Customer Reviews

Mermaid Wife (Harlequin Romance)

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Back of the book Synopsis:

Have you ever seen a real, live mermaid?

Andrew Cordell has! For a few moments, anyway. It happened while he was diving in the Bahamas. And it changed his life.

Andrew, a powerful and charismatic state governor had been emotionally devastated by his wife's death four years earlier. Now, suddenly, his heart felt alive again-because of this mermaid.

In reality, she was a swimming instructor and aspiring marine biologist named Lindsay Marshall, who'd been hired to play a mermaid for a television commercial. And she did it well enough to convince at least on unsuspecting diver!

Andrew was completely enchanted when he saw her. Like a fairy-tale prince. Like a shipwrecked sailor lured into love...

The Girl: Lindsay Marshall, a swimming instructor for poor widdle deformed kiddies. She's got plans to be a marine biologist, so she gives swim lessons and her skills have earned her a one-time job playing a mermaid in a TV commercial for cosmetics. She's been under her parents' overprotective thumb (due to a childhood spinal injury) her whole life, so she's determined to take charge of her own future.

The Guy: Andrew Cordell, governor of Nevada, widowed (his wife had blood disease) and looks like a young Robert Redford - so we're told a few times. He's got an 18-year-old son named Randy who is intent on getting his dad hooked up.

The Setup: Lindsay is in the Bahamas practicing in her mermaid costume before the TV shoot. Andrew and Son are also diving in the same area, videotaping underwater scenes for fun. Andrew sees what he thinks is a mermaid and is instantly in love, the emotion even more overwhelming than with his late wife. He brings all his Executive powers to bear on locating her and finds out who she is and camps out on the reef the next day. Lindsay freaks out because the last thing a girl expects is an underwater stalker and panics to the extent that her costume's tail gets stuck and he frees her. She eventually finds out who he is, but the claustrophobia of the public life reminds her too much of her helicopter parents and she doesn't want to suffer it again, even though she wuvs him THIS much! So it's up to Andrew and his sidekick Randy to try to get her to not be such a skittish little mermaid.

The Good Stuff: Lindsay's anxiety was set up well, tying it in with the conflict that comes up between her and Andrew. However, what the author did with it in the final chapter was simply teeth-rotting.

My Gripes: Yay, second in a family series! References to past events and secondary characters I don't give a hoot about!

The final chapter was cringeworthy in the sugar department. Lindsay's PR stunt on the front steps of the Governor's offices in her mermaid costume and role-playing the part of a mermaid using her own personal life story was so twee and pwecious I wanted to hurl. It really has to be seen to be believed:

"Well, you see, all mermaids have jobs to do. Mine has been to teach baby mermaids how to swim. Some of them are born with oddly shaped tails, and some of them run into jagged coral. When that happens, they need special swimming lessons so their tails will grow strong and they can keep up with the others."

There's more, but she's not carted off to a psych ward like what I imagine would happen in real life. The gathered reporter swarm play along and all but cheer their governor to kiss da girl. I guess "The Little Mermaid" fever was rampant back in 1994. (And yes, the governor and his son DO watch the movie in this book.)

Also? One of Lindsay's adowable swimmer tots is called Cindy Lou. And, yes, the phrase "little Cindy Lou" DOES appear. More than once.

I'm off to chug a gallon of brine and polish off a bag of salt vinegar chips with a pickle chaser.

Lindsay Marshall had very controlling parents. Since she had been involved in a bus accident at a young age, her parents controlled where she went, who her friends were and they even wanted to control her career.

Then she met Andrew Cordell Governor of the state of Nevada. Andrew and his son finally get a chance to spend some much needed quality time together. He is Randy's father from 'The Rancher and the Redhead'. He filmed Lindsay swimming in her mermaid suit. But at first he thought she was real.

Even looking at her close up he was fascinated.

Problem: The first thing he did was to start trying to control Lindsay, he had the right idea, but she felt he should have asked her first.

Now he is in a fight against an foe he had no way of winning against. Lindsay's own fear of giving control over to anyone.

From the back of the book: 'Have you ever seen a real, live mermaid?

Andrew Cordell has! For a few moments anyway. It happened while he was diving in the Bahamas. And it changed his life.

Andrew, a powerful and charismatic state governor, had been emotionally devastated by his wife's death four years earlier. Now, suddenly, his heart felt alive again-because of this mermaid.

In reality, she was a swimming instructor and aspiring marine biologist named Lindsay Marshall, who'd been hired to play a mermaid for a television commercial. And she did it well enough to convince at least one unsuspecting diver!

Andrew was completely enchanted when he saw her. Like a fairy-tale prince. Like a shipwrecked sailor lured into love...'

Loved this sweet story. I am never disappointed with Rebecca's books. The heroine is strong and the ending is great. I love romance