Kate
I’m the last mermaid.
I’m back on shores of Lake Erie, but the cold waters are silent. There is nothing here for me but ghosts and the beach glass that litters the rocky shore. Long ago, I lived below the waves. Now, I am the sole survivor, and at long last, my mermaid glamour is leaving me.
Every day, I walk the beach. Every day, I wonder what happened to my people. The little pieces of … people. The little pieces of colored glass that wash ashore give me simple pleasure. They are gifts from the lake, reminders of home. I fashion them into trinkets: necklaces, earrings, bracelets. They are beautiful things. The humans seem love them.
Every day, I walk the beach. Nothing ever changes, until the day he says hello.
Cooper
I’m dying.
It’s not a question, it’s a fact. The cancer is eating me alive. They told me I have six months to live, maybe less. I came home, back to Chancellor on Lake Erie, to die. The sunsets are vivid there, and I will relish every one.
I’ve never seen anything more beautiful than a Lake Erie sunset until I see her.
All life is as fragile as glass.
What would you sacrifice to save the one you love?
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Kate and Cooper’s story is beautifully written. In this bittersweet tale Kate and Cooper have lost love ones. Their experiences have them avoiding relationships but there’s a strong pull between the two. It has Kate and Cooper daring to take a chance on love…even if it’s only for a short time.
Their’s is a touching story about sacrifice and unconditional love. I greatly enjoyed going on this journey with them. (4.5)
3 stars – I liked it
TW: Death of family and friends due to disease, Cancer
On the shore of Lake Erie, Kate is the last of her kind and spends her days hunting beach glass for jewelry. She has resigned herself to dying alone, until she meets Cooper, who also has a secret.
This was a surprisingly heartbreaking story for such a short story. The story takes place over just a few days so it is a very quick instant love romance. Kate has lived 300 years with the guilt of not being able to save her family. She is slowly losing her mermaid charm and will die soon. Cooper is struggling to cope with the end of his life. He has so much he wants to do but knows it will never happen. They both get a second chance at life though in the end.
This was told in dual POV which really helped sell both of their feelings on each other, as well as their guilt and grief about what has happened to them. For how short this story was, it held a lot of impact. Hollie Jackson also did a great job at narrating this story and portraying the different characters. She was able to portray the emotions to go along with the story which really sold it for me.
Melanie Karsak’s The Glass Mermaid: A Modern Fairy Tale Romance (book 1 of her The Chancellor Fairy Tales series) is just, quite frankly, beautiful. I was caught up when I read the publisher’s blurb. It had me at “[m]ore than anything, I want to be part of his world…before it’s too late”, and it hadn’t let go. I love the town of Chancellor and desperately want to move there. I love this “take” on the classic The Little Mermaid. I adore Kate and Cooper and was totally traumatized by their story – but in a good way indeed. But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises – the book definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the book is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.
Mermaid mania
So if you have read the original Little Mermaid, you know the story is sad. This version is attempting to match the sadness level while moving the characters to the New World. It was wonderful and sweet! And I loved the main character!
Finding love towards the end of your life, can be a beginning
A poignant story of coming death; of maybe finding love when there is no hope for the future. But in death new life begins. I don’t do spoilers, but I hope this intriguies you enough to get this beautifully told story and learn what’s inbetween the lines.