Ever since Penelope Tench was in grade school, she knew there was no one living on Colony Island she was interested in choosing as a mate. There were feral boys-merfolk who lived in the ocean-but they were not a viable choice. Penelope could only spend three days at sea before wanting to return home to her warm bed and a hot meal. She wanted to find a mate and have a family someday, like most females, with or without scales, but as she grew up, her chances lessened, as there seemed to be only one option left-and mermaids were strongly advised not fall to in love with humans. After graduating with a degree in Finance, she began living a very lonely and isolated life in the city and shut out her family and friends. Even though she had a job lined up, she felt there was no future for her-anywhere. While spending a day in the ocean, Penelope lay under a dock contemplating her life. She was about to return to the city, catch a flight to the desert, and end things, when a human male walked out on the pier. Instead of hiding, she popped above the surface, gave him a scare, and then proceeded to chat with him for a bit before disappearing underwater. She'd enjoyed herself so much, she decided she would stick around a bit longer. Penelope reported for her new job the next morning, and found her temporary desk was right next to the Assistant Comptroller, Peter MacPherson. They immediately recognized each other from the previous day, and although she wanted to flee, a series of circumstances kept her at the company. Peter assured her he'd keep her secret safe, and subsequently volunteered to make her weekend swims enjoyable again by handling all the logistics-motels, meals, and safe and secure drop-offs and pick-ups. Over the next couple months, Penelope began enjoying being a mermaid again. Then, following a knock-down, drag-out debate with herself, she realized she had feelings for Peter, and decided she would go out in a blaze of glory and get into bed with a human.

Welcome to my crazy mermaid life, taking on salvage dives to pay the bills. It’s part Underworld, part Pirates of the Caribbean, and always a huge pain in the gills Let's get our tentacles straight up front. I don’t want to dive for anyone to begin with. But if I dive and get stiffed? I will come for you. Bernie McKay thinks he doesn’t have to pay. Well, school isn’t just for fishes. I’ve got a lesson or two the cocky alpha needs to learn. If only the vampires and pirates would leave me alone long enough to deliver it. Weak doesn’t survive long in the sea and I left weak behind a long time ago. Watch out, Bernie. This wave I'm making? It's just for you. A short free urban fantasy featuring one very pissed off mermaid who’s cranky AF. For anyone who enjoys: paranormal romance, fantasy romance, urban fantasy, shifter romance, mermaids, pirates, bear shifters, dragons, Scotland, Highlands, Scottish, steamy romance, shifters, alpha heroes, alpha shifters, myth, mythology, love story, werewolf, werewolf romance, action adventure, vampire, witch, demon, devil, psychic, shapeshifter, alpha, vampires, vampire series, shapeshifter werewolf romance, fantasy, lycan, mate bond, vampire, vampire romance, immortal, vampire slayer, fae, Laurel K. Hamilton, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, Gena Showalter, K.F. Breene, Shannon Mayer, Ruby Dixon, JR Ward, J.R. Ward, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Vampire Diaries, Twilight, Crave, Tracy Wolff, The Vampire Diaries, Bella Forrest, A Shade of Vampire, Harry Potter, witch, wizard, fated mates, Vampire Academy, Vampire Knight, werewolf books, werewolf romance, shapeshifters, House of Dragons, How to Train a Dragon, Eragon.

More than anything, eighteen-year-old Olivia Owens wants to win a marine biology scholarship, escape her broken home life, and enjoy a drama-free summer in La Jolla, California. But when she agrees to pose as a mermaid for her photographer best friend Samantha, she never dreamed what kind of trouble it would bring.Why would a crazy red-headed lady give Olivia a clam that glows on the inside? And why does the ritzy CEO Doran Linnaeus think Olivia-and the clam in her possession-are the keys to turning his failing theme park into an earth-shattering phenomenon?It takes some serious spy skills for Olivia and Samantha to discover the truth: mermaids aren't just a fairytale. Dangerous, dark, and suspicious, the vengeful denizens of the deep will do anything to keep their secret safe-even accept help from humans.In order to keep herself and Samantha alive, Olivia has to team up with the merpeople and a band of mysterious strangers. She must find the courage to do whatever it takes to stop Linnaeus from exposing and exploiting earth's deepest secret, all while convincing Samantha that flirting with a merprince is a terrible idea?and protecting her own heart in the process. Fathom is a modern fantasy adventure that takes place in San Diego, California. The story is filled with mystery, danger, friendship, and broody mermaids. A fast-paced read for anyone who enjoys modern fairytale re-imaginings, suspense, action, and romance.

When she, on her 23rd birthday, catches a wave that transforms her into a mermaid, Jess Creary becomes reborn into a confident, powerful predator with superhuman strength, but back on land, her relationship with Captain Matthew heats up and so does her search for the truth about her sister's death.

Navigating the world of dating can be like wandering an enchanted forest, full of creatures with peculiar habits and baffling behavior. In Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur, Francesca Lia Block provides a guide to this often-treacherous terrain, classifying all those mystifying men and women into various types of mythical forest fauna-Fauns and Werewolves, Mermaids and Banshees. After answering questions to determine your own type, you can learn to identify others-with the help of illustrations from artist Fumi Nakamura. By reading up on the various types' favorite activities, likely professions, sexual preferences, and parenting styles, you'll gain insight into compatible creatures. If you're a Wood Nymph (like Block), you could get your heart broken by a fickle Satyr, but if you can track down the strong, soulful Centaurs of the forest, you just might be on the path to true love. Clever and insightful, Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur is an invaluable guide for any dating creature.

This collection explores global dystopic, grotesque and retold narratives of degeneration, ecological and economic ruin, dystopia, and inequality in contemporary fictions set in the urban space. Divided into three sections—Identities and Histories, Ruin and Residue, and Global Gothic—The New Urban Gothic explores our anxieties and preoccupation with social inequalities, precarity and the peripheral that are found in so many new fictions across various media. Focusing on non-canonical Gothic global cities, this distinctive collection discusses urban centres in England’s Black Country, Moscow, Detroit, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Dehli, Srinigar, Shanghai and Barcelona as well as cities of the imaginary, the digital and the animated. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the intersections of time, place, space and media in contemporary Gothic Studies. The New Urban Gothic casts reflections and shadows on the age of the Anthropocene.

Sometimes when you break a curse, you open old wounds. Caught up in the supernatural slave trade, mermaid Mila Sealight needs saving, not promises of undying love from a cursed dragon. But allies are scarce, making a down-on-his-luck fire breather her only hope. When dragon Niall MacTeine boards the slaver boat with his brothers, he knows they are going to save people, he just never expected to be rescued himself. He's been cursed a long time and has started to give up hope. Everything changes when Niall is thrown overboard while fighting the slavers and Mila gives him the 'kiss of the sea' to save him from drowning. That's when it hits him—she's the key to his freedom. But breaking the curse that locks him in his human form requires trust and an open heart. Neither of which Mila gives lightly. Niall will have to prove he's worth the risk in order to claim his fated maiden. And he will pay the ultimate price in the process. This is book 2 in the Maidens series but it stands alone. You'll have more fun if you read book 1 Kiss the Dragon (which was a USA Today bestseller) but it's not required. For anyone who enjoys: paranormal romance, fantasy romance, urban fantasy, shifter romance, bear shifters, dragons, Scotland, Highlands, Scottish, steamy romance, shifters, alpha heroes, alpha shifters, myth, mythology, love story, werewolf, werewolf romance, action adventure, vampire, witch, demon, devil, psychic, shapeshifter, alpha, vampires, vampire series, shapeshifter werewolf romance, fantasy, lycan, mate bond, vampire, vampire romance, immortal, vampire slayer, fae, Laurel K. Hamilton, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, Gena Showalter, K.F. Breene, Shannon Mayer, Ruby Dixon, JR Ward, J.R. Ward, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Vampire Diaries, Twilight, Crave, Tracy Wolff, The Vampire Diaries, Bella Forrest, A Shade of Vampire, Harry Potter, witch, wizard, fated mates, Vampire Academy, Vampire Knight, werewolf books, werewolf romance, shapeshifters, House of Dragons, How to Train a Dragon, Eragon, ACOTAR.

People have been fascinated by merpeople and merfolk since ancient times. From the sirens of Homer’s Odyssey to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and the film Splash, myths, stories, and legends of half-human, half-fish creatures abound. In modern times “mermaiding” has gained popularity among cosplayers throughout the world. In Merpeople: A Human History, Vaughn Scribner traces the long history of mermaids and mermen, taking in a wide variety of sources and using 117 striking images. From film to philosophy, church halls to coffee houses, ancient myth to modern science, Scribner shows that mermaids and tritons are—and always have been—everywhere.

Since the early 1990s, while mainland China’s state-owned movie studios have struggled with financial and ideological constraints, an exciting alternative cinema has developed. Dubbed the “Urban Generation,” this new cinema is driven by young filmmakers who emerged in the shadow of the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. What unites diverse directors under the “Urban Generation” rubric is their creative engagement with the wrenching economic and social transformations underway in China. Urban Generation filmmakers are vanguard interpreters of the confusion and anxiety triggered by the massive urbanization of contemporary China. This collection brings together some of the most recent original research on this emerging cinema and its relationship to Chinese society. The contributors analyze the historical and social conditions that gave rise to the Urban Generation, its aesthetic innovation, and its ambivalent relationship to China’s mainstream film industry and the international film market. Focusing attention on the Urban Generation’s sense of social urgency, its documentary impulses, and its representations of gender and sexuality, the contributors highlight the characters who populate this new urban cinema—ordinary and marginalized city dwellers including aimless bohemians, petty thieves, prostitutes, postal workers, taxi drivers, migrant workers—and the fact that these “floating urban subjects” are often portrayed by non-professional actors. Some essays concentrate on specific films (such as Shower and Suzhou River) or filmmakers (including Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yuan), while others survey broader concerns. Together the thirteen essays in this collection give a multifaceted account of a significant, ongoing cinematic and cultural phenomenon. Contributors. Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Shuqin Cui, Linda Chiu-han Lai, Charles Leary, Sheldon H. Lu, Jason McGrath, Augusta Palmer, Bérénice Reynaud, Yaohua Shi, Yingjin Zhang, Zhang Zhen, Xueping Zhong

In an exuberant picture book, a glimpse of costumed mermaids leaves one boy flooded with wonder and ready to dazzle the world. While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he’s seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes — and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love’s author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.