Check out this eclectic assortment of #shortstories exploring second-chance love, plus an #interview with a character from one of the stories! @alicerauthor #fantasy #romance #anthology

The hopeless romantic believes that a soulmate exists for each of us. That there is one person who makes us feel how good it is to love them. For some couples, things trigger them to push that love away. They find out too late they’ve lost true-love. Sometimes genuine love deserves a second-chance at the happy ending that eluded them the first time.

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Desire Me Again is an eclectic assortment of short stories exploring a second-chance at love. The collection is as diverse as the authors who wrote them. Here’s a chance to read the work of talented writers you may not have read before. Within these pages, there are blends of tender, often moving and thought-provoking stories.

Released date: 1 October 2020. Pre-order available!

Holiday Mermaid

by

Alice Renaud

Adam fell for surfer girl Rowena the second he saw her. But just as their summer fling was becoming serious, she left him without any explanation. Now, with Christmas just a few days away, she’s back… and Adam discovers that she’s a shape-shifting mermaid, from a Clan that hates humans. Can he love her as she is? Can she brave her family to be with Adam for good, not just for Christmas?

And now for an interview with the fiesty Rowena Regor, the lead protagonist in the story.

Hi, introduce yourself to my readers.

My name is Rowena Regor. I am a shape shifting mermaid of the Regor Clan, the most traditional of the mermen Clans who inhabit the Morvann Islands, off the coast of West Wales. Traditional is a polite way of putting it… My uncle, Rhys Regor, is the leader of the Clan. He thinks mermen should have nothing to do with humans. He thinks females like me should stay underwater in their homes and look after their mermen folk and never leave the islands, never mingle with humans, never have an adventure… If he knew what I got up to last summer, he’d have a fit!

A shape shifting mermaid, eh? What do you look like as a human and as mermaid?

I like the way I look in my human shape. I’m a curvy brunette with long black hair and dark eyes. When human men look at me, I can see in their eyes that I’m attractive. When Adam, my human lover, looks at me… shivers run down my spine. But in my aquatic shape I have black skin like a porpoise, webbed hands and feet, and a foot-long, flexible tail. My head is bald, my teeth as sharp as needles. I don’t think Adam would want me if he saw me in this shape… my true shape.

Do you have a job/hobby?

When I’m in human shape, I love surfing. That’s how I met Adam – surfing on the big rollers near his village.

Tell us about Adam? Do you love him?

As soon as I met Adam, I knew I wanted him. We had a passionate summer fling that soon turned into something deeper. But I had to leave him and return to the Morvann Islands before my uncle and cousins realized I was gone. But I couldn’t forget Adam. I had fallen for him, hard. I took every chance I could to get away from Regor Island and swim past his village so I could look at his house.

One day, just before Christmas, I got too close to the rocks because I was so desperate to see him. The swell threw me onto the rocks and I twisted my ankle. I had to swim to the shore to rest it, then I found I couldn’t shift to human form! That’s where Adam found me. Now I want nothing more than to stay with him for good… but I fear he will never want me in my true, aquatic shape, and I’m afraid of how my family will react when they learn I have a human lover.

What is your background? Who are your parents etc.?

My parents died when I was young. I was brought up by my uncle, Rhys Regor, leader of the Regor Clan, but he never had much interest in me. Females are not valued in my Clan. He’s the most traditional of all mermen and I dread to think what he might do if he learns I’ve fallen in love with a human and staying at his house.

Rowena Regor

Rhys Regor doesn’t sound very nice at all! So, how can you have a future with Adam? Marriage and kids and all that traditional stuff?  

I would love to have a child with Adam. But what would a half-human, half-merman child be like? The reason my uncle wants mermen to stay away from humans is because he is afraid that mermen will marry humans and dilute their precious, magical, sea-given genes.

Do you have a secret? Does anyone else know the secret? What would happen if you told someone this secret?

The shape-shifting mermen of the Morvann Islands have lived incognito alongside humans for centuries, protected by their ability to change into human shape at will. We are forbidden from revealing our true nature to humans. That’s why I had to leave Adam without even saying goodbye – I couldn’t tell him the truth, and I didn’t want to lie to him. He discovers my secret when he finds me on the beach outside his house, half-human, half-mermaid, with a twisted ankle!

Do you have a criminal record?

Not in the human world, but I have broken every law of the merman Regor Clan!

Are you happy now your story has been told? Is there more to come?

My story is the fourth in the Sea of Love series, that follows the lives and loves of shape shifting mermen and mermaids. Each book is a standalone story that focuses on a different couple.

The other three books, A Merman’s Choice, Music for a Merman, and Mermaids Marry in Green, are out now.

Music for a Merman is the story of my favourite cousin, Rob Regor.

Mermaids Marry in Green is about my friend Caltha Dooran, leader of the Dooran Clan and the feistiest mermaid in the Western Seas. She too fell in love with a human, a handsome warlock from London. She has influence over the mermen, and perhaps she will help me face my uncle and achieve my happily ever after with Adam.

Good luck with your happy ever after, Rowena!

Pre-order the collection now!