Swimming without a Net

While I enjoyed the first Fred the Mermaid novel, this was a disappointment. The author herself essentially gives the reader a warning before you begin. The plot is obviously contrived and the 'love triangle' promised never really appears. Fred's attraction to the merman is perplexing (all he does is look sexy and take her swimming) and vague jealousy pangs are the extent of her feelings for the scientist. Fred's best friend and boss appear randomly at the super-secret meeting and no one complains. And the unfinished (and almost completely non-sequitor) subplot with the abused foster child bugged me. This book badly needed another rewrite.

I've enjoyed some of her other books, so I'm not about to write Davidson off my list, but I don't know if I'll be back for Fred's third installment.

Simplistic plot contrivances abound in this fluff of a book about a modern, urban mermaid who is summoned to a big merfolk convention in which the decision will be made whether to "come out" to humans or not.

The characters are paper-thin and the writing uninspired and unimaginative. I didn't expect a whole lot when I picked it up, given the size of the typeface and the number of pages, but I was still disappointed at how little of anything substantial there actually was in this book. There are much better written paranormal romances out there, keep looking, dear reader.

I gave this book one star because I got a genuine laugh out of King Mekkam's 'biped dialect' that he learns from watching DVDs, and one star just because it was about mermaids and I enjoy mermaid stories. This was the first book I've read by Davidson and I do not think I will be picking up a second.