The Mermaid and the Manning

Book six of my Once Upon a Temptation series is here, and this one was especially fun for me to write.

My daughters have always been fascinated by mermaids. Over the years, our house has been home to more toy mermaids than I could possibly count, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before a little of that magic found its way into one of my books.

There aren’t any actual mermaids in The Mermaid and the Manning, but the story is loosely inspired by The Little Mermaid. My heroine is named Ariel, she has a complicated relationship with her father, and she desperately wants the freedom to decide what her own life is going to look like.

After that, though, Ariel pretty much took over and became entirely her own person.

Ariel Fisher spends her days diving beneath the murky waters of Lake Ray Hubbard, photographing underwater restoration projects for her family’s struggling marine business. It’s the life her father has always expected her to want.

The problem is, Ariel wants something else.

In secret, she takes discarded lake glass, twisted pieces of metal, and forgotten debris and turns them into art. It’s something that belongs completely to her—a dream she hasn’t quite found the courage to claim out loud.

And then Orion Manning shows up on her dock.

He’s charming. He’s irritating. He makes terrible mermaid jokes. And, almost immediately, he sees a part of Ariel she’s been trying very hard to keep hidden.

Unfortunately, he’s also a Manning.

The Fisher and Manning families have been locked in a bitter business feud for years, which makes Orion exactly the kind of man Ariel should stay far away from.

Naturally, that doesn’t go according to plan.

What follows is a story about attraction that really shouldn’t happen, family expectations that have become a little too heavy, dreams that refuse to stay hidden, and a woman learning that loving the people in her life doesn’t necessarily mean letting them choose her future.

At its heart, that was the part of Ariel’s story I loved most.

She loves her family. She understands why her father wants what he believes is best for her. But she also reaches a point where she has to ask herself a difficult question: What if the life everyone else has planned for me isn’t the life I want?

And, of course, there’s Orion—who complicates absolutely everything.

There are bad mermaid jokes, stolen glances, family grudges, creative dreams, a disastrously memorable date, plenty of chemistry, and two people who have every reason in the world not to fall for each other.

So if you’ve ever loved mermaids, rooted for a woman brave enough to chase a dream her family doesn’t quite understand yet, or enjoyed a romance where falling in love is probably a terrible idea…

I hope you’ll give Ariel and Orion a chance.

The Mermaid and the Manning, book six in the Once Upon a Temptation series, is available now on Amazon.

I hope you love their story as much as I loved writing it.