Our adventurer Brendan is an author, who after one bestseller has reached rock bottom. Touring the British Isles, he is uninspired until he visits the Isle of Man and Heather Bay where the annual Mermaid Festival and the riotous festivities are taking place. Stranded in the village by fate, Brendan decides to make the best of a bad situation and rents a room, which turns out to be on a boat at the docks.

Our intrepid traveler discovers folklore is the villager's way of life and they are literally obsessed by all things mermaid. The pubs, the shops… everything shouts 'Mermaids and Merfolks'. Brendan mingles with the natives and begins to think not only are they eccentric, but they just might have one foot over the line of insanity. The one person who seems firmly grounded is his landlady, but even she holds a secret that could cause irreparable harm if revealed.

And then Brendan discovers that the strange tales bandied about have some basis in fact. He meets Christine who performs as a mermaid at the town's aquatic theater and she is everything a beautiful mermaid should be… A costumed theatrical mermaid, that is.

Brendan is suddenly inspired to write brilliantly and he spins a yarn that has his editor salivating for more. But then Brendan finds out more about Christine and her lusty brother than he ever wanted to know, and his heart and sense of reality take an about turn.

It took awhile to adjust to the tone of this tale, but once I did, it was engaging and fun. I confess I did not always follow the thoughts and dialect of the villagers, but I was entranced by the overall merfolk legend and the unveiling of the fact versus fiction. It is a pleasant story that leaves the reader with the warm fuzzies.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Mildly sensual

Reviewer: Torie West
July 18, 2005