My favourite books to buy in bookstores are those you didn’t know excisted before you went in, those finds that you just stumble upon. Mermaid in Manhattan is one of those. I went to the store to pick up something completely different and also came out with this.

Mermaid in Manhattan – Jessica Gadziala
Original publication year: 2026

Elevator pitch: Mermaid princess is reluctantly engaged to the human possibly next mayor of New York for political reasons. She doesn’t like that and tries to get him to break off their engagement. Also, there’s a talking pelican.

This romance doesn’t take itself too serieously and therefore I’m not taking it too seriously either.

I appreciated that Iris, the mermaid princess, had several people (and pelicans) around her that were a voice of reason that she could talk to. The third act conflict could have been much bigger and messier if she would have been more alone or just hadn’t talked to the people around here. I appreciated this, I’m not too fond of these conflicts.

I didn’t feel like Iris and Finn (I didn’t really think about his name until now, that was quite funny) actually spent so much time together. They do live in the same apartment the majority of the book but he is out on his PR things and she explores the town and makes up new things to get him to break off the engagement. I felt like we only got the attraction part but the actual liking personalities didn’t get a lot of time to grow.

I liked Gadziala’s writing, I think this book was of a good length and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked that we have a magical world very similar to ours and that things aren’t overly explained. Even though the relationship might not have had to grow enough, I really liked reading it. I want to read more from her.

I do hope that we get a story about the bookstore witch, I liked her and would like to follow her and her ghost.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars – I really liked it