Review: The Mermaid's Knight by Jill Myles

Published Date: August 29th, 2011
Finished Date: October 12th, 2011
Publishers: Pocket Books
Format: eBook

Blurb from Goodreads:
When a car accident takes Leah Sunderland's life, she finds herself in dire need of divine assistance. Her fairy godmother comes to the rescue, but her help comes with conditions. As a fairy godmother, the only assistance she can offer deals with (you guessed it) fairy tales. To win a second chance at life, Leah must play out the tale of The Little Mermaid.

Armed with a mermaid tail and nothing else (not even a voice!), she has one month to make a nobleman fall in love with her, or else she'll die permanently. But the nobleman she must seduce is a hard, fierce warlord who thinks she's a spy and the mistress of his enemy.

Can she win him over before the thirty days are up? Or is she in danger of losing her heart as well as her life?

My Review

      +       =ME

SHELLSHOCKED!

It isn't uncommon for the premise of books such as The Mermaid's Knight to be thought of as "Cliche", "Childish", and "Totally not worth the time". Well, ok I have to admit that: Cliche? Yes. Childish? A liiiittle bit. Totally not worth the time? Utter bullshit. Cause this book had my completely under its thrall throughout the reading process. It was, and is, THAT good. Hence, I was shellshocked.

Just a brief summary before I continue with my shellshocked ramblings - Leah died. It was a rather wronged way to go - drunk driver crashed into her, she died, he didn't. So while she was floating in the alternate dimension, her fairy godmother appeared.

Muffin is a plump, jovial woman. A little eccentric, but still possesses a genial disposition. She admitted that the accident was all her fault for not paying enough attention, and so grants her a second chance at life. Catch is (there will always be a catch. NO FREE LUNCH IN THIS WORLD!): She has to make a guy in another time and place fall in love with her - Fairytale-style.

So Muffin decides that Leah would take after Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Leah will be turned into a mermaid, and while she's on land as a human, she won't be able to talk. What's worse is that her intended target, one Lord Royce Northcliffe, is a weather-bitten, war-hardened warrior who doesn't indulge in things such as love. So how, oh how, will poor, mute-when-human Leah seduce old Royce's granite heart?

Well, I'm still reeling from the shock of having fallen in love with this book.. For one, I'm not big on the whole happy-gayness novels with an easy plot which I can breeze thru in no time. Nuh uh, no can do. But the thing is, this book, tho cliche in general, do have the elements of surprise that kept my eyeballs freaking glued to its pages. I assumed that this book would be very predictable, but Myles just kept the surprises rolling in, and I really liked that a lot.

Leah and Royce together, were just simply adorable. The suspicious nature of our dear warrior definitely did hinder their relationaship from progressing much, but well, it did liven up the atmosphere sometimes. For example when Leah was first found naked on shore (and subsequent times too), Royce was totally unamused to find, at that time he assumed to be, his enemy's leman or wench, or simpy, his prostitute, on his shore. So he immediately thought her a spy and was all macho-man, "What the hell are you doing here, girl?" Ok, not direct quote, but you get the point. And she fainted. LOL. So he threw her over his shoulder and carried her to camp. Wrapped in a cloak like a burrito.

The, um, I can't really say banters since Leah can't talk, but their exchanges are hilarious. I absolutely enjoyed them. Y'know, the fact that Myles could make it so engaging is phenomenal in itself. One party of the conversation can't freaking talk, for god's sake! But she did it. Oh, and I think she kinda made up for it by showing us what Leah was thinking in place of any verbal responses, so yep, it was still like a conversation. But whenever Royce said something Leah thought was ridiculous, Leah would stamp on his feet. It was real sweet. Haha. Albeit a little gay, but sweet all the same.

This book...is it under adult fiction or Young Adult? Um, it is childish in a YA way, but the sexuality of it is definitely adult fiction. Tho a LITTLE bit more childish than YA at the beginning (the rest was fine!), and a LITTLE bit less porny than adult fiction, so... To each his own.:)

To sum it all up, I am still shocked. Shocked that such a cliche fairytale story can be twisted and rewritten so well where all others have failed (and it wasn't because of the lack of attempts); Shocked that, well, I fell badly for such a gay story - but not the point; Shocked that the plot and storyline could be handled so well even when so much other problems were brewing in the background - made it all the more exciting that it's so eventful; Shocked that Myles could've made a mute's conversation so entertaining. List goes on. But all in all, I loved the story.

P.S. It kinda reminds me of The River of Times series because of the travelling back in time and falling for a lord of some castle, and Kathryn Lasky's Daughter of the Sea series which features women who can turn into mermaids when they come into any bodily contact with water. So, if you're a fan of either one, why not try this one?

My Rating