Tidal Whispers by Jocelyn Adams, Claire Gillian, Julie Reece, Kelly Said

Blurb!
Heart’s Desire by Julie Reece
After a terrible accident, Tessa returns to her family beach house to heal. She doesn’t expect to see her first summer crush from seven years before. Cameron, though, reappears and ignites a relationship that’s far more intense than ever before. The only problem? Summer is once again coming to an end, and this time, Tessa will have to decide whether to choose life with Cameron or to never see him again.

The Sweetest Song by Claire Gillian
Under Poseidon’s rule, Circe is the most destructive siren in the Pacific ocean, her songs luring ships and their crew to their watery graves. Not Otis, the best halibut fisherman in the Alaskan waters. His ship, the Calypso, has avoided disaster each time Circe set her sights on him.

Given one last chance to deliver Otis to Davy Jones’ locker, Circe takes to land to waylay the handsome captain. Instead, it may be Otis himself who hooks the Siren.

Pearl of Pau’maa by Kelly Said
Should Miki choose to wed the local wealthy boy she doesn’t love, her stomach will stop grumbling. Her soul, however, will suffocate. With one last opportunity before she must concede, she sneaks off for a final dive to her hidden crate at the bottom of the seabed. What waits for her is more than a captured lobster. It’s a treasure she cannot claim without great sacrifice or true love.

The Undergarden by Jocelyn Adams
Nixie, a water sprite, lives a solitary existence as she struggles to understand the strange world beyond her waters. When she meets one of the pink ones, a curious boy named Wyatt, their friendship blooms into a love that can exist only upon the sands that divide his solid ground from her underwater paradise. Some love, though, once born, cannot be undone, even in the face of death.

Since there are four stories, I’ll give you my thoughts on each!
Heart’s Desire by Julie Reece
I have a thing for stories where the main characters have a history. Add in a history that comes in an underwater fantasy world and you’ve just doubled my interest and intrigue. I wish we had more time to meet and learn about Cam, but that would have taken a whole novel. The snippet in this short makes me want to know more about him. The grief that comes through at the opening with Tessa is one I can’t exactly connect with because I haven’t been through it, but I could feel it and that to me is exactly what’s so important. I need to feel and I did.

The Sweetest Song by Claire Gillian
Claire Gillian has a humorous way of bringing two people with the most opposite characteristics together. I laughed out loud in quite a few places and imagined Circe’s frustration in several others. Otis was a cute as a button (for a guy). I fell in love with him like a sister to a brother. I wanted HIM to win. While I didn’t have that feel for Circe (for good reason), he I rooted for. Gotta love a guy like him. Seriously. Otis rocks.

Pearl of Pau’maa by Kelly Said
This one had, by far, the most amazing imagery. Told from both Miki and Harmon’s perspectives, we have both an independent girl and a guy who doesn’t believe in fate. Yet it’s the water that brings them together and what he can do for her is truly magical. I love that this isn’t an “I’ve fallen in love with you” story in such few words, but a story of just finding that relationship and getting through the beginning hurdles including the common torment that they share in a ruling family who’s bent on ruining them both. It takes them together to go to the next step.

The Undergarden by Jocelyn Adams
What a way to end an anthology. Pain of loss? You’ve felt nothing until you’ve gone through Wyatt and Nixie’s life. Separated by water and land, these two have only one spot they can be together and their relationship is nothing less than what I’ve felt throughout my own 24 years with my husband. The exception comes in the end. That’s where Jocelyn Adams paints a picture that I could never imagine and the torment Nixie feels makes me hope I never have to go through anything like she does. This one will make you cry. It will. So after you read it, hug the ones you love and know, with the end, the power to heal will be there.

Bravo to four amazing authors. For a summer read, this is fantastic. Shorter than a novel, longer than a novella and in four ‘bits’ that are easy and quick to read.

Loved it. Seriously. Loved it.

Will you add it to your TBR pile? Share in the comments!

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