Review

Elena and Orion have one night of hot, forbidden sex when they save each other from a storm. Orion, a sea god in the midst of an uprising, returns to his home determined to forget the beautiful human who gave him incredible pleasure. And Elena, an independent and fair-minded scientist in love with the sea, returns to her sometimes-boyfriend Greg, who’s practically falling all over himself to get her to settle down with him. Of course, she doesn’t remember her blond Greek-god of a lover at all. Not even when she meets him again on land.

As a general rule, romance novels don’t allow for “adulterous relationships”, and normally, I wouldn’t be thrilled about it either. I tend to assume that if a hero/ine is willing to cheat on someone they’ve committed to, I won’t be able to believe in their happily ever after. But I just didn’t find that to be the case with Elena/Greg/Orion. In this case, her relationship with Greg was different enough and uncommitted enough that I really believed she could be happy if she could only be with Orion. That’s an important element for me.

Unfortunately, Elena and Orion spent a good part of the first half of the book without each other. So building sexual tension was impossible, but once they got together again, it picked right up. It did take me about 90 pages to get fully immersed in the narrative, and in the love story. Some of that may have been that Elena didn’t remember Orion so he wasn’t on her mind. But it was harder to engage than I expected.

This wasn’t my first story of the sea. I’d read and enjoyed Daisy Harris’ erotic mer-people trilogy. I’m relatively well-versed in Greek mythology and the myths of the sea. But this book had an even different twist than others I’ve read. I appreciated the uniqueness of the plot trajectory. Orion, as a hero, wasn’t appealing to me for the first hundred pages or so, but he grew on me. Elena, the heroine, was much more exciting as a character, for me.

The mythology and worldbuilding of this book was interesting and well-founded. I’m not positive, but I think this may have been the second in a series, and it felt like there might be more books to follow. It was interesting enough that another book would be welcome. I definitely enjoyed Orion and Elena, and look forward to reading more of this author in the future.

Reviewed by Camryn