Emily Jane Buehler

A mermaid goes to land for the first time to try and find the missing king. On her way to beach, she sees a fisherman and becomes obsessed with his beauty. But she’s heard all the terrible rumors about humans and fae...

Like Forest Bride, this feels more like a YA fantasy than an Adult romance. I was particularly thrown when two characters in this pseudo-medieval setting started talking about the patriarchy. I certainly don’t have an issue with books discussing the patriarchy, but it felt awfully anachronistic, and also, both characters were from messed up feudal societies. I don’t think “the patriarchy” is necessarily the starting place to deal with that.… (meer)

This was cute. The earlier books have been on my TBR, but I have yet to read them, so I know I'm missing some context but I didn't feel particularly lost. I'm sure the world would be richer with the full context of the earlier books. "Woodland Stranger" is sweet, cozy, and low-stakes for the most part, although Burne does have some *stuff* in his past. He definitely has anxiety brought on by bullying. He's a sweetie and a himbo, and I read him as being autistic-coded, although that's definitely my (biased) interpretation. This was a cozy peppers read--cozy with a bit of spice--and it's fairly straightforward. I did find the prose to be pretty simplistic, and I'm not sure why Burne kept feeling like he was running out of time after knowing Gray for, like, a day. The writing is closer to what I'd expect from a middle grade book, but then zesty scenes were happening, so that threw me off at times and is the reason I'm giving it a slightly lower than average-for-me star rating. Still it's a harsh world out there, and sometimes we need a low-stakes fairytale romance between a hot otherworldly gardener who can turn into a giant squirrel and a soft, soup-cooking himbo who lives in the woods. I won this as an ARC from LibraryThing, which has not impacted my honest review of the book.… (meer)