2017 International Book Awards Finalist~”Your book is beautiful, Katy. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and sexy. I love the writing. I love the characters. You have me sighing like a damn teenager.” – Leylah Attar, New York Times bestselling author of The Paper SwanFrom New York Times bestseller Katy Regnery comes a new twist on a beloved fairytale.A fisherman’s daughter.The governor’s son.Two … fisherman’s daughter.
The governor’s son.
Two very different worlds.
In this modern retelling of The Little Mermaid, a fisherman’s daughter from an Outer Banks island untouched by time, meets the son of North Carolina’s governor at a fancy party where she’s working.
Laire, who wants so much more from life than her little island can offer, is swept away by wealthy, sophisticated Erik, who is, in turn, entranced by her naiveté and charm. The two spend a whirlwind summer together that ends on the knife-point of heartbreak and forces them to go their separate ways.
Years later, when fate leads them back to one another, they will discover the terrifying depth of the secrets they kept from each other, and learn that shattered hearts can only be healed by a love that willfully refuses to die.
Contemporary Romance. Due to profanity, adult themes and very strong sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Don’t Speak is part of the ~a modern fairytale~ collection: contemporary, standalone romances inspired by beloved fairy tales.
The Vixen and the Vet (Beauty & the Beast)
Never Let You Go (Hansel & Gretel)
Ginger’s Heart (Little Red Riding Hood)
Dark Sexy Knight (Camelot)
Don’t Speak (The Little Mermaid)
Shear Heaven (Rapunzel)
Fragments of Ash (Cinderella)
more
(Can be read as a standalone)
I really enjoyed this modern retelling of The Little Mermaid. It’s a unique version with clever twists and touching moments.
The first half of the book is about Laire and Erik’s romance as a young couple. Laire is from a small island that is extremely conservative. In her community, it’s completely normal to get married and start having children right after high school. But she has big dreams to go into fashion and see the world.
Erik’s world flips upside down when he meets a fisherman’s daughter. She makes the time at his family’s summer home bearable. As the governor’s son, his parents have his future mapped out. And he knows that dating Laire will come with disapproval.
The two make their own rules and try to figure out how they could be together. But things get ugly and they just have too many things going against them.
I’m torn about this book. The first half of the book is extremely tiring because it’s so long. The couple have lengthy conversations about kissing and sex since Laire is from a place that is so conservation. I don’t mind that she’s inexperienced, but to me it felt it was dragging a little bit.
But the last half of the book…. I LOVED IT. It brought me to tears, and I had an ugly cry face that lasted to the end. I’m a sucker for second chance romances, and this hit me hard.
Favorite Quotes:
I come here every night to be near you. I live for sunset like a vampire because that’s when my heart starts beatin’ each day, when I grab the keys to the car or boat and race over here to be with you. It makes me crazy all day to be away from you because I want more.
It was as though he’d awakened, over the past couple of days, from a years-long nightmare, and he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Laire was the key to his happiness. He had missed out on enough time with her… She was the missing piece of his heart, the joy of his soul, the very lifeblood of his being…
No way. I know Laire Cornish. I met her six years ago at my parents’ summer house. She had pinkish-gold hair and was wearing jeans and boots and black shirt. She told me she had crabs, then ran away.
My Review:
Laire and Erik immediately and equally intrigued me, as they were such a dichotomy. She had been raised on a small and isolated South Carolina island with its own unique accent and unusual manner of speaking – and despite access to television and the internet – continued to cling to their antiquated fishing village culture that remained straight out the 1950s. Laire was forthright, guileless, and without pretense or artifice, although she was also extremely curious. Unlike her sisters, Laire yearned for a life beyond a repeat their parents’ life cycle of fish, marriage, and children. A delivery errand for her father resulted in providing Laire with two highly exciting offers that opened up her world; one for her first job, and the other for her first date. Erik, the wealthy and privileged son of a politician, found Laire to be even more intriguing than I did. And lucky for Laire, in addition to being sexy, gorgeous, and rich, Erik was extremely sweet, patient, and insightful. I adored him, all he needed was to be covered in chocolate and he would have been complete perfection!
Erik and Laire both felt protective of their relationship as well as the pressure to keep their association stealthy. Regardless, they were good together, enjoyed their time with each other, and after deciding to make their own rules – they worked so very well… for a time. But secrets never stay secret in a small and inbred community, and the fall-out was heart-wrenching, earth shattering, unforgiving, and long lasting. I realized all too late that I had become much too deeply invested and embedded in Ms. Regnery’s engaging and emotive narrative. I was devastated for them, and the hits just kept coming. I was as gutted as the catch of the day, and while I love/hate when that happens, I do realize that this is a typically unavoidable phenomenon when reading this crafty author – she has mad skills!
Well this adaptation of the Little Mermaid was amazing, the modern retelling of the fairytale is phenomenal, I truly enjoyed this book. Laire and Erik story was one you need to read, I am definitely reading more of this modern fairytales books. You need to read to understand how amazing Katy Regnery wrote the story plot and characters. Simply a must read.
Received from Romance Read of the Month Club for honest review with no compensation..4.5 stars
Don’t Speak: a modern fairytale inspired by the Little Mermaid and written by Katy Regnery. If you loved the Little Mermaid story or movie you will love this book too!
Instead of under the sea…we have the Outer Banks in North Carolina, with Laire and Erik hoping to overcome there different worlds to become a couple but life and evil people get in the way…can these two ever find their way back together??
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Loved every one of these updated fairy tales. Great characters. Super author!
DON’T SPEAK is book 5 in Katy Regnery’s Modern Fairytale Series. It is based on the Little Mermaid. The first part of this book is spent in world building, so you have two entirely different worlds that the two main characters come from when they first meet.
Laire Maiden Cornish lived on Corey Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with her father and two sisters. As a tenth-generation Corey Islander, was about as “old Corey” as they came, and she had the accent to prove it. Laire was expected to live, marry and carry on with the traditions, and anything different was completely out of the question. Laire had dreams of leaving. Never, never, never, never, never “settling down” on Corey Island, and having half a dozen kids with a local boy before she hit thirty. There’s a whole wide world out there, away from Corey, away from the outer banks, and she dreams of being able to see it. She didn’t know how she could stop from being trapped there forever!
Erik Rexford was the only son of Governor of North Carolina Brandy Rexford, and former debutante Ursula “Fancy” Rexford. The family, including his sister Hilary, were spending the summer in their home in Buxton, surrounded by millionaires from other places. Their home was named Utopia Manor, and Laire was headed there in her father’s boat to make a delivery of blue crabs. It was six packed coolers that Laire would haul up to the kitchen, for a big spectacular twenty-first birthday party for Eric. This is the place that the two worlds of Eric and Laire first unite, and they would never be the same.
Laire Cornish from Corey Island, a fisherman’s daughter, and Erik Rexford the Governor’s son could not possibly be meant to be together. The most perfect, most handsome person she had ever seen in her entire life, but Laire wanted her first kiss and she wanted it from Erik. The “first” kiss scene was everything it could be.
Erik realized very early that her values were old-fashioned and conservative. Her world was alien to him, frozen in time…which meant that his modern world was alien to her, too. They realized that they came from different places and saw the world differently. But if two people care about each other, and want to be with each other, it’s nobody’s business what they do when they’re alone together. They could make their own rules. So what started as an unknown summer long adventure, filled with magic and stolen moments, turned into a world of their own filled with love. Secrets and lies are hard to keep however. When they are exposed their two different worlds collide, and the consequences bring their own private world crashing down.
If I am being honest then I am not a big fan of the slow-burn and separation-in-time stories. This is where I wanted to break my rule of not skipping ahead in any book. I so wanted to skim the pages to get to the part I wanted to read. I resisted jumping ahead, but it wasn’t easy. I will say that once I got to the long awaited “reunion” I was so happy to read “classic” Katy Regnery writing. 4.5 *
I’ve always loved fairytales and in Don’t Speak, Katy Regnery takes the childhood fairytale of The Little Mermaid and ramps it up to a beautiful adult love story.
Laire is a fisherman’s daughter living a very sheltered life on an island off the coast of North Carolina where ideas and ideals are more like those of bygone days. She yearns to get away and see more and experience more of the world through college and pursuing her career goals.
Eric is the Governor’s son, being primed to follow in his father’s footsteps. He feels like there is more out there but doesn’t like to rock the boat and does as he is expected while biding his time until he can realize what he is waiting for.
“His gaze followed hers, to the millions of stars in the inky night sky.
“We’re just two tiny specks of dust in a big, wide world,” she murmured. “But I feel so much, Erik. I feel so much, it’s like the whole universe couldn’t hold it even if it tried.”
The author took me on a heartbreaking journey full of love and angst. Laire feels that she is always so afraid but even though there may not have been an actual Mer-King or Sea-Witch for her to contend with she must fight and make the most courageous decisions.
“She was the missing piece of his heart, the joy of his soul, the very lifeblood of his being,…”
I fell in love with this story and especially this amazing heroine! 5 Mermaid Stars!!
A modern fairytale that will leave you breathless after you read it. That’s how I really enjoyed this book! 5 amazing stars!
Laire wants nothing more than to leave the little island she lives on now with her 2 sisters and father and to follow her dreams. But that doesn’t seem as easy as it seems and she feels stuck. Only one day she is determined to make it happen. When she meets Eric, son of the Governor, she is blown away. She tries to stay away from him but something keeps drawing herself to him. One summer is all that they seem to have but both want more. Only some things are not what they claim to be and they are torn apart.
Now years later, both have changed and secrets are about to be revealed. Will their love be strong enough to heal and have their happy ending they waited for so long or will it be too late?…
I’ve always been a fan of The Little Mermaid so I was very much looking forward to reading Don’t Speak. I knew going in that there wouldn’t be any actual mermaids in the story and that was fine. But the author included little references here and there that made me smile.
I’m finding it a bit difficult to explain certain aspects that I particularly liked about this book without actually saying something that, to some, would be considered a spoiler. And although I found some mistakes in the book, overall I enjoyed it very much!
I’m not a particularly fast reader, but I ended up staying up until nearly 5 am this morning because I so badly wanted to see how it ended. But that didn’t happen. I can always tell when a book sucks me into the story if it keeps me up to all hours of the morning. 🙂
I definitely think that if you are the type of person who loves a good fairytale inspired story with a little steam thrown in for good measure, you’ll enjoy this one. I’m certainly looking forward to reading more from this series.
Wonderful
4.5 “We Can Make Our Own Rules” Stars
“Sometimes you just lend a hand because you can, not because there’s a gun to your head.”
Laire Cornish from Corey Island has been raised to be strong, hardworking, honest, and pure. She was raised to never take handouts and to never ask for help. She was raised to believe that at a certain point in your life–around age eighteen–you are to settle down, get married, and have kids. That’s the way of life on Corey. You do these things and only these things. You sure don’t go off and get involved with a dingbatter.
Erik Rexford from inland, NC. Doesn’t matter where, really, because he’s North Carolina royalty. He’s the Governor’s son. Born with that silver spoon in his mouth, he was raised to fill his father’s footsteps. He wasn’t to deviate from this plan because that’s the way of the Rexfords. What isn’t part of the plan? Runnin’ around with an island girl all summer.
I’m going to go ahead and say Erik and Laire have one of the cutest meetings ever. “I have crabs!” I’m still laughing.
“Was it a good kiss?”
“Yeah. Top ten, for sure.”
“Nine better, huh?”
“No, actually. I revise my answer: none better. Top one.”
Awwwwwwwww, I melted a little here. I mean, is there anything sweeter than this?
“Darlin’, I come here every night to be near you. I live for sunset like a vampire because that’s when my heart starts beatin’ each day, when I grab the keys to the car or boat and race over here to be with you. It makes me crazy all day to be away from you because I want more> I want to talk for hours and kiss you and find out what makes you laugh and…Damn it, Laire, this isn’t enough.”
So, what do you do when it isn’t enough? Do you call it quits? Do you push for more? Laire and Erik aren’t normal people falling in love. They are star-crossed, they are from two different backgrounds, they aren’t meant to find one another. Their love should never be, but despite all of this, can they overcome those obstacles and hurdles that stand in their way? Will they persevere?
“It hurts to fall in love with someone. It hurts awful.”
The Princess and the dark haired Prince
My second read by this amazing author and I’m beginning to see a pattern of dependency for her writing. Don’t Speak is my second read by Katy Regnery and I love it. Loved. It. The modern fairytale inspired by the Little Mermaid was perfect. A slow, angst love in which two people from totally opposites of the world share a love that happens once in a life time.
I love the clever way in which the character’s name give you a hint of the roles they will play throughout the story. I loved how the story, although fictional, takes root and then unfolds with realistic flair. You fall in love with some of the characters and you despise the villains.
When a friend recommended this series of fairytales, I wasn’t sure how I open I would be to these twists. But I was wrong, once you start you invest in everything happening. The setting, the story, and the feelings deliver such an amazing read. Plus, the best part of these tales…. Happily Ever After.
Without a doubt, this a MUST read
This story kept my attention. It was a love story but sad too.