Sleeping With The Fishes [Paperback]

MaryJanice Davidson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Jove (December 1, 2006)
• ASIN: B002B2232S
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,642,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MaryJanice Davidson has been credited with starting paranormal chick lit. The New York Times bestselling author of the Undead series, she lives in Minnesota. Please visit her on the Web at www.maryjanicedavidson.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Buy a tuna, get a minnow..., November 28, 2006

By 

lwd (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sleeping with the Fishes (Fred the Mermaid, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

At about 250 pages of actual text, this would be a short story, but when you only use 9-22 lines per page, it becomes more of an outline of a short story. Maybe a book report... (maybe just a conglomeration of snarky comments and cartoon characters for an article in Rolling Stone). I thought the Undead books were getting way too short, but this one undercuts even those in word count and lack of substance.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every minute of the hour and a half (including a dinner break) it took to read Sleeping with the Fishes. The main character, Fred, is a cruel and sarcastic bully (beats up Dad for having sex with mom in the first chapter, so cute (NOT)), the two heroes are sexy and ignorant, there is no plot, no typical MJD sexiness, and an abrupt "out of the blue" ending. What's not to love? Simply, I didn't have time to get angry, before the entire episode was done and I realized I'd been royally conned. I can't blame MJD or her publisher, they have a great gig going, I jumped at the bait and they reeled me in. If that's what you're looking for, you're in luck.

Just know that you're buying a smelly minnow for the price of a tuna, or you'll feel a bit used when you're done reading.

61 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short & Sassy MJD, November 29, 2006

By 

Anna Hope (PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sleeping with the Fishes (Fred the Mermaid, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

By now if you've read MJD's Undead series,( or her superhumans, her werewolves, pretty much anything she writes) you should know that the story is going to be a fast read. The snappy dialogue and quick plot developement propell each of her works along. And while I've had issues in the past with her main heroines being a little too much a like, I really liked Fred! She's sulky but practical and mouthy without being grotesquily so.( This is very geeky but she reminds me of Shego from Kim Possible, for adults.)

And the other characters were delightful as well. Fred's mother & father, who she starts off the book by having an embarrassing incident with, are rich hippies. Her bestfreind seems so metrosexual as too be gay but is still buff. The intern who annoys her at work is Barbie perfect, which haven't we all been annoyed by? And even her fishy co-workers are funny in their hunger strike over tank shaking music.

Ofcourse Fred has not one but two love interests pop into her life suddenly. First theirs the hunky fellow marine biologist who travels the world and is rich from writing romance novels. Then there's Prince Artur of the Black Sea who just seems to know Fred will be his queen. Oddly the two big lugs like each other so much I could see them all being one big happy disfunctional supernatural familly. I will definitely pick up the next in this series if merely out of curiousity!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very superficial story with little worldbuilding and contrived romance, February 3, 2007

By 

Michelle "Michelle" (Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sleeping with the Fishes (Fred the Mermaid, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

First, let me say I like the Undead books that Davidson writes, but Sleeping with the Fishes fell far short in my opinion. The plot is weak, very weak. A localized pollution problem in Boston attracts the attention of Merfolk all the way out in the Black Sea? Weak and not very believable, especially considering the pollution they're fighting isn't confined to just the villain or location in the book--it's a global problem. In fact, Eastern Europe (where the Black Sea is) has much more serious marine ecological problems than the one the book highlights.

There is little description, which I found strange considering this is a mermaid story which entails a very different environment than we're used to. I thought there would be more as Davidson indicates she researched the ocean as preparation for the story, but nope, the story is a lot of dialogue and very little setting. The characters are one dimensional and the romance is contrived-- i.e. guy sees girl and falls in love, there's no romantic build-up. I really dislike when people fall in love just because the author says they're supposed to, it's a cop-out and signals poor character development on the author's part.

The concept was great, the execution was not. The worldbuilding needed to be much more detailed for this novel to work for me and the characters needed to be three dimensional for me to buy into the romance. I won't be buying the sequel.