So at the request of one of my friends I found a merman romance to read and review. Shockingly there was more than one option, unsurprisingly there were few that I was interested in that were also available on kindle so I ended up selecting the novella “A Wilderness of Glass” by Grace Draven. This took me somewhere around 2-3 hours to read so pretty short but Draven manages to pack a decent amount into that length. Premise – flute playing widow saves the life of a merman, they fall in love, sexy times occur. While I was initially hesitant at the idea of a merman based romance novel this one was shockingly compelling. In the way I enjoy romance novels to do there was very little plot which got in the way of the enjoyment of the characters. The sex was pretty decent considering there was a mer-penis involved (listen idk man Draven made her own choices). All in all the climax was interesting if tangential to the main characters which was odd but kind of lovely since it meant no drawn out will they wont they angst which I find tiring, the romance was well developed and believable (yes I know I just said that about a mer-mance idk either), and the conclusion was well done for a romance which based in it’s premise cannot be simple or clean. 

So at the request of a different friend this time I went for a mafia romance *(see end for a special David bonus) and selected “Brutal Prince: An Enemies To Lovers Mafia Romance (Brutal Birthright Book 1)” By Sophie Lark. The first portion of the book did drag on a little for me I am not going to lie, I got about 40% of the way into it and set it down for a day or two, but I am glad I picked it back up. I find the patriarchal attitudes inherent in the genre a little tiring, like if I wanted that whole schtick I’d just read a historical romance, but it did get toned down a bit as the story went on. The leading lady was a touch on the manic pixie dream girl side of chaotic and the dude gave off slight Christian Gray wannabe vibes (having never read 50 Shades and having no interest in it) but the author handled the characters with enough skill that these flaws didn’t make it impossible to enjoy the story. I actually enjoyed the conflict in the story in a way I do not always so I eagerly finished the last of it tonight in one go.

*David: Who requested a mafia romance?!?!
Me: [redacted]
David: But why though
Me: Listen I didn’t ask her what her kinks were
David: But WHY!!!!!