Mer Chronicles, #3
by Tobie Easton
Date of Publication: March 19th 2019
Cover Artist: Beetiful Book Covers
Cover Artist: Beetiful Book Covers
Publisher: Month9Books
Genre: Fantasy
BLURB
Immerse is the spellbinding and breathless final installment of the Mer Chronicles series where descendants of the Little Mermaid must face deadly magic, shifting alliances, and the dangers of forbidden love.
Lia can’t wait for her parents’ coronation. Now living in the sparkling palace beneath the waves, she sneaks off to Malibu whenever possible to see Clay. Tucked away in an abandoned seaside mansion, Lia and Clay devise a plan to ensure they can stay together forever.
But when an old enemy resurfaces and Lia is restricted to the palace for the safety of all Merkind, she and Clay are ripped apart once more.
She fears not only for Clay, but for her best friend Caspian, who seems to be swimming down a dangerous path. He has invited the conniving Melusine to the coronation ball, convinced she’s capable of change. And no matter how hard Lia fights it, showing up on Caspian’s arm is just the start of Melusine’s insidious return to her life.
With threats Below growing more ominous by the day and a powerful ancient ritual looming, soon the two girls can’t escape each other. As their fates grow increasingly intertwined, Melusine might be the only one who can help Lia find the answers she desperately needs to save everyone she loves and to achieve her happily ever after. But can Lia trust her?
Excerpt:
I wish Clay were
here to see this. The thought flits through my mind again and again. When my
family and I swim through the sparkling entrance of the palace, I wish I could
grab his hand. As we’re greeted by hundreds of nobles swishing their tails in
applause, I imagine the excited words he’d whisper in my ear. And as we start
down the center aisle toward the thrones at the other end of the cavernous
chamber, I yearn to show him how beautifully this room has been restored since
he and I were last here.
Approaching the
thrones, we process over an exquisite mosaic made up of abalone, mother of
pearl, and troca shell pieces. It takes everything in me to keep my face
neutral, to keep my head lifted and my sunbeam crown upright. This is the spot
where, not so long ago, Clay risked his life to save mine. I glance around me
at the splendor and the celebration. Clay’s sacrifice made today possible, and
he’s not even here to see it.
Author Info
Tobie Easton was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where she’s grown from a little girl who dreamed about magic to a twenty-something who writes about it. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California, Tobie hosts book clubs for tweens and teens (so she’s lucky enough to spend her days gabbing about books). She and her very kissable husband enjoy traveling the globe and fostering packs of rescue puppies.
The Book Junkie Reads . . . Interview with Tobie Easton . . .
How would you describe your style of writing to someone that has never read your work?
I’ve heard readers say I write modern fairy tales. I write what I would most like to read, which means I write books that feel magical—whether that feeling comes from magic itself, from beautiful, alluring settings, or from the sparkle and temptation of first love.
Do you feel that writing is an ingrained process or just something that flows naturally for you?
Definitely both. Writing professionally—making sure I show up at my computer every day and put in the time even when I don’t feel like it or when I have other pressing things that also need to get done—is a process that I needed to build over time. And that I’m still building. I find that sticking to a set schedule really helps me. I try to write at the same time of day with the same tea and the same music; it helps cue my brain that it’s writing time and gets me in the right mindset. Once I’m in that mindset and the words are flowing, well, that’s the magic part that feels natural. I’m constantly working on how to get to that magic place more easily and more often.
Do you have a character that you have been working on for a long time that still isn't quite ready, but fills you with excitement to work on the story?
For a long time, my answer to this question was writing in the P.O.V. of Melusine from the Mer Chronicles. Ever since she first appeared as the villain in Emerge, she fascinated me, and by the time I’d delved deeper into her character for Submerge, I was hooked. The prospect of writing from her point of view was intimidating to me at first because, unlike my protagonist who was raised in the human world, Melusine grew up under the waves, and I only wanted to write her if I felt like I could be true to all the details of that upbringing—in everything from her viewpoints to the expressions she used. By the time I sat down to write Immerse, the third book in the series, I’d been writing in the Mer world for years and I finally felt like I could do Melusine’s P.O.V. justice. That’s why Immerse is told from two perspectives; it alternates between Lia’s chapters and Melusine’s, which allowed me to explore a lot of new layers of the Mer world this time around. I’m SO excited for readers to get to hear directly from Melusine herself!
Where would you spend one full year, if you could go ANYWhere? What would you do with this time?
I’d have to say I’d spend the year travelling around the UK, doing a mixture of sightseeing and writing. I love history, so if I had a whole year, I would get to take in a lot of the lesser known historical sites. I’d also really delve into a bunch of the mythology and folklore because I’m so drawn to that. I’d do some research on my ancestry while I was there, since a lot of it goes back to that region. And I would want to take time to write in a Scottish castle, an Irish cottage, and an English country estate.
Can you share your next creative project(s)? If yes, can you give a few details?
I do have a new book I’m working on that I’m really excited about. I can’t say much about it yet other than that it’s in an opulent setting that I think will really appeal to my Mer Chronicles readers and that there’s a hefty dose of forbidden love (surprise, surprise).
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