A short tale of seduction, selkies, and sushi.

Alex is a werewolf with problems – he’s unexpectedly alive, he’s quite definitely gay, and he’s been ordered into a partnership with one very flirty merman.

In this LBGTQ sweet short love story, New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger brings her comedic voice to contemporary fiction and m/m romance. Prequel to The Sumage Solution.

Delicate Sensibilities?

Contains confused lovelorn werewolves and very pretty ex-Goth mermen who are exclusively interested in each other. May also contain fish, Irish mafia, and a shocking lack of tea.

 

Review

 

I love to pieces the first book in this series and was really excited to learn that there was a pre equal with the brother's romance.  Meh. The world is built just a little and it is funny in place but the romance doesn't feel deep and the sexy times are off page which is out of tone with what happens in the next book.  I am glad I read it but if I read this first I would have no idea of how amazing the next book is. And it is amazing.

Short, but adorable.

At first, I'm REALLY annoyed with the use of italics on this one. Almost all of the internal thoughts are in italics and it's grating on my nerves. However, I'm powering it through, since it's a short story (only around 11,000 based on Smashwords info). And in the end, I'm pretty entertained. It's quite a fun idea; Alec is a werewolf + marine biologist ("I specialize in microorganisms ... not fish!"). He is asked by his Alpha to work with a couple of merfolks ("We are NOT fish!") to follow a white collar crime: a couple of selkies (a.k.a. Irish mafia) seems to be doing some money laundering.I enjoy the interaction between Alec and Marvin, the merman. Alec is pretty deep in the closet (so deep, he shits mothballs *lol*) because the werewolf pack (including his Dad) is pretty much a butch society. Since Alec is not, he seems surprised to see Marvin flirting outrageously with him and that Marvin thinks he's beautiful. It makes them quite a couple. Oh, and Alec has another secret that makes him determined not to out himself to the rest of the pack.It is a nice comedy story ... although I have to wonder (the selkies provide sushi. Marvin also eats sushi and gives Alec sardines as a courting gift. I mean, isn't that like, eating your own brothers and sisters?!?)

Being born into a rabidly macho family of werewolves keeps Alex, who has known forever that he’s gay, way inside the closet. What would the pack think!? And what would his mindlessly brutal father do!? Given his proclivities he can’t believe he survived the transformation from human to wolf and now Alex keeps his head down as much as possible, working at a marine biology lab by day. Because of this vague connection to the sea, his pack’s alpha wolf picks Alex for a special undercover mission with 2 merfolk, a siren-like mermaid his pack-mates would give their canines for and her openly flirtatious brother who’s making it very hard for Alex to maintain his straight cover. This is a long short story-about 38 pages-with plenty of room for Carringer to sketch out a present day parallel world suffused with supernaturals—it opens with a cell phone call from a busybody ghost and it’s the Irish Mafia in the form of selkies that Alex and the merfolk are investigating. Witty banter abounds and there’s a wonderful twist at the end.