Pearl of Magic: A Little Mermaid Romance by Emily Deady, 2020

Click to view 
on Goodreads

 Life in captivity is horrible.

 But pretending to be a prisoner is worse.

 Aizel is a Majis and, against her will, a spy. She is supposed to be uncovering secrets for a cruel king, but spends most of her time listening to the haughty, self-absorbed musings of her captor, Prince Erich.

 It would be much less frustrating if she could at least complain about it, but the king has silenced her, taking away her voice so that she cannot wield her magic.

 If she fails to gather information from Erich, her family will be killed. But if she reports back to the king, her people's only hope for freedom will be exterminated. Can she find a way to communicate with her captor and convince him of the truth about the Majis?

(259 pages)

    I've been on a huge fairytale retelling kick lately, and I really enjoyed Deady's take on Cinderella and Beauty & the Beast in the first two books in this series. I was excited for Pearl of Magic because it can be taken in so many interesting directions.

    The first couple pages were very confusing to get into, because there was no recap to bring us back up to speed. I actually had to flip back to the earlier books to remind myself of the countries and characters that have already been established, and to verify that Erich is a younger siblings of the two princes in the earlier books. I also got muddled between the two countries on the mainland.

    Once I got all that straightened out, though, I really enjoyed this interesting take on the Little Mermaid story. It was interesting to explore a scenario where the prince knows she's being forced not to talk, and her voice has been taken from her as a way to take away her magic. I'm also really glad Deady didn't go with the Ursula plotline of an imposter almost stealing the little mermaid's man, because you really have to bend over backward to make it plausible.

    Both Erich and Aizel are fun characters to follow. Erich sometimes felt a bit tropey to me, like a carefully selected collection of personality traits rather than a fully-fleshed person. I thought the shift in his attitude toward Aizel and the Majis was pretty realistic, as he spent more and more time learning who she was through daily interactions. Their growing relationship is a cute thing to watch, and I enjoyed their interactions and wished there were more of them. I did feel like the climax was a bit rushed, though.

    As for Aizel, her development was much more fleshed out than Erich's - which makes sense, since most of the book is told from her perspective. There is a decent amount of nuance to her, especially around her ethical struggles. The king is holding her little sister's life hostage, and says he'll only spare her if Aizel kills Erich. I liked watching her really wrestle with this challenge, questioning whether she's the sort of person who could kill anyone - even to save a loved one - but also desperate to do whatever it takes to save her sister. My only qualm about Aizel is that I didn't necessarily see how her personality was especially suited to Erich's; she spends most of the book stressed out, terrified, and/or furious. She doesn't have much of a chance to discuss hobbies or life philosophies or anything with him, because she's literally muted.

    Overall, this was a cute book which I enjoyed reading. I think my favorite book in the series must still be Thorn of Rose, the Beauty & the Beast retelling. And my all-time favorite Little Mermaid retelling is definitely still A.G. Marshall's Princess of Mermaids. But this is a fun read that I do recommend to anyone looking for a nice fairytale retelling.