Description
An immersive fantasy, filled with dark magic, mystery and romance, from the author of The Dark Tide.
Cursed to haunt the river running through the magical spa town where she drowned, water nymph Gisela dreams of returning to the living world and the family she left behind. All it takes to regain her humanity is a kiss from a mortal ... if only others didn't see her as monster.
Kazik, the brooding, interfering, spirit-hunting grandson of a local witch is determined to rid the world of unholy creatures like Gisela, but his plans go awry. Gisela strikes up a deal: she won't tell the other spirits that he's losing his magic, if he agrees to play matchmaker. But trouble arises when both she and Kazik set their sights on the same, devilishly handsome, young man ...
Expertly crafted, this hauntingly opulent quest through the spirit world is a slow burn enemies-to-lovers story told in multiple perspectives.
Review
Gisela drowned about a year ago in a beautiful bathhouse tourist town. She is now a water nymph, who is determined to get her old life back - she just needs to get a mortal to kiss her and she will regain her humanity. She enjoys teasing the devout Kazik, who is the town’s exorcist, and she convinces him to help her achieve her goal, so that he can be rid of her forever.
The gorgeous Aleksey becomes her target, unbeknownst to her or Kazik that Aleksey is a bies, a powerful creature that inhabits the body of a human, and he himself has a new target.
As Gisela, Aleksey and Kazik come to understand so much more about each other’s perspectives,this gives them each reason to doubt their more solid beliefs. But the main story revolves around the developing relationship of these three characters. This becomes particularly difficult for the religious Kazik, who knows that although he shouldn’t have feelings for a water nymph, he definitely shouldn’t have feelings for Aleksey!
Will Gisela even be able to leave this place, and the people that she is growing so fond of, if she does achieve her dream?
This is a terrific ghostly tale, based on Slavic folklore, that shows that there are many different ways of looking at a situation. It is primarily an angsty three-sided love story, with a potentially deadly undercurrent. Ideal for all secondary readers, as it contains no swearing or anything more than a kiss (if indeed they even manage that!).
