Please help us welcome Alice Renaud to the blog today. Alice is here to share her Fantasy Romance, A Merman’s Choice. A Merman’s Choice is the first book in Alice’s Sea of Love series. Welcome, Alice! We are all so excited to hear more about A Merman’s Choice.
A Merman’s Choice
Book 1 in the Sea of Love series
A Guest Post from Alice Renaud:
A few words about myself
I get my inspiration from books, newspapers, and from everything I see around me. For example, the idea for my first book A Merman’s Choice came to me years ago, when I was still living at home with my parents in Brittany. I saw a group of men come out of the sea, wearing dark wetsuits, with palms on their feet. It gave me the idea of shape-shifting mermen who can move between the human shape and an aquatic shape. In the aquatic shape they have webbed hands and feet, and a tail – but not a fish tail. My mermen are one hundred per cent hot blooded mammals!.
I’ve always liked love stories, I think I’m a romantic at heart. I’m very lucky to have married the love of my life and to be still living with him happily 14 years later. I’ve always loved fantasy too – I was an avid reader as a child, and especially enjoyed fairy tales, myths and legends. I started off by writing romantic short stories, then I tried my hand at contemporary romance, but my heart wasn’t really in it. My heart longed for mermaids, witches and time-travelling warlocks, so now that’s what I write.
I spend most of my free time reading and writing. I think I’d go mad if I couldn’t write, I have so many stories in my head and they want to come out. The second book in my Sea of Love series, “Music for a Merman”, will be out later this year, and I’m currently working on the third book, “Mermaids Marry in Green”. It’s about a shape-shifting mermaid who falls in love with an ex-warlock. I’ve also written a short story about a time travelling witch, it will be included in an anthology that will hopefully be out in time for Halloween.
About A Merman’s Choice:
For centuries the shape-shifting mermen of the Morvann Islands have lived incognito among humans. But one of them, Yann, has developed some bad habits. Like rescuing humans, even when doing so risks revealing his true nature. When he fishes Alex out of the sea, he doesn’t expect her to reappear eight months later, and turn his life upside down by asking him to be her guide.
Alex is determined to fulfil a promise to her dying grandmother, by gathering pictures and stories of the Morvanns. But she soon discovers that, on these remote Welsh islands, legends have a habit of becoming true!
Over the course of a few days, Yann and Alex grow close. But some mermen hate humans. Their hostility, and Yann’s secret, threaten to tear the couple apart just as they are discovering that they are soul mates. Can Yann overcome the obstacles in his path and make the right choice?
Genre – Fantasy Romance
A Merman’s Choice Buy Links:
Excerpt from A Merman’s Choice:
The girl wasn’t swimming any more. Yann’s sonar gave him a clear picture of her distress. She was flailing. Sinking.
Fear punched him between the ribs. Just a few minutes earlier, she’d been splashing in the shallows, laughing and humming to herself. That music had rippled around him, brightening his journey. Now the sea was snuffing that light out. No! He wouldn’t let it happen. His webbed hands and feet churned the water, and he shot towards her like a torpedo.
Not this one, sea. Not this time.
She came in sight, slim and lovely, with long bronzed limbs and hair the colour of sunshine. But her eyes were closed, her movements slow, hesitant, as if she were falling asleep. His fear hardened into cold, sharp dread. He poured all his energy into the last powerful strokes. He’d almost reached her, when his eye caught the shadow, beyond the crystal surface, out there in the dry world. He sent a sound wave. It came back with an image, and the icy blade inside him twisted: two-legged shapes on the beach. Humans!
If they saw him, they’d know him for what he was. His people’s secret, kept for thousands of years, would be out.
The girl’s head vanished under the waves. To hell with that. He couldn’t let her drown.
He grabbed her and dragged her back to the surface. She thrashed in his arms and coughed up seawater. Intense relief swept through him as he hugged her to his chest. He’d sworn he’d never again swim by and let a human drown, and he’d kept his promise. If the young woman’s eyes remained closed, he might even get away with it. He wanted her to breathe, not scream in horror at the sight of his dark grey face.
He looked up. The shapes on the beach had gone. Another miracle, or perhaps he’d only imagined them. What if they came back? A fresh stab of anxiety propelled him through the surf. He lay the girl down on the sand, cushioning her head on his arm. Her round breasts, encased in the turquoise bikini top, rose and fell in a regular rhythm, but her skin felt clammy under his hands. He scanned the beach in vain for something to cover her with, and saw the motorbike. A sleek, sporty number, well camouflaged among the grass-covered dunes.
Shit. He retracted the webs between his fingers and toes, but his body would take at least twenty minutes to shift from the aquatic shape to the human form. And even when it did, what would the humans think, if they found him naked next to an unconscious girl?
They’d arrest him for indecent exposure, or worse. He touched the girl’s face with a tentative finger. The thought of leaving her sickened him. But he couldn’t stay.
Her eyelids fluttered and she muttered a name. “Boris?”
As if in answer, a male voice tore through the air, from behind the dunes. “Alex!”
Yann flew towards the waves. Help was coming for the girl. She’d be fine.
He sped into the open sea, leaving the human world and human fears behind. He’d saved her. That knowledge glowed inside him as he plunged into the depths. She was safe, and his people would remain safe too. He sang as he rode the riptide, a song full of triumph and laughter. Far away, the humpback whales heard him and picked up the tune. He’d got away with it.
For now. His euphoria abated. No humans had seen him, but his people had sharper eyes and ears. He shouldn’t even have been hanging around, in full merman shape, so close to an inhabited island, but he’d thought he’d be OK. In late September so few tourists were around, and locals had better things to do than go swimming in cold water. He sniffed the current, tuned his sonar towards the Clans’ Islands. Nothing. With luck, no one would notice that he’d broken the merpeople’s rules.
Again.
About the Author:
Alice was born and brought up in Brittany, Western France, her father was French and her mother British (from Wales). She moved to London, UK, in 1997, where she now lives with her husband and son. She works full time as a compliance specialist in a pharmaceutical company. She has been writing in her free time since she was 14. She got quite a few short stories published in UK magazines, before moving to longer fiction. She wrote three contemporary romance books, but didn’t find a publisher for them. She then realized that mermen, sea witches and water demons were a lot more fun than sheikhs and billionaires! Her first two paranormal romances did not find a publisher either, then she wrote A Merman’s Choice, which was published in January this year by Black Velvet Seductions. It is the first book in a fantasy romance trilogy inspired by the landscapes and legends of Brittany and Wales. The second book, Music for a Merman, will be out later this year. She loves reading and writing stories, and sharing them with anyone who’s interested!
Author links:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AliceRenaudAuthorRomance/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/alicerauthor
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-renaud-author-4219b6166/
- MeWe: https://mewe.com/profile/5b3fcdea7e3b840f5c10b0b0
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18670218.Alice_Renaud
- Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/alice-renaud
Thank you very much Madison! It’s a pleasure to be here today.
Great post! I love how you are still married to the love of your life, Alice! Fun excerpt!
I love the story of where Alice gets her inspiration from with the men coming out of the sea. I reminded me of the situation I was in years back that gave me my serial killer in Patrick. It is so true that we get our ideas from pretty much everything around us. I haven’t known Alice as long as I wish I had, but I think it’s long enough known to believe her when she says she’d go mad if she couldn’t write. Her amazing amount of energy definitely needs an outlet.
Thank you very much Sassy Brit! Yes I am very lucky.
The excerpt made me want to rush out and buy the book to read. Very intriguing, Alice.
Alice, I like how you see ideas everywhere. Someone once asked me how I got ideas to write and I answered back, how can you not get ideas?? Glad someone else is the same! Wonderful post and great book!