Genre: Mystery, Fantasy, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
Happy ever after, pearls, and murder—what else is true love made of?
After escaping his cold fish of an ex, Jody Knox had everything—a new career, his goofy dog, and the love of his life, Merik. He couldn’t believe his luck…
Until it changed. In the worst way.
After stumbling onto the love of his life, Merik Lighthouse had a dilemna—solve the mystery of the missing mer and return to the sea, or confess his secret identity and risk losing Jody. He couldn’t decide…
Until someone decided for him. Permanently.
Or maybe not…
Wandering a Luminous Sea is for you if you love paranormal contemporary fantasy, gay love stories, fairytales, and suspense.
Oh… and a loveable poodle named Ellery Queen.
Please note: this is an intense love story with a happy ending, but it is not a traditional romance. It is a paranormal fantasy with a central love story.
The Review
Jody’s in love with Merik, a magical being. but he does not know it. The love bit, sure he knows that, but in love with a merman? Nope.
Merik’s technically an undine rather than merman. That’s an elemental water spirit, but here we are talking water beings with tails, essentially a mer who can shift to human form. They can remain out of water indefinitely. There are true merfolk in the seas too, but undine have an additional advantage in that they can survive in fresh water, whereas the merfolk need salt water.
Jody is a bank teller and Merik is posing as a delivery driver while investigating missing merfolk. Add shifting eels to the mix as adversaries, and you have quite a lot going on.
Jody and Merik are about to make a commitment to each other. They have both bought rings, unknown to each other. They are going to propose to each other at Jody’s work’s Christmas do, but things are going to go very wrong.
Spoiler Alert! Merik’s going to be taken away from Jody.
Jody is left grieving and can’t move on. He does not want to believe Merik is dead, but he suspects his ex has something to do with Merik’s disappearance. The ex is a particularly nasty piece of work – probably much nastier than is made clear in the text. Just what he wants with the mer he kidnaps is left unclear.
Merik is not dead but he has lost most of his memories and he can’t shift back to human anymore. The story follows Merik and Jodys’ attempts to right the wrongs life has thrown at them, or failing that, make do with what they have left. There are forces out there that have not finished with them, and it’s anyone’s guess as to who will win out.
This is Jody’s and Merik’s story, but we also get insight into Merik’s younger brother’s Posy’s existence, and a briefer look into Chad’s predicament. Posy’s biggest headache is his brother and all his baggage. Chad is an unwilling crook, pushed into a life he does not want as a consequence of helping his sister.
Posy is Chad’s krytonite, as Chad tells himself at one point. Sadly their ‘relationship’ is not going anywhere in this story, mainly due to the fact that Posy only gets to meet Chad once – and that’s memorable, but not in a good way. Don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler as it’s revealed in the prologue. Luckily, Jody and Merik are going somewhere, even though it is quite a trek. This is love story but one with lots of obstacles, as you would expect when a human and a merman fall in love.
When I started to read ‘Wandering a Luminous Sea’ it took awhile to get into the swing of things. The writing style jangled my nerves, with the early flashbacks and unexplained happenings. I’m fine with flashback,s but some of them happen mid-paragraph, and when things go back to present day, we’re sometimes not quite in the same place we were when the flashback broke in, as in the case where Jody’s dog is back outside following a flashback when he was inside before it took place.
This story takes its time, but stick with it, as you’ll find yourself caught in its net. Hold your breath and let those wicked eels drag you down for a fun ride through their crazy world.
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.