We all know I started in this series because I thought the cover of “I Married a Lizardman” was ridiculous.  Regine Abel honestly needs to be held responsible for me falling in love with Sci-Fi romance novels.  With that, I Married a Merman is the latest novel in this series, featuring Neera and Echo.

I want to say this book starts off just as strong as I Married a Lizardman, but it does not.  This one does take a few more pages to get invested in, but I promise you it is worth it.  The book starts off with Neera who has developed a strange illness.  She is forced to consistently wear an oxygen mask to breathe, and life for her is a nightmare filled with one doctor visit after another.  She finally find a doctor that can help her and has the news broken to her that she is going through a change of sorts.  A change that leaves her with two options.  Stay on Earth where the atmosphere is slowly going to kill her and she will consistently suffer, or go to the Prime Mating Agency and try to find a mate on a planet more suitable for her.

Obviously, she goes with the second option, or as readers would not have a book.  She is matched with the wonderful Echo and immediately has challenges to face.  First and foremost, Echo’s people are a race of people that are incredibly comfortable with nudity.  I got to this part of the book and props to Neera, because I could not do it!  This woman immediately does her best to integrate into this new society where she essentially wears nothing but a loin cloth.  PROPS TO HER!  She is insanely uncomfortable in the beginning, but does her best and ends up falling in love with the culture and not even remembering that she has modesty. 

After she is on this new planet for a while, the change she was experiencing on Earth starts to progress and she has to come to terms with the fact that she might have to leave this new found happiness behind forever.  I am not entirely certain how Regine Abel does it, but she managed to give us as the reader this sense of grief, urgency, hope, and disappointment in just a short period of time.  I was rooting for so many different things to happen, even as I was falling in love with Neera and Echo as a couple.

The best part of this entire book is when Neera starts going through more of her changes and Echo has to teach her how to function with her “new” body parts.  The way they are more than a couple, but legitimately friends that love each other is so sweet and touching.  There is so much concern, fondness and genuine caring between not only our two main characters, but all of the side characters as well.

The worst part about this book, if I had to pick something, is that it doesn’t feel like it starts off as strong as the other three books in this series.  Obviously it is still incredibly good, and I highly recommend it, but if this is the one you start with you might not get immediately suckered into the book like you would in the other three.

Overall –  this is a fantastic book that I highly recommend.  You are not going to finish this book and be disappointed and diving into this culture and world Regine Abel created is wonderful.  However, you are going to be a bit disappointed you cannot travel to this world yourself.

Plot – 8/10

Characters – 10/10

Originality –  10/10

General Joy of Reading – 9/10

Overall Score – 37/40

I Married A Merman (Prime Mating Agency) – Regine Abel

Link – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09RM43CTW/ref=ku_mi_rw_edp_ku

Cost* –  Kindle is $3.99 Paperback is $14.99 Book is included with Kindle Unlimited

*Cost is based upon what the book cost when book review is published