears and feeling closer to Casillus was actually their interactions with Corey, Gabriel’s grandmother Grace, and the whole debacle with the crazed ex-military man trying to summon up a being that brings only madness and death. Vague enough for you? Don’t want to spoil all the fun! (Though you’ll figure things out soon enough, I’m sure, and there’s a big clue in that first spoiler cut above.) It may be “classic”, but having two people get closer through shared traumatic, dangerous events is a consistently effective way to create the sort of trust that Gabriel would need to overcome his fears. It also pushes him to learn about, acknowledge, accept, and embrace who he is – because he is, of course, much more than just a Mer, as Casillus is more than just a Mer, being Prince Casillus. Naturally you can’t have a main character be ordinary even when they are already not ordinary, and Gabriel gets thrown right into the deep end of it. Yet, this plot theme/point ended up growing on me, as it helped flesh out Gabriel as a more complex character and gave him agency and responsibility in this new world he had no choice but to join. It also helped him realize how his land life and ocean life were not mutually exclusive, helping him find the bridge between the two so that losses would not truly be losses, and the gains would far outweigh the general loss. The only bit of this plot point I appreciated somewhat less was how there was a clear hook in there to create a thread in the web of interconnectedness (presumably to Aratare’s other series) – I pretty much groaned as soon as it was named, even though it does thankfully manage to stay in its place in the immediate background to Gabriel’s story, and instead serve as a bolster to help ease Gabriel’s lingering worries for those he cares about.
Long story short, I read this for the transformation/evolution both physical and emotional of Gabriel, and accepted that the sex scenes were going to happen in over-the-top ways. At the end of the day though, The Merman Boxset provided me a nice diversion that I practically inhaled over the course of a few days. It gave me a wild fantastical ride which was easy to digest while still containing some nuggets of depth which I can rarely do without in my reads. Overall it was a fun read, a good way to pass some time, but I can’t see myself re-reading this series – I feel rather sated by what it had to offer, and have no inclination to seek a continuation in this world/series (though there is one, following Aemrys for those interested, which it seems Aratare has recently published).
*Nitpicking Notes :
Favorite quotes:
“Authors don’t get to say what the story is about. They might intend something, but the subconscious offers a lot more for the reader to see and interpret,” - Place 427, Book 1 Chapter 2
Love the moment, Gabriel. Do not waste it on fears for the future, Casillus said. – place 2365, Book 2 Chapter 7
Typos under a spoiler cut in the comments, as I ran out of characters, oops!
In brief, the why I picked up “Transformation” and subsequently this box set: the plot of a human, Gabriel Braven, transforming into a Mer(man) with all the physical changes and emotional difficulties that entails is what captured my interest. I stayed for the combination of that and the plot about the tentacled-creature that was a potential help or danger to everyone Gabriel held dear. And I begrudgingly accepted as the books went along that - after all, it is a gay merman romance – there would be explicit sex scenes, usually one per book, each in a different setting/of a different manner. Thankfully the ones after the dream sequence calmed down at first to build back up as Gabriel and his lover, Prince Casillus Nerion, spent more time together, getting comfortable around each other and especially getting Gabriel comfortable with the long-term implications of what was happening to him. (I’m very much of the camp of supporting a strong emotional/intellectual/mental connection where the characters learn to understand each other before any physical stuff starts happening, and this book doesn’t quite hit those notes very well.)
With that background understanding spelled out for where I am coming from, on to the review!
The plot initially seems simple: Gabriel Braven is turning into a Mer, helped along in his transition by the Mer Prince Casillus Nerion, his fated mate, but he has some big mental roadblocks to accepting what his body is doing since he barely survived a boating accident as a child (which his parents did not survive) and fears the ocean and its depths. Gabriel must learn to accept what is happening to him, and then reconcile what that means for his family on land – his grandmother, Grace, and his best (and really, only) friend Corey, the only two people in the world since his parents died with whom he feels kinship. When we meet Gabriel, we learn that for the past year, his health as been declining mysteriously – he is a runner, but he gets tired and winded faster as time passes, and generally feels weak and maladroit all the time. When he is the only one to see a couple drowning, he realizes that he must overcome his fear of the ocean to help them. In so doing, he feels healthier and stronger than he has in ages as soon as he’s in the water, yet he still fears the sea on an almost visceral level. I latched on to every mention of how Gabriel felt in and out of the water, as well as his struggle with letting loose his fear of the ocean depths. Ms. Aratare keeps Gabriel’s physical ailments and improvements quite in the forefront for the first few books, with a steady-feeling idea of his progression from land-walker to ocean-dweller and the stress that puts on the body and mind. From his feeling winded and ungainly on land to the strange sensation of gills appearing on his sides and ease of breathing in the water, she rather deftly keeps the reader apprised of Gabriel’s physical changes. It is only from the fourth and very much in the fifth book of the box set that this element fell to the background (which saddened me), with mentions of Gabriel’s struggle to breathe, for example, only being tacked on as an afterthought, and rarely even represented in his speech through ellipses or dashes within his dialog or anything. Even prior to that, though, there were some things that didn’t quite seem to check out regarding his gills:
“As soon as Gabriel’s gills were completely submerged he started to feel better and let out a sigh of relief. Some strength surged back…” (place 4245, Book 4 Chapter 1)
What about the whole water in the lungs versus air? I assume Casillus just holds water in his and recirculates it to extract every molecule of oxygen while on land, but Gabriel can’t/hasn’t yet, and during that initial transformation he coughed up all the water in his lungs (for the first and only time). So why would just gills appearing without actually seeming to function help him feel so much better? Especially considering how advanced his transformation was at that point in book 4, I would have expected these elements to be even more noticeable and mentioned. As for Casillus, he made it very clear that he could only stay out of the water for limited amounts of time, though . I didn’t even touch on the emotional struggle Gabriel had to overcome his fear of the dark ocean after what it took from him, I’ll leave that to you, future readers, to discover – though in short, I did find it fulfilling and largely persuasive/believable.
Now to skip to the weakest point – my begrudging acceptance of the explicit sexual scenes in this series. As a novella serialization, it seems there had to be a “reward” for the reader in it for the sex that in each book, there was one sex scene. There was one scene in each book except for book 5, which had two (and at 30% of the box set length, is not surprising). If I couldn’t get this box set/series through Kindle Unlimited, after the scene in the first book and despite my intrigue at the transformation/emotional struggle elements, I would have been turned off from reading more of the story, honestly. As mentioned before, the first scene was a very explicit dream sequence of Gabriel’s which set a very high bar for the level of detail in future scenes. As it was a dream sequence, that balanced out things a bit with the explicitness with a dream-person he did not know yet. Overview of the scenes, rather blunt brief descriptions: book 2’s scene The mental feedback loop of Gabriel and Casillus’ connection played a rather prominent role in these scenes more often than not, and only encouraged the amount of descriptive detail which went into these chapters, as yes, each joining basically got its own chapter – to set the stage and give them room to play. Because of these … ways of doing it … in the scenes, I found them gratuitous more often than not, and taking up more page space than they really needed to serve the purpose of getting Gabriel and Casillus closer and overcoming Gabriel’s fear through his closeness with Casillus.
What I found much more persuasive in getting Gabriel over his fears and feeling closer to Casillus was actually their interactions with Corey, Gabriel’s grandmother Grace, and the whole debacle with the crazed ex-military man trying to summon up a being that brings only madness and death. Vague enough for you? Don’t want to spoil all the fun! (Though you’ll figure things out soon enough, I’m sure, and there’s a big clue in that first spoiler cut above.) It may be “classic”, but having two people get closer through shared traumatic, dangerous events is a consistently effective way to create the sort of trust that Gabriel would need to overcome his fears. It also pushes him to learn about, acknowledge, accept, and embrace who he is – because he is, of course, much more than just a Mer, as Casillus is more than just a Mer, being Prince Casillus. Naturally you can’t have a main character be ordinary even when they are already not ordinary, and Gabriel gets thrown right into the deep end of it. Yet, this plot theme/point ended up growing on me, as it helped flesh out Gabriel as a more complex character and gave him agency and responsibility in this new world he had no choice but to join. It also helped him realize how his land life and ocean life were not mutually exclusive, helping him find the bridge between the two so that losses would not truly be losses, and the gains would far outweigh the general loss. The only bit of this plot point I appreciated somewhat less was how there was a clear hook in there to create a thread in the web of interconnectedness (presumably to Aratare’s other series) – I pretty much groaned as soon as it was named, even though it does thankfully manage to stay in its place in the immediate background to Gabriel’s story, and instead serve as a bolster to help ease Gabriel’s lingering worries for those he cares about.
Long story short, I read this for the transformation/evolution both physical and emotional of Gabriel, and accepted that the sex scenes were going to happen in over-the-top ways. At the end of the day though, The Merman Boxset provided me a nice diversion that I practically inhaled over the course of a few days. It gave me a wild fantastical ride which was easy to digest while still containing some nuggets of depth which I can rarely do without in my reads. Overall it was a fun read, a good way to pass some time, but I can’t see myself re-reading this series – I feel rather sated by what it had to offer, and have no inclination to seek a continuation in this world/series (though there is one, following Aemrys for those interested, which it seems Aratare has recently published).
*Nitpicking Notes :
Favorite quotes:
“Authors don’t get to say what the story is about. They might intend something, but the subconscious offers a lot more for the reader to see and interpret,” - Place 427, Book 1 Chapter 2
Love the moment, Gabriel. Do not waste it on fears for the future, Casillus said. – place 2365, Book 2 Chapter 7
Typos under a spoiler cut in the comments, as I ran out of characters, oops!
January 24, 2020
It's definitely better to read as a set box since the books end up in cliffhanger most of the time. There were a few things I wasn't too fan of but the overall story was good.
Reviewing soon!
Reviewing soon!
September 2, 2020
O.M.G. Loved every minute.
I actually ordered the paperbacks before I even finished the boxset.
I haven't had great luck with 'boxsets' or 'bundles' lately. I've more often read 1 or 2 stories of the set and then abandoned the series, because it just hasn't grabbed me. That wasn't a problem in this series. The Merman was an amazing series from start to finish, 5* for every story.
Book 1 began with a brutal start, an intriguing concept, and an MC that was a perfect bland between sympathetic, intriguing, and travelling on a journey I wanted to follow. Gabriel is a brilliant MC, and it was lovely to explore his personal journey. My heart broke with that brutal beginning, but worked well to explain how and why the following events took place. I especially loved that his fear of water wasn't instantly cured, just because of what he discovered, but that Casillus worked with him to face his fears and slowly work through it. He never shamed or judged him for it, but understood, supported and accepted his fear.
Corey won my heart, right from the start. He was such a happy place, a beautiful soul and a lovely character that I would love to read more about him. I see he features in the next series, so I've got my fingers crossed. But, at this rate, I'd read even an MF story if Corey was the central character. Though I still have my hopes he'll get his own romance, eventually. Corey is a total peanut gallery, but I desperately love him.
I loved how the backstory of each character, their personalities, and the storyline was sprinkled evenly between all 5 books, and how it had multiple sub-plots that were resolved and/or further explored in each book. It was so intriguing, keeping a cliffhanger ending to each book within the series. I'm so glad I bought the boxset, so I didn't have to wait even a minute between ending one book and starting the other.
When it comes to the Mer as characters, I utterly ADORED the fact that they weren't fish-people. There were no fins, no scales, no weird biology or anatomy quirks. They were just human-shaped people, who had gills on their sides to let them breathe. Sure, they had benefits, like endurance, strength and telepathy, but they weren't super creatures, or fish. They were just like a weird kind of Origin of Species evolution of humans.
I loved the ending! I love knowing that there are more books to come, but I'll have to re-read this series nearer their release date, since it seems a while before they'll find their way to general release.
Problems?
I found some of the sex scenes were written a bit more floral for my taste, and certainly more formal than the other passages preceding it.
The constant recaps at the beginning of each book were a little frustrating, when reading it in a boxset. Some simple edits, before releasing it as a series boxset, would have eliminated pages of info dumps and explanations that weren't needed in this format. I ended up skimming maybe 3-4 pages at the start of each book, from Book 2 onwards, stopping when dialogue interrupted the info dumps. Then, when referring to things from the previous book - as each ended on a cliffhanger and picked up immediately from that spot in the next one - there were info dumps to explain characters and/or situations that had preceded.
However, despite those issues, I LOVED the entire series. From characterisation, plotting, how it the story unravelled, pacing, and the twists. It was perfectly done and I look forward to reading more. I see the note at the end says there is more to come - so far, a short story on the author's website that is free to buy, and 2 follow-up series that require you to be a member. I'll be waiting until those two series become available to the general public, after the note of how this series changed from the original concept on the website to the published version.
Favourite Quote:
"Hey, we've got to get you interested in someone. Maybe a merman is the trick," Corey said.
"With my fear of water, I'm sure that's just the thing for me. Talk about star-crossed love," Gabriel said.
I actually ordered the paperbacks before I even finished the boxset.
I haven't had great luck with 'boxsets' or 'bundles' lately. I've more often read 1 or 2 stories of the set and then abandoned the series, because it just hasn't grabbed me. That wasn't a problem in this series. The Merman was an amazing series from start to finish, 5* for every story.
Book 1 began with a brutal start, an intriguing concept, and an MC that was a perfect bland between sympathetic, intriguing, and travelling on a journey I wanted to follow. Gabriel is a brilliant MC, and it was lovely to explore his personal journey. My heart broke with that brutal beginning, but worked well to explain how and why the following events took place. I especially loved that his fear of water wasn't instantly cured, just because of what he discovered, but that Casillus worked with him to face his fears and slowly work through it. He never shamed or judged him for it, but understood, supported and accepted his fear.
Corey won my heart, right from the start. He was such a happy place, a beautiful soul and a lovely character that I would love to read more about him. I see he features in the next series, so I've got my fingers crossed. But, at this rate, I'd read even an MF story if Corey was the central character. Though I still have my hopes he'll get his own romance, eventually. Corey is a total peanut gallery, but I desperately love him.
I loved how the backstory of each character, their personalities, and the storyline was sprinkled evenly between all 5 books, and how it had multiple sub-plots that were resolved and/or further explored in each book. It was so intriguing, keeping a cliffhanger ending to each book within the series. I'm so glad I bought the boxset, so I didn't have to wait even a minute between ending one book and starting the other.
When it comes to the Mer as characters, I utterly ADORED the fact that they weren't fish-people. There were no fins, no scales, no weird biology or anatomy quirks. They were just human-shaped people, who had gills on their sides to let them breathe. Sure, they had benefits, like endurance, strength and telepathy, but they weren't super creatures, or fish. They were just like a weird kind of Origin of Species evolution of humans.
I loved the ending! I love knowing that there are more books to come, but I'll have to re-read this series nearer their release date, since it seems a while before they'll find their way to general release.
Problems?
I found some of the sex scenes were written a bit more floral for my taste, and certainly more formal than the other passages preceding it.
The constant recaps at the beginning of each book were a little frustrating, when reading it in a boxset. Some simple edits, before releasing it as a series boxset, would have eliminated pages of info dumps and explanations that weren't needed in this format. I ended up skimming maybe 3-4 pages at the start of each book, from Book 2 onwards, stopping when dialogue interrupted the info dumps. Then, when referring to things from the previous book - as each ended on a cliffhanger and picked up immediately from that spot in the next one - there were info dumps to explain characters and/or situations that had preceded.
However, despite those issues, I LOVED the entire series. From characterisation, plotting, how it the story unravelled, pacing, and the twists. It was perfectly done and I look forward to reading more. I see the note at the end says there is more to come - so far, a short story on the author's website that is free to buy, and 2 follow-up series that require you to be a member. I'll be waiting until those two series become available to the general public, after the note of how this series changed from the original concept on the website to the published version.
Favourite Quote:
"Hey, we've got to get you interested in someone. Maybe a merman is the trick," Corey said.
"With my fear of water, I'm sure that's just the thing for me. Talk about star-crossed love," Gabriel said.
February 8, 2021
Excellent!
When one and sea meet and mate... Gabriel nearly drown as a child during a storm that killed his parents. It's not till he is an adult and nearly drown again that he learns he is really a merman, a transitioning merman. Together with his mate, Prince Cassillus, and his best friend, human Corey, must they outsmart an ex military man intent on destroying the monster of the deep a protector of the Mer, Cthulhu.
KU, box set of a serial read, paranormal, mermen, magic, fated mate, royalty, action, death of a side character
When one and sea meet and mate... Gabriel nearly drown as a child during a storm that killed his parents. It's not till he is an adult and nearly drown again that he learns he is really a merman, a transitioning merman. Together with his mate, Prince Cassillus, and his best friend, human Corey, must they outsmart an ex military man intent on destroying the monster of the deep a protector of the Mer, Cthulhu.
KU, box set of a serial read, paranormal, mermen, magic, fated mate, royalty, action, death of a side character
July 17, 2020
Adventure, Romance, Yaoi Love, all-in-1
I have read many different love stories now...Romances really. Because I would call this a Yaoi Romance. I read parts 1-5 and I thought that Gabriel and Casillus' story was the best I have read in a long time. Actually through 1-5 there was not as much love-making as you would think but when it was in the story it was fantastic. Now why didn't it have to be there like so many seed up stories? Because this one had a storyline. An incredible one at that.
The in between novella had much more love making, in fact that is pretty much mostly all it was. But it was like an Epilogue to the Epilogue before starting Merman 2.
I love this story, I love the characters, (Cory is a perfect best friend for Gabriel. Brings him out of his shell after his parents death and isn't afraid to just give friend love.) READ!!!
I have read many different love stories now...Romances really. Because I would call this a Yaoi Romance. I read parts 1-5 and I thought that Gabriel and Casillus' story was the best I have read in a long time. Actually through 1-5 there was not as much love-making as you would think but when it was in the story it was fantastic. Now why didn't it have to be there like so many seed up stories? Because this one had a storyline. An incredible one at that.
The in between novella had much more love making, in fact that is pretty much mostly all it was. But it was like an Epilogue to the Epilogue before starting Merman 2.
I love this story, I love the characters, (Cory is a perfect best friend for Gabriel. Brings him out of his shell after his parents death and isn't afraid to just give friend love.) READ!!!
November 24, 2023
All You Need Is Love
This story really warmed my heart. I began reading while on my first cruise, and by the time I finished Book 1, I had to get the rest of it. The primary thing that I love about this story is the theme of love. The love Gabriel has for his family, friends, and for his lover Casillas is just so beautiful. It reminded me of cherishing the ones I love in my life. There are some typos and some of the information is repeated, but the story is solid and creative. And there is also a charm to it. I am also happy that the story continues on the Raythe Reign website! Thank you so much for this beautiful story.
This story really warmed my heart. I began reading while on my first cruise, and by the time I finished Book 1, I had to get the rest of it. The primary thing that I love about this story is the theme of love. The love Gabriel has for his family, friends, and for his lover Casillas is just so beautiful. It reminded me of cherishing the ones I love in my life. There are some typos and some of the information is repeated, but the story is solid and creative. And there is also a charm to it. I am also happy that the story continues on the Raythe Reign website! Thank you so much for this beautiful story.
April 15, 2021
The best romance novel series I've read in a long time. This series held mystery, adventure, drama and most importantly love. The author really immerses you fathomes below into the world of the Mer. I'll gladly re-read these books over and over again
July 30, 2021
Amazing
I read all 5 books in less than 3 days. I could not get enough of the book. It’s strange though that throughout the book everything took place in literally less than 5 days or so. I can’t wait to read the next series starring Amerys.
I read all 5 books in less than 3 days. I could not get enough of the book. It’s strange though that throughout the book everything took place in literally less than 5 days or so. I can’t wait to read the next series starring Amerys.
September 7, 2020
Exciting, fun, and sexy! Great characters! Loved it :)
May 18, 2021
Great read, fantastic characters and relationships and just enough quirkiness to keep me interested. A truly lovely love story.
December 21, 2021
Truly wonderful
The author brought a vibrant world of dynamic characters and thrilling mystery to life. It was a pleasure to immerse myself in the world created by X. Aratare.
The author brought a vibrant world of dynamic characters and thrilling mystery to life. It was a pleasure to immerse myself in the world created by X. Aratare.
April 1, 2025
This was not I was expecting when I started the series. It went to places I was not planning to go to with a mermaid romance. Anyways it was a pleasant surprise
January 18, 2020
4,5 stars
I have mixed feelings. I loved reading this series, but at the end it has lost the magic for me. I loved the first 3 book, I really loved them. Gabriel and Casillus were adorable and the whole mermen thing was cute, but then the romance and cuteness turned into some WWIII, war between the mermen and humen, and everything was just too much and not enough mermen times and lovely scenes between the lovebirds aka Gabriel and Casillus.
I loved them, and I just wanted to read about them when they're together and/or happy, read about the mermen things. I loved when Casillus showed to Gabriel the mermen city and said everything to him about being a mermen, those scenes were really good. And I loved the sexy scenes too! Those were really good!
The first 3 book was really short, the 4th a bit longer but the 5th was the longest and I don't know why. It was boring, and just too much. If the 5th were shorter I think I loved it more.
I love mermen, and loved this series too. I really recommend this series. But best if you read the boxed set because the books are really short and ends in cliffhanger.
And the biggest probleme, the one thing I missed - seeing a real mermen. I mean really, they are just naked men who can live and breath underwater? No mermen tail at all?! :(
I have mixed feelings. I loved reading this series, but at the end it has lost the magic for me. I loved the first 3 book, I really loved them. Gabriel and Casillus were adorable and the whole mermen thing was cute, but then the romance and cuteness turned into some WWIII, war between the mermen and humen, and everything was just too much and not enough mermen times and lovely scenes between the lovebirds aka Gabriel and Casillus.
I loved them, and I just wanted to read about them when they're together and/or happy, read about the mermen things. I loved when Casillus showed to Gabriel the mermen city and said everything to him about being a mermen, those scenes were really good. And I loved the sexy scenes too! Those were really good!
The first 3 book was really short, the 4th a bit longer but the 5th was the longest and I don't know why. It was boring, and just too much. If the 5th were shorter I think I loved it more.
I love mermen, and loved this series too. I really recommend this series. But best if you read the boxed set because the books are really short and ends in cliffhanger.
And the biggest probleme, the one thing I missed - seeing a real mermen. I mean really, they are just naked men who can live and breath underwater? No mermen tail at all?! :(
February 9, 2023
So this is basically the sexy m/m version of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth": immortal aquatic race with connections to Cthulhu and a penchant for gold jewelry mate with humans and produce hybrid offspring who gradually transform. Except they're all hot.
To be honest, I think romance authors really need to stay away from Lovecraft. Cthulhu , SERIOUSLY? As with Jordan Hawk's Whyborne & Griffin series, this is really just urban fantasy/paranormal romance with names from Lovecraft attached. If you actually read genuine Weird Fiction - Laird Barron, Justin A. Burnett, Matthew M. Bartlett, W.H. Pugmire, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, Caitlin Kiernan, Daniel Mills, Jon Padgett, Thomas Ligotti, Farah Rose Smith, Jeff VanderMeer, John Langan - you know. Or hell, just read "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." It's available for free online.
This isn't anything against romance, by the way. I just don't think these two genres mix well at all without the cosmic horror being watered down so much as to be unrecognizable.
To be honest, I think romance authors really need to stay away from Lovecraft. Cthulhu , SERIOUSLY? As with Jordan Hawk's Whyborne & Griffin series, this is really just urban fantasy/paranormal romance with names from Lovecraft attached. If you actually read genuine Weird Fiction - Laird Barron, Justin A. Burnett, Matthew M. Bartlett, W.H. Pugmire, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, Caitlin Kiernan, Daniel Mills, Jon Padgett, Thomas Ligotti, Farah Rose Smith, Jeff VanderMeer, John Langan - you know. Or hell, just read "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." It's available for free online.
This isn't anything against romance, by the way. I just don't think these two genres mix well at all without the cosmic horror being watered down so much as to be unrecognizable.
September 15, 2019
So good
Great story, good plot, and beautiful world building, it really pulls you into the story.
Great characters, Gabriel and Casillus are just perfect together, it's a whirlwind romance, that just fits. Corey the red bearded Santa Cupid, with all the love and wisdom to give all.
Great adventure, Gabriel's transition story is very heartfelt, the deranged scientist arc and the creature from the deep is great.
It is better to get this series as a box set instead of individually because each book is short and not completely a whole story, so I was glad I grabbed this one. I hope the author puts out the other books from this world.
Great story, good plot, and beautiful world building, it really pulls you into the story.
Great characters, Gabriel and Casillus are just perfect together, it's a whirlwind romance, that just fits. Corey the red bearded Santa Cupid, with all the love and wisdom to give all.
Great adventure, Gabriel's transition story is very heartfelt, the deranged scientist arc and the creature from the deep is great.
It is better to get this series as a box set instead of individually because each book is short and not completely a whole story, so I was glad I grabbed this one. I hope the author puts out the other books from this world.
October 13, 2023
Dear X. Aratare,
How dare you write such a masterpiece and then leave me on a cliffhanger? This was so beautiful. The relationship between the two main characters, and even the rated scenes were super great and written in detail. I just want a peek into your mind to know how you think of such wonderful universes with diverse characters. It must be awesome in there.
How dare you write such a masterpiece and then leave me on a cliffhanger? This was so beautiful. The relationship between the two main characters, and even the rated scenes were super great and written in detail. I just want a peek into your mind to know how you think of such wonderful universes with diverse characters. It must be awesome in there.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews