Tag: Landlocked Heart series by Kay Berrisford

A MelanieM New Release Review: Dragon Rider (Landlocked Heart #3) by Kay Berrisford

Rating: 4 stars out 5

The road to Ben and Lyle’s wedding is proving a bumpy one. Ben hasn’t even told his family he’s getting hitched to a shapeshifting merman, and he’s not the only one worried. When Lyle’s tearaway sister, Cully, whisks Lyle away on the merfolk equivalent of a stag do, she questions whether marriage is what Lyle needs anyhow. A merman should roam the seas and seek adventure, not work in an ice-cream parlour and worry about the rent.

With rumours flying among merfolk that Lyle is a dragon shifter, adventure seeks out Lyle, whether he wants it or not. Cully and Ben must set their differences aside to save Lyle from a gang wishing to steal his magical powers, which are in reality waning, possibly life-threateningly so. Lyle soon realizes it’s going to take a miracle for him to make it to the wedding, forcing Ben to embrace magic and become something other an “ordinary” guy…

For a series that started out as semi-humorous in nature (at least in my perception) Landlocked Heart is taking a nicely dark and interesting turn.  It started in book 2, Lyle’s Story, where we learned about Lyle’s background, his torture, and the merfolk clan history.  Not a pleasant one at that.  Here, in Dragon Rider,  we pick up at what should be the best time of Lyle and Ben’s life, preparing for their wedding.  However, it seems to be anything but.  Ben hasn’t told his family that, ‘hey, I’m marrying a merman’.  And Cully, Lyle’s brother/sister arrives on the scene, never a good thing with Lyle’s family.

With merfolk they can choose their sex but their clan history and rulers have long taken that choice away from them until recently.  Until Lyle.   Now the ramifications and mythology are coming home to make waves for the “happy’ couple.

I love the turn of events here.  Cully especially is a figure of power and the effects of her warped upbringing.  I liked her and understood her even if I didn’t especially like her actions.  Plus you have to remember she is also non-human and has those thoughts going on inside her head layered over with their joint abused background.  Lyle too turns tragic here in ways I didn’t expect as did Ben.  The growth among the characters and plot is doubly highlighted when you think back to the first story in the series.  The hints and clues the author’s dropping just ratchets up the anticipation for the next story in the series.

In fact, with all the new information and mythology added here, Dragon Rider could easily have been twice it’s length.  It opened up so many new questions for me that I need answers for.  I can only hope the next stories in the series continue to enlarge the universe that Kay Berrisford is building while bringing more layers, more to the new relationship dynamics she has started here.  She has me really hooked!  If you are a lover of fantasy, this is a series you will want to grab up!

Cover art by Jasmine Ang continues the simple design that brands all three stories while giving you hints as to the storyline.  Still not a fan.

Sales Links:  Less Than Three Press | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook
Published November 8th 2017 by Less Than Three Press
ISBN139781684311194
Edition LanguageEnglish

Landlocked Heart Series

The Lonely Merman (Landlocked Heart, #1)

Lyle’s Story (Landlocked Heart #2)

Dragon Rider (Landlocked Heart #3)

A MelanieM Review: Lyle’s Story (Landlocked Heart #2) by Kay Berrisford

 

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Lyle, a merman, and Ben, his human, work together in a seaside ice-cream parlour and their life together is bliss. Or would be, if not for Ben’s constant worries about career and money, and Lyle’s dark past—a myriad of secrets, lies, wild magic, and foul deeds, which now threaten to catch up with him.

When Lyle’s merfolk family accuse him of murder, Ben and Lyle’s bond is stretched to the limit. Not only does Lyle seem unsuited to Ben’s dreams of domestic happiness, hismagical powers are spinning dangerously out of control. Even Lyle isn’t entirely sure he’s innocent.

With Ben dragged deep into the enchanted processes of merfolk justice, escaping with his life—and getting home to an important job interview—is just the start of the challenge. Uncovering Lyle’s inner truths without destroying their love could be a step too far…

Lyle’s Story is the second in Kay Berrisford’s Landlocked Heart series and I think it succeeds far better than the original story.  I liked so much about Lyle’s Story, especially in comparison to The Lonely Merman (Landlocked Heart, #1) which I liked but had issues with the format and ending.

Lyle’s Story is straightford lovely storytelling.  All the gaps and narrative whopping holes from the first story are filled in beautifully here, the characters and their relationship show real growth, and I just loved some of the elements (mysteries) that the author added into the overall series arc.

Ben and Lyle’s relationship is still in its formative stage and they are adjusting to each other and their hopes for the future.  It’s charming and oddly realistic considering one is a merman.  Lyle’s nature is not that of a human, Ben is human…there’s fins, magic, and much more to deal with, including Lyle’s past that he hasn’t been entirely truthful to Ben about.

I loved how Berrisford folds practicality and magic, myth and the mundane all together and it works.  This new addition to the series has me totally charmed and now I can’t wait to read the next installment.  The Landlocked Heart has captured mine.  If you are a lover of merman, romance and HEA, perhaps this is just the series and stories for you.

Cover art by J. Ang is simple and brands the series.

Sales Links:  Less Than Three Press | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook
Published September 27th 2017 by Less Than Three Press
Original TitleLyle’s Story
ISBN139781684310401
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesLandlocked Heart #2

A MelanieM Review: The Lonely Merman (Landlocked Heart #1) by Kay Berrisford

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

 

It’s Friday afternoon, and the last thing Ben wants to be doing is trudging through a wet forest in search of a public hazard. But duty calls, and turns out more exciting than Ben imagined when he encounters a magical ruin, an enchanted pool, and Lyle—a merman who’s cursed to be landlocked many miles from the sea.

Lyle is flamboyant and exciting—he’s got tentacles, for goodness sake!—and Ben falls hard. But Lyle’s been hurt before and finds trust difficult, refusing even to reveal how to break the curse that imprisons him. Ben’s just an ordinary guy, and can’t help wondering if he can ever be the hero Lyle needs.

The Lonely Merman (Landlocked Heart #1) by Kay Berrisford has a terrific premise behind it and some wonderful mythology that the author has created for her story.  I trudged along with Ben  and tumbled headlong into a magical place, haunted by a cursed being waiting for his forever love.

How could you not want to read about that?

And for most of this story, Kay Berrisford has me hooked.  The plight of the forest, the woods surrounding the pool and the temple because of Ben and the way in which he endangered them all had me on the edge of my seat.  That was so well done.  A little less was the quick relationship between Ben and Lyle.  Really Ben seemed halfway more irritated than smitten, but maybe that was me.

But the back history and story Berrisford created for Lyle is a superb one.  I really wish she had given more page space to this portion of the story and world building because she absolutely held my interest here.  This is also where I felt let down at the end.  Everything that occurs to Lyle at the end happens “off stage” as it were and we are cheated out of a huge element of this story, an important one.

So yes, the main characters get their HFN, yes I love the idea of the story and so many of the elements here I felt it warranted a 3 star rating. But there are also enough holes that it came perilously close to 2 as well.  That’s for all the sections of the story that the author didn’t deliver and should  have been included to give the reader a satisfactory closure to the story and Lyle’s part in it.

The title indicates that this is the first in a series so I’m curious if it’s going to pick up Ben and Lyle’s story from the ending of this one, an uncertain one at that or set off on another trajectory all together.  I’m invested enough that I’ll pick up that story to find out.  For all you fantasy lovers, there’s enough here that if you’re looking for a quick read with some interesting aspects to it, The Lonely Merman (Landlocked Heart #1) by Kay Berrisford just might be the thing for you.

Cover art by J. Ang is interesting but almost too simple for this story.

Sales Links:  Less Than Three Press | Amazon

Book Details:

ebook
Published July 8th 2017 by Less Than Three Press
ISBN139781684310395
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesLandlocked Heart #1