Young Adult Romantasy

This YA Little Mermaid fairytale retelling has enemies-to-lovers (she plans to kill him), arranged marriage (he thinks she’s his fiancé), and forbidden love (their kingdoms are at war).

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Mermaid Kailani is determined to outwit the bullies who claim she’s unfit to lead Oceanea. If she can force her magical Voice to manifest by her eighteenth birthday, she’ll take the throne and alleviate the burdens on her fellow lower-class Voiceless. However, when Kailani’s aunt, Undine, witnesses her break the law to save a human prince, Undine threatens to expose Kailani if she doesn’t assassinate him. If she fails, Kailani will lose her last chance to prove she’s the right ruler for Oceanea.

 

After exchanging her broken Voice for legs, Kailani seizes the chance to get close to Prince Jonah by posing as his missing fiancé. She has three days to assassinate the prince and get her Voice back and working—and that’s if the humans don’t learn her identity and kill her first.

 

Kailani has always been told that humans were monsters, but as she gets closer to Jonah, she finds she’s more intrigued by him than she’d care to admit. Torn between attraction to Jonah and commitment to her mission, she uncovers a shocking secret about her Voice—and the danger it poses in the wrong hands. Then when Undine loses patience and comes after Jonah herself, Kailani must decide what it means to be a true leader: taking back her Voice and with it, the merfolk throne, or saving the boy she’s come to love.