Something Between Us

by D.T. Brandt

Raith is an Ichthien, a water-dwelling species that wears a mask on shore to protect the humans that live there from falling victim to their coercive siren-like voices. He has a crush on Cam, a human who works at the forge where Raith delivers carts of oreballs dredged from the lake floor. Once they finally meet cute and start spending time together, Raith begins to fall prey to the expectations of others and the constraints of their separate worlds.

Meanwhile, Raith's sister Kiela is trying to uncover a secret about the Ichthiens' past that he doesn't think even exists. As her research chips away at his doubts it also uncovers a possible path forward with Cam, but at a steep cost that Raith must be certain he's willing to pay.Something Between Us is a spicy door-open monster romance, and further content warnings can be found on the author's website and in the front of the book.

83 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2022

Reviews

[Noah]

I liked the premise but this could have used more pages so that both the relationship and the other plot could have been explored more :/ 2-2.5 stars

[piratesPencil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great quick read for fans of magic and merpeople. The characters are endearing, the world building is great, and I very much want to play the in-universe card game the characters keep playing… The ending also made me excited to see how and when these characters will show up again in this universe!

[Littlebookterror · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel I have been led astray by the promo posts for this.

This novella has two storylines. In the first, our protagonist Raith falls in love with a human and they stumble through their first awkward dates as they figure out their relationship. In the second, we have Raith and his sister Kiela who are discovering some lost history of their people.
So only one half of the story is actually about an inter-species romance with a mercreature whose voice can enchant humans which complicates their situation. It doesn't help that the storylines barely have anything to do with each other until the very convenient ending.

As this is a novella, I felt neither plot had enough space to breathe. Raith and Cam's relationship progresses quickly as we cover a lot of ground which in turn did not help me to truly get a feel for these characters. Raith's unhappiness about being unable to use his voice seemed more like a minor inconvenience that would be resolved with simply more time and a concrete idea of how far they wanted to take their dating but we don't see any of that and just skip along to a later point in their relationship.
I was mostly disinterested in Kiela's story – I did not understand why we were spending time on this. This part of the worldbuilding did not connect to Raith or the world at large.


A spoiler for the main relationship conflict.
I did not feel okay with the fact that Raith would want to use newly rediscovered, untested magic to change his entire body just to be able to talk to Cam – without even discussing that with him first. So far, it did not seem to be something that had bothered him that much or caused him actual distress.
I understand that there are risks associated with keeping his voice but a) they were perfectly able to communicate in sign language, b) they did not even test how what exactly the influence would be like for either of them, and c) did not talk to other couples in the same situation.


I received an advanced reading copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.