Series: Jersey Shore Merman, Book 1
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Publisher
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GYM. TAN. MERMAN. Welcome to the Jersey Shore, where the men are hot, the sun is sizzling, and the boardwalk’s seen it all…until now.
After years of living on the Shore, Hannah Bell is sure two things are true:
1. The family B&B is her future.
2. Men like Xander—mysterious, charming, and un-freaking-believably gorgeous—do not just wash up like some kind of sexy flotsam.
But when Xander appears mostly-naked and half-conscious in the surf, Hannah does what any sane, kind-hearted woman would do: hauls him into her bed. Her bed and breakfast, that is. It’s only polite. But her one act of seaside charity goes sideways fast when her new perennially topless “guest” starts fixing leaky faucets with a wink, charming her with fishy dad jokes, and casually revealing that—oh yeah—he's a freakin’ merman.
Not only that, but he’s the merman who rescued her a decade ago and then ghosted her like an enchanted Tinder date gone wrong. Rude.
As Hannah reels from revelations and Xander tries to stay one step ahead of the secrets lurking beneath the tide, they’ll need to figure out if their surfside chemistry is just a summer fling... or the start of something truly fin-tastic.
There’s Something Fishy About My Boyfriend drew me in with its fin-tastic premise and the promise of a cute and fluffy romance between a human and a merman. However, once the hook lost its allure the book kind of flopped about.
Puns aside, I wanted to like Gloria Duke’s first Jersey Shore Merman story. It sounded campy and fun and parts of it were, but mostly it fell flat. Hannah is sadly just fine as a heroine. Ever since her near drowning as a teenager she has stuck close to home. She’s running her family’s bed and breakfast but it’s clearly not her passion. Then Xander washes up on the Jersey shoreline and turns her world upside down. Xander is a nearly perfect hero. He’s a hunky merman who is great with his hands in more ways than one. I liked that he and Hannah had corny dad jokes going back and forth, but I wanted depth from him and there was none. I didn’t really feel the chemistry between Xander and Hannah either. There was nothing wrong with them as a couple, but nothing truly drew me in either.
There’s Something Fishy About My Boyfriend isn’t as catchy as its title and for all that Duke throws in a lot about saving the town from developers, hunters out for Xander, and both hero and heroine grappling with duty versus desire, the story overall falls flat. A mid-size cast of supporting characters didn’t help much as they were all caricatures who added very little to the story for all that there were themes of community supposedly present. Even for a fluffy romcom, this story could have used more depth. This is apparently the first book in a duology and there really isn’t enough to support two books worth of plot. The rather lackluster bulk of the book could have used more of the action rather than shoving it all in at the end in an inorganic manner. Overall, even though There’s Something Fishy About My Boyfriend has some bright and fluffy spots, it was a miss for me and I’m not inspired to read the sequel.
Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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