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IndieReader Approved with 4.8 of 5 stars: “MERMAID OF VENICE is an electrifying series starter that immerses readers in a world filled with glamor, sex, murder, and mermaids.”
Dive into the extremely glamorous life of Gia Acquaviva, an ultra-rich Venetian mogul with a portfolio of clubs and casinos around the globe. Gia harbors dark secrets––and an underwater graveyard filled with the bones of her former lovers.
Her family’s roots descend from the mythological sirens of ancient Greece, but she’s taken every precaution to protect her anonymity and the existence of other mermaids. Gia lures in men with a beguiling façade, but inside lurks a deeply troubled soul, severely damaged by a mysterious past.
Despite her sinister desires, she longs for true intimacy and believes she may have found her match in Cameron Langley, a successful London-based banker and dead ringer for Chris Hemsworth. He offers Gia her first real opportunity for lasting love. They share an intensely passionate, deeply sensual connection… but is her growing affection for new lover enough to lull the murderous cravings she feels building within?
Fans of Killing Eve and Big Little Lies will love Mermaid of Venice, a sexy psychological thriller with lush fantasy elements. The setting is modern day Europe with all the chic locales, hot spots and vistas of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley and a juicy splash of the lavish lifestyle in E. L. James’s 50 Shades series. This is not the Little Mermaid you grew up with. Gia’s out for blood.
Mermaid of Venice is the first installment in a series of 6 books about Gia Acquaviva.
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EXCERPT:
Gia closed up the house and locked every shutter before climbing aboard her sleek speed boat. The wooden vessel, while practically brand new, looked vintage. Its soft-top cover glided over Gia’s head with a clean, electronic hum. She steered through thick rain toward Marco Polo airport, with only a small black Hermès Kelly bag in the passenger seat. After pulling into her VIP boat slip, she sauntered to her jet, obscured from prying eyes by an ordinary black umbrella.
It was not until she was above the black storm clouds that she truly began to relax. Her demeanor prior to that, with the jet captain and the flight attendant, had been cool and aloof as usual, but it was an effort to appear so calm. She’d informed the flight attendant that she would not be needing anything on the two-hour trip to London. So, he sat in the front of the plane, in case the captain had any requirements. Gia was alone, on the other side of the curtain in the cream-colored cabin, resting in a suede recliner. She liked being alone, almost more than anything else.
The scene in Venice had become too frenzied. If the city had been busy during the festival, everything was three times as hectic now. Gia felt suffocated. They may as well have projected Nico’s face over the city like the Bat-Signal. Therefore, it was better for her to leave town.
When she arrived at her apartment in London, Gia poured herself a glass of Kentucky bourbon on the rocks—the cheap stuff, which in her opinion, was the best. This was maybe the one time in history when London was sunny while Venice got soaked. She slid the terrace’s huge glass doors into their pockets and invited fresh air into the space. Whisky in hand, she gazed out over the top of Harrods to Hyde Park. Kensington Palace sat on the horizon to the west, and Gia pondered where the Queen might be today and whether the old woman ever drank a strong whisky, or if it was tea all day, every day. Surely the Queen endured situations that called for stiff spirits?
Gia placed her nearly-empty glass on the Carrara marble that encased her bath. She drew steaming hot water from the tap and poured in the contents of a cylinder of French sea salt, as well as several drops of rose oil. She pressed a button that transitioned the window from opaque to clear, so that she might be able to spy on the Duke and Duchess a little longer.
Sinking into the bath, Gia stared out across the city as her tail came in scale by scale. The transformation from skin to scale tickled at first, and afterward had the intensely satisfying sensation of an itch that had scratched itself. She laid back, her tail swaying softly in the bathwater. Legs were fine, and hers were long and strong—good legs, if such a thing exists—but her tail… her tail was part of her soul. It’s what linked her to generations of mythical creatures through millennia. Man came from ape. Man, by nature, was competitive and clumsy and impulsive. Mermaid, however, had evolved in a completely different way. Certainly the sea had its brutality, but there was also much cooperation and an alien beauty that Man would never understand. The sea is in constant motion, while being on land is deceptive. The world itself changes all the time, but when you’re on bedrock, you feel that time stands still,as if the planet’s not moving, as if you’re the center of the fucking universe—and you’re not.
Many of the mermaids back in the colony were of the opinion that climate change was the ocean’s revenge, and that the days of Man were nearing their inevitable and welcome end.
Author Info
JINCEY LUMPKIN is a writer and creative director in Luxury Beauty. She is the author of the Mermaid of Venice fantasy thriller series. Recognized as a thought leader on women and culture, Jincey has written more than 50 columns for the Huffington Post and Playboy. She headlined Sex Week at Harvard and gave an infamous TEDx talk, “Are Robots the Future of Sex?” She has been profiled by Dateline NBC, Vice, and GQ, among others. Out Magazine listed her in its "OUT 100", naming her as one of the world's most influential LGBTQ+ people, alongside celebrities like Laverne Cox and Ricky Martin.
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