
A Mermaid's Kiss by Joey W. HillPublisher: Berkley Sensation
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal
Length: Full
Other: M/F
Rating: Best Book
Review by Viscaria
The angelic Jonah has been battling the Dark Ones for centuries. But his noble spirit has begun to tire with the weight of war-allowing a Dark One to strike a blow that severs his wings and knocks him into the sea.
Anna is a Daughter of Arianne-a direct descendant of the mermaid of legend. Anna's longing for love compels her to risk her very life to protect and hide the fallen Jonah. And the longer Jonah delays his return to the heavens, the more Anna's secret passions are tempted.
But as she falls more in love with him, Anna wonders if she's destined to lose her heart and her dreams to save Jonah's soul...
Joey W. Hill does it again. She’s given us another book full of profound emotion and personal discovery.
Ana is a mermaid with a heart-breaking legacy. One that makes her want to fight and have hope, but has shown her that there isn’t much she can do to change her destiny. Ana had an amazing amount of innocence that was really unexpected by me, especially when I took into consideration her seeming air of knowledge. She was an incredible character that I really loved meeting, and her joy in the world around her despite her “lot in life” was refreshing and heartwarming, especially in contrast to Jonah’s cynical air… which is definitely what Jonah needed. I suspect the contrast was exactly what Ms. Hill had in mind.
Jonah is an angel with his own legacy. He is battle-scarred and so weary that I just wanted to pull him in and soothe all those aches. An action he wouldn’t have appreciated, I’m sure. Jonah is Alpha all the way, but he is a dominant male who has lost his way in life and has such a dark air about him. I found him mouth-watering and heart-breaking all at once. Definitely a wounded hero if ever there was one, something Joey W. Hill does extremely well. He was in need of more than just physical healing, and seeing the world through Ana’s eyes gives him a much-needed new perspective that starts that healing.
I am always so very excited when I get another Joey W. Hill book to review, and I’ve come to expect certain things from her. A word of warning to die-hard Hill fans: This is not quite what we’ve come to expect from her! It was actually quite a bit more than I had ever expected. The usual aspect of D/s that are typical of a Hill book were not real strong in this one. There was still the give and take of that type of relationship between Ana and Jonah, but it was much more subtle. I might have said it was Joey W. Hill Lite as it showed a much softer side, but she maintained the intense sensuality (it was downright HOT don’t get me wrong) and just plain passion that one has come to expect from her.
A Mermaid’s Kiss was full of gut-wrenching emotion that had more than one moment where I wondered how Ms. Hill would pull off the HEA I was looking for. When it came I was pleased and surprised and left with the warm feeling we get from a beautifully written story. This was a journey in which the reader is swept along for the ride, helpless to stop, and yet not wanting to stop until we see how it ends. A climactic battle will have your heart pounding and your stomach clenching, I’m sure, as it did mine. This book brings an entirely new and refreshing take on Angels and divinity, blending philosophies that was surprisingly cohesive considering the wide array of beliefs incorporated.
This was a superb offering by Joey W. Hill that I feel will appeal to many beyond her loyal fans and draw a larger group of admirers to her work. I am very much looking forward to more books from this story arc… as well as the opportunity to visit with the secondary and primary characters that I met in this book. I would love to see more of a certain “dark” angel and his… love; not to mention several others that caught my notice. A beautiful book that gets my absolute recommend, and one that I will go back to again and again.
