Review A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey W Hill
Having battled the Dark Ones for centuries, Jonah has lost too many of his angel brethren to them. His noble spirit is weary of endless war—which allows a Dark One to strike the blow that severs Jonah’s wing and sends him plummeting into the sea.
Anna is a descendant of the mermaid whose poignant legend is much darker and more complex than the fairy tale. Though tragedy and isolation are her fate, her longing for love compels her to risk her life to protect the fallen Jonah. When Jonah delays his return to the heavens, Anna’s secret passions are tempted.
Jonah’s destiny lies beyond her desire—and if she repeats her ancestor’s mistakes, heartache will be her only reward. But as she falls more in love with him, Anna wonders if she’ll lose her heart and her dreams to save Jonah’s soul…
At first you might think… Mermaids?! LIke WTF.
Then you might look at the cover and dismiss it.
But then you see who wrote it. Ms. Joey W Hill. One of the most complex, honest, emotional, story driven, character torturing, gut wrenchingly beautiful writers I’ve ever come across. In all honesty, If i lost all of my books except for hers, JD Robb and Patricia Briggs, and Nalini Singh’s, I’d be okay. I have NEVER read one of her books that disappointed me even when I didn’t necessarily like them. They have all made me think, made me cry, opened my eyes to even more possibility and she makes even the craziest of ideas, like an angel and a mermaid getting together, possible.
I mean in A Mermaid’s Kiss, she makes an angel and a mermaid mating not only possible but YOU ROOT FOR THEM, you passionately want them to get together because its beautiful and it makes sense and she even made Ursula (a la the little Mermaid) into a REAL THING THAT MAKES SENSE IN THE WORLD?!!!!!!!
NO ONE i know can do this that well. And on top of it, her heroes who are alphas, are never TOO much of being an asshole to their mates. They recognize that being a dick works to the women they don’t care about, but they also get that they can’t be that much of a dick to the women that they want. So though they are strong, they are not overbearingly so, and her heroine’s grow stronger, in their care, they grow better, and more centered, and become better women, as the men become better Men, in her novels.
Thats what I love about Ms. Hills, writing, because when she does it, OMG does she do it well. It tortures you as you love it and her heroes and heroines NEVER have an easy path, but the paths they do take, are well worth the pain and suffering they have to endure in order to get to where they want.
With everything that happens in our world, sometimes you want to watch a story about torture and hope and ultimately triumph over evil and thats what Ms. Hills books give me. They give me hope even in the most dire of circumstances that she places her heroes and heroines in, she gets them to triumph through self sacrifice and ultimately giving it all for the RIGHT thing and for love.
Nothing is better than love.
Specifically in A Mermaid’s Kiss we have a disillusioned Jonah, who has fallen, or rather been injured and simply given up trying to heal himself, and his magic is drawing the dark ones to him. Then we have Anna, a descendent of Ariel, whose tragic family history has, or would have lent itself to her not having any hope at all, and yet that is all she has, Hope and a tragic sense of the coming future, which makes her understand her role in it, and hope there is another avenue while being okay with what is to pass. Its that sense of old self, that sense of understanding that brings Jonah out of himself, and though he still battles his demons, he is able to lean on Annas strength, him the most powerful angel in creation, has to lean on one of the weakest in order to fully understand the strength of himself and of the Goddess.
Its beautiful.
Overall Rating: A+
