76 books like Ballad of Sea and Sky

I really enjoyed this book for so many reasons! The small-town coastal Maine setting was so atmospheric, and the author pulled you right into the setting. The mystery at the start of the book was very well done as to who Lorelei really is.

I absolutely adored the romance between her and Killian! Their chemistry was palpable, and they had healthy, mature communication with one another. I also loved how supportive Killian was toward her. I also really liked and related to Lorelei and her struggle to fit between two worlds and coming to accept who she is: a mermaid who craves flesh and blood—and I thought it was a great twist on traditional mermaid lore.

This book had such a strong pitch: Attack on Titan with mermaids.

I loved that the characters had strong motivations: our female protagonist, human Kestra, wants revenge on the merfolk for killing and devouring her father. Our male protagonist, merman Rake, wants to escape his life as a breeder male so that he can raise his son in peace.

I loved the writing and felt immersed in the underwater world, and life on Kestra’s island village. I also enjoyed reading about Rake and his son when they escape to the surface, and try to find their place in the world.

This was the first time I had heard of this author, and I enjoyed her work so much that I went on to read more of her books!

This book was such a fun, sapphic spin on The Little Mermaid! Instead of a mermaid falling for a human man, we have a siren falling for a female pirate captain. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in both the land and undersea worlds. I thought both Aqeara and Kae were strong female leads and loved reading the story from both their POVs.

The plot was well-paced and kept me reading, always wanting to know what happened next. The ending was unexpected and ended on a cliffhanger, but I thought it led beautifully to the sequel, which is also on my TBR.

I was immediately sold by the concept of this book: a sweet romantasy about noblemen and women who were descendents of merfolk but lived on land, and as society’s outcasts.

There were three POVs and it’s a short read, but yet, I found that the author seamlessly weaved them together and wrote them beautifully, and with such depth. Half-mer Meredith’s story both broke and warmed my heart. Human noble Peter and half-mermaid Rose have such a sweet childhood friends-to-lovers romance that seems so fitting for the time period. Finally, I loved that all of our characters are forced out of their comfort zones, and stumble their way into finding who they really are.

I found this to be a beautiful story of romance, survival, and identity.  

The Mermaid of Black Conch takes a mythological creature and gives her extraordinary life, as a very real, young woman, called Aycayia.

She is caught – hooked like a prize fish - by greedy anglers, and hauled from the sea, bringing with her an already fascinating and tragic history of injustice and misunderstanding. But, she is also an object of love.

Not all fishermen are commercial opportunists… Not all men are eager to exploit beautiful and unusual women, and so begins an extraordinary rescue, and a life-affirming relationship, with many unpredictable, literally magical, and truly remarkable twists.

This enchanting book, written with breath-taking originality, is likely to spell-bind you – permanently. You’ll never again think of mermaids in the same way.

In this prize-winning novel for older teenagers, Hersey recreates a story of Selkie lore which, in terms of the magical element, remains largely faithful to the original folklore. Teenager Danni’s mother has disappeared, so her daughter sets out to find her. Danni finds herself in her mother’s small Cornish hometown, and soon discovers secrets about her family that are so surprising and hard to believe, they threaten to blow her world apart. What follows is an adventure that enthralls deeply, incorporating fantasy elements into a satisfyingly emotional, realistic story. Stylistically, the sea, selkies, the coastline, and the landscape play important parts, providing an atmospheric backdrop to this fast-moving thrill ride. 

With Tales of the Seal People by Duncan Williamson, well, that is like going back to the source.

Back to a time when people sat round campfires and told old stories, and in so doing kindled the deep sense of wonder, connection with the natural world, and also a sense that we are part of that. I was lucky to have known Duncan, so I can hear his voice telling these tales as I read them.

I have to admit, although I know a lot about gods, I haven’t spent a ton of time reading about folkloric creatures, like faeries, brownies, and selkies. This book, set in a gothic old house in the English countryside in the 1850s, definitely made me feel my neglect of the topic; luckily, I got to learn alongside magician John Blake and Lord Thornby as they investigate the spell that’s holding Thornby trapped.

One remarkable thing about this book is the intriguing and clever magic system. The romance is great. And the twist at the end—well, I didn’t see it coming.

This exquisite novel begins with a university lecturer (Too old? Too deluded?) in love with student forty years his junior. She’s an ethereal, white-haired creature, but at first, their love seems mutual, and plausible. They honeymoon in Orkney, where selkie legends begin to encroach on his state of mind. He’s obsessed with her, and she’s obsessed with the sea. The reader is never quite sure if she’s a selkie or not, which resonates with me as I love books where ambiguity is an integral part of the narrative. 

One of my favorite fiction collections, it contains everything from selkies to homework assignments to imagined histories.

I’m drawn to stories that illuminate hidden literature, imagine landscapes, or unearth a secret history. Stories with footnotes, poems, and epistolaries. Tender is all these things, and in the best fabulist tradition, these elements are not the point. They heighten the stakes and experiences.

I love books where the unreal and uncanny don’t distract from reality but create a focus to make a fictional reality more real. In Tender, even stories that appear to be straight science fiction become something bigger and stranger.

Samatar is a masterful stylist, and her prose is outrageously good.