KIERAN’s Reviews > There's Something Fishy About My Boyfriend > Status Update

You know, it would be interesting to see how Xander reacts to the human world's depiction of mermaids. You know, because worldbuilding.

Instead of just naked, transparent foreshadowing of Xanders' dad.

Ma'am, there's learning to live a little, and then there's teaching the super-naive merman gambling-which apparently does not exist in his culture.

Oh, and yeah, this merman is also your employee who relies on you for safety.

It doesn't help that Xander has, before this moment, been easily pressured by Hannah into doing things he doesn't initially want to.

Like showing off his tail to her friends, (one of whom told his husband about it without Xander's permission), the ensuing "Xander Watch" agreement, and, of course, him continuing to stay in the first place!

NO! The fact that you are giving Xander shelter from the mermaid hunters on top of the employer/employee relationship only makes it LESS okay for you to bang him!

What. The. Fuck.

If the genders were reversed, this would be treated as gross regardless of how "mutual" it seems.

Considering that Hannah and Xander are NOT married, but rather, employee & employer, I wouldn't say the situation is at all similar to the kraken romance novel.

Especially since Xander isn't even being PAID for the repairs he's doing to the B&B. He just gets free room and board.


In this case, keeping things professional is ABSOLUTELY the right call.

Given our heroine's reaction, it's clear that Ms. Duke understands that the behavior of most, if not all of these parties, is incredibly toxic.

On some level, she seems to understand that women acting out on their jealousy is just as bad as men acting out on their jealousy.

So why doesn't she seem to understand that Paulette's behavior is neither funny nor cute? Or that she shouldn't turn it into a running joke?

So, Ms. Duke later describes a very toxic situation between two married couples: Mimi and Tony, and Vinny and Joanie.

Mimi apparently slept with Vinny because Joanie "had her hands all over Tony". There is no word on whether or not Tony consented to this.

Tony later hits Joanie by accident because he meant to punch Vinny out of anger for this.

Hannah even calls Paulette's sister "stalkerish" and thinks said sister is "creeping on" Wills. And yet this toxic behavior is waved away because "family" and because "Paulette has a big heart."

No, Paulette is insecure, gullible, and arguably, pretty toxic towards Wills. Wills seriously needs to dump Paulette and this book needs to stop treating this behavior like a joke. Because it's not.

You would think that most adults, after someone has made MULTIPLE false claims about an SO's infidelity, would learn to ignore anything that someone says.

Not Paulette. For some reason, every time her sister lies about Will (Paulette's boyfriend) being unfaithful, Paulette immediately believes this woman every single time, and has to be guided by her friends back to reality.

And now here is where the book is going from a 4-star to a 3-star.

One, I don't really like how Hannah pressured Xander into showing his fish tail in front of her friends right after promising to keep his secret. Two, I also don't really like how Paulette's (she's the Greek-American friend) unfounded jealousy like a running joke.