Mermaid Reads for Mermay

As an author of a mermaid novel, I am always interested in other books about mermaids, sirens, and selkies. Today, I shall highlight some to show how different these stories are and why I recommend them. Here are some of my favourites.

Rhyming Children’s Tale

If you want a quick light hearted read, then Seal Mother by Rose English is a good choice. This book is inspired by local mythology and told in verse. It is suitable for young children but adults will enjoy it too.

Book Review: Seal Mother by Rose English – Ally Aldridge

Found-Family Fairytale

If you love stories with a fairytale vibe, and found family, then check out The Meramid’s Sister by Carrie Ann Noble. This story is about two sisters, who were found in unusual ways and adopted by their mum who cannot leave her home due to a curse.

When the mermaid sister gets ill, the other sister has to take on the task of returning her to the sea with the help of a family friend and his wagon. This story is full of charms and curses, a sisterly bond, and first love. It has the same energy as Stardust by Neil Gailman.

Book Review: The Mermaid’s Sister by Carrie Anne Noble – Ally Aldridge

LGBT Mermaid Graphic Novel

This is a sweet Young Adult Graphic Novel by Molly Knox Ostertag called The Girl from the Sea. The main character is dealing with a lot of coming of age issues in her life, but is able to find comfort in Keltie.

Keltie isn’t an ordinary girl, she once was a Selkie but after the girls sharing a kiss she was able to stay on land. The main character is struggles to come out to her friends and family about her girlfriend. This sweet graphic novel has a happy ending and the art is beautiful.

Book Review: The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag – Ally Aldridge

Dystopian Mermaid

If you love dystopian fiction, then The Seawomen by Chloe Timms is worth checking out. It is described as being the Handmaid’s Tale with mermaids. Basically, the main character lives in religious patriarchy society where anything that goes wrong from weather to disease, is blamed on the women. Men can do no wrong.

There is a rule that women cannot look at the sea but one day the main character is being chased by boys with ill intentions and knows that if they catch her and have their way, she will be blamed for it. She takes a risk to escape them and hides by the sea, leading to her uncovering a big secret that starts to unravel all the lies she’s grown up with.

Book Review: The Seawomen by Chloe Timms – Ally Aldridge

Steamy Mermaid Romantasy

Meraki by Naomi Kelly is about a sexy Warlord and a Syren. King Kellan is the descendant of a god and decides that he needs to capture a syren, then use her to defeat his enemy. The syren he captures in Wren, a syren on the run from her past.

The pair start off hating each other, but sparks soon fly leading to a steamy enemies to lovers type story. This is the first book in a duology and I’ve always meant to read the next book but not got around to it.

Book Review: Meraki by Naomi Kelly – Ally Aldridge

Mermaid Shifter Romantasy

Of course, there is my novel, Ocean Heart by Ally Aldridge. It is the first book in the Young Adult Soul Heart series and features a teen mermaid shifter. Ocean Heart has a strong romance plot with the main character torn between her crush on her male BFF and being perused by the hot swim team stud that rubs her up the wrong way. Her messy love life is what wakes up her dormant deadly mermaid powers, and now she is trying to keep her powers under control before someone gets killed.

More Mermraid Books

There are plenty more that are worth a mention:

Middle Grade Under the Sea School: Book Review: Mermaid School – Ally Aldridge

Little Mermaid Retelling: Book Review: Balanced Scales by Laura Greenwood – Ally Aldridge

Little Mermaid Retelling: Book Review: Sea Witch by Sarah Henning – Ally Aldridge

Graphic Novel on a Ship: Book Review: Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel – Ally Aldridge

Young Adult Mermaid World: Book Review: Tenebrasco by Hannah Reed – Ally Aldridge

Fae Fiction: Book Review: Never Date a Siren by Byrd Nash – Ally Aldridge

Robots and Fantasy Adventure: Book Review: The Steel Princess by April Grace – Ally Aldridge

Why I will not be at Herts Book Fest 2025

It’s May, the month of Herts Book Festival and I’m sad that I won’t be attending. This Book Festival is special to me because it was the first Book Festival to accept me. Sadly, for 2025 I’ve made the hard decision not to go.

For me, I always do well at this event and make good sales. However, the sales are not enough to cover the expense of doing the event.

Petrol – This cost is roughly £70 there and back.

Hotel – About £240 for two nights, including breakfast

Eating – I tend to take snacks with me to eat during the day and have a proper meal in the evening. This is about £40 for two nights.

Stall – This is £40, a very fair price.

Overall it’s almost £400 for me to do this event before I make a penny. In addition, I often give attendees a good discount on my books which reduces my profit per sale.

In previous years, I’ve written off the loss for a few reasons.

The first time I saw it as a learning experience. I’d never done a festival before and the organiser and fellow authors were so supportive and helped it be less scary. A big shout out goes to author Roxy Eloise and organiser Katie.

Another reason was that I saw this as a good networking opportunity. I love being solitary but appreciate that I have a lot to learn and meeting up with fellow authors is really beneficial. I think of this as a retreat to connect with other authors.

Thirdly, probably the most important reason of all, it helps me to be seen by potential readers. There are so many amazing books out there competing for the spotlight but when I do an event I’m right there in front of people for them to see and meet. And, I love chatting to readers.

If I never did Herts Book Fest, I doubt I would have done many of the events that followed as it was through meeting other authors and building friendships that I got told about other events, like April Grace outing me forward for MK Lit Fest, or Rachel Churcher getting me in with Foreword Festival.

Last year, one of my close author friends couldn’t make Herts Book Fest due to her health and I really missed her. This year another author friend can’t make it as she’ll be heavily pregnant. So, I decided not to go too. The thought of staying at the hotel alone without knowing anyone else in the building makes me extra nervous. Hopefully one day, my hubby will be able to come with me to an event but he is often busy with the kids so I can go without worrying about them.

Previously when I’ve attend Herts I’ve only had Ocean Heart. Now I have two books I hope that it would benefit me to have more to sell. Plus I am writing book three; Maybe, by next year I might even have three books – wouldn’t it be exciting if the launch for Forest Heart was at Herts Book Fest 2026!?

To all the authors and readers going to Herts Book Fest for 2025, I hope you have an amazing time. I miss you all and I hope to see you at the next one.

Herts Book Festival – Because books are for everyone!

Check out my previous posts on Herts Book Festival Here:

Vlogs of Herts Book Festival 2024

Herts Book Fest 2024 – Ally Aldridge

Herts Book Festival 2023 – Ally Aldridge

Preparations for Herts Book Festival! – Ally Aldridge

This weekend is Herts Book Festival! – Ally Aldridge

What I did for World Book Day 2025!

I was invited to Grange Primary School for World Book Day as a local author. The children were in Year 3 through to Year 6 and wanted to know all about what it is like being an author and writing stories.

As it was World Book Day I decided to share with the children about the different books that have shaped my career as an author from early inspiration through to tools of the trade. Most importantly, I made sure to tell them about the books I had written. Then, I went on to discuss all the different roles that are involved in bringing a book to life.

I created a presentation in Canva so that I’d have a visual prompt to keep me on track whilst delivering my talk. It really helped at the start when I was nervous. By the end, the children really helped steer the talk in the direction they wanted with their insightful questions.

They had done a creative exercises to draw a picture of what they thought an author might look like. None of the children had drawn themselves, so I pointed out to them that any of them could be an author one day and all they need to do is start writing. Then keep writing and not worry if their first stories aren’t great because like everything, we get better with practice.

The children had lots of questions to ask. It was a lot of fun, and we talked about some of their story ideas and discovered that stories can be about anything and that they don’t all have to like the same stories because we are all different.

My favourite question was when one child asked me what is a story I’ve always wanted to write but haven’t written yet. It was a question with endless answers, but I chose one of my ideas to share with them. Then some of the children started brainstorming with me more ideas for my story. It was awesome to see where their minds went and left me energised to want to write more.

The event was a success, and I came away feeling incredibly welcomed by the children and inspired by their energy and excitement for stories. I wrote an article for Felixstowe Magazine which you can read here:

https://www.thefelixstoweapp.com/blog/i/87441209/article-3741

Fall in love with writing again

I had a lovely Valentines Day and one of my kids got an award at school. It was also the start of half term meaning the kids are now off for a week. We haven’t planned much so it’s a chance to recharge.

A writing challenge

I need to write book three, Forest Heart. It’s hard going back to writing a rough draft after working with a polished formatted printed book. Sky Heart released on 7th Feb, so I’ve only had a week to chill since its launch.

To get my head back into Forest Heart I’ve set myself a writing challenge. All I have to do is fall back in love with my novel.

No goals.

No word counts.

No pressure.

Half Term: Saturday, 15th February to Sunday, 23rd February

How did it going?

Sat, 15th February

I’m loving it. Saturday, I announced my challenge and then read through what I’d already drafted. This resulted in me deleting about 3k to 4k words, and only adding about 300 words. It felt a little like I was moving backwards but writing isn’t a linear process.

Sun, 16th February

Sunday my husband asked about the novels ending. Of all the plot points I have already, I don’t yet have an ending. We mulled it over and finally I think I have something. It did get me rethinking the timeline of the novel and I created a spreadsheet to map out where different key events happen in the series and how the books overlap. This doesn’t look like writing a novel, but it most definitely is.

Mon, 17th February

Monday, I actually did some writing and I was really pleased with what I got and feel excited about the direction of the story. As a family we tidied the house ready for the kids to have their friends over tomorrow.

Image created in Canva to represent my main character, Eve

Tue, 18th February

Tuesday, we tidied some more in the morning. Then after lunch, my kids had their friends over today. They weren’t too crazy and afterwards I was very impressed that they tidied up their bedrooms without me having to ask them.

Wed, 19th February

Wednesday was awesome. I’m into Forest Heart and have a clear vision for the upcoming scenes. Finally, my word count is back where I started.

Thu, 20th February

Thursday, wasn’t a good day for writing. We had lots of plans – it felt like everyone wanted to see us and I felt overwhelmed and guilty that I couldn’t make everyone happy. It resulted in me getting a headache. I didn’t write anything. And, I only read enough to maintain my reading streak. In the evening, my son went out with his mates and I managed to read some Onyx Storm to calm my nerves while I waited for him to return.

Image generated in Canva using AI

Fri, 21st February

Friday, no headache. Determined to make some progress, I started my day off writing. Now I have the writing bug I keep sneaking off to write whenever I can. I don’t want to go back to work next week. I want to write, write, write. I’m going to make the most of the time I have. Today, I finished chapter four.

Sat, 22nd February

Saturday, was a busy day and I did lots of authorprener jobs but no writing. My family had some bad news with the loss of someone very important. Keeping busy was my way of handling it. As a result, I didn’t write anything.

Sun, 23rd February

Sunday, I started the day chatting with my sister. Then called my family up North. They don’t live close by so the loss didn’t feel real until I spoke to them. Speaking with them made me accept it and I cried a little.

Me and Uncle Rob

I’m trying to keep this post about my progress with the writing challenge but my emotions did impact me. I think it’s important to acknowledge that life sometimes throws unexpected curve balls and it’s okay to stop what you’re doing to deal with it.

Allowing myself time meant that by the afternoon I was able to add a few words. Adding an extra 600 words means I’ve finished the challenge with 15,418 words.

Did I achieve my goal?

The goal for this novel is to have a final word count between 85,000 and 95,000 words. There’s still a way to go but I have achieved my goal of getting my head back into Forest Heart.

As I’m back to work next week and have a lot on my mind, I think my progress will slow. As for Forest Heart, my mind is clear on the direction of the story and once I’m ready and have time, I’m confident I can get it finished.

This has been a really productive challenge, I think I’ll do this every half term to fall in love with writing. Maybe, next time, you’ll join in.

It’s Release day for Sky Heart a YA Romantasy

A broken heart is just the start of Kiely’s problems.

Keily’s boyfriend breaks up with her at Christmas and she’ll do anything to get him back, starting with a kissing dare. Her new wild lifestyle lands her in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now she’s battling to stay alive, as she’s drawn into an ancient shifter war with werewolves and reapers. Bad choices and lies puts those she loves in danger. Can she master her new powers in time to save them, or will she condemn them all to darkness?

Getting over her ex is nothing compared to the battle that awaits her.

A dark tale of heartbreak, reapers and shifters, and learning to love again.

Where to buy

Signed copied will be available to buy from Stillwater Books in Felixstowe from 10:45 am on Saturday, 8th February. You can preorder it now, and it will be ready for collection tomorrow.

If you want a signed copy posted to you, you can buy this from my Ko-fi shop.

NB: At the time of writing, Sky Heart wasn’t listed on Amazon or Bookshop.org but I am hoping that now that today is release day, that it will not be available there too.

Signed Copies at Stillwater Books

I’m not a salesperson. Every time I have to approach a bookshop to stock my book, I’m filled with nerves. There’s no way I’m even attempting to pitch if I have the kids with me, which happens whenever my husband has a weekend shift.

First, I waited until I had my copy of Sky Heart to check that there were no issues with the print quality. Then I had to wait for a weekend when I was free. When I finally plucked up the courage to go, I found the bookshop closed. A note was pinned to the door saying he was away on holiday. Nooooooo! But at least this explained why he’d not responded to my email.

,It had felt right to approach Stillwater Books first because they were the first bookshop to stock Ocean Heart. It was released during lockdown so I couldn’t have a traditional book signing. Together we managed to sort something out that worked within the rules allowed.

He should be back the following weekend so I braced myself to try again. Thankfully, when I entered the shop, it was quiet, so I didn’t have an audience. William was absolutely lovely. We got chatting about books, reading, genres, and stocking my books. He put my books on the shelves so I could take some pics and a short reel for social media.

It’s so silly that I get myself so worked up about approaching bookshops. From my experience, they have always been so lovely. There is this fear that they’ll say no, and I’ll have to leave with my tail between my legs.

I’m excited to return next Saturday, 8th February, around 10:45 am, with my signed books for his shop. There will be five signed copies of Ocean Heart and 10 signed copies of Sky Heart. If you want to make sure you get a copy, preorder by letting him know and he will put a copy aside for you to collect.

Visit Stillwaters Books website here: https://www.stillwaterfelixstowe.co.uk/

If you can’t get to Felixstowe, you can order a signed copy from my Ko-Fi shop, or order from any good bookshop.

The Sky Heart Press Release

As you know from my self-publishing diary, I wrote a press release for Sky Heart. It took me a while to send it out to news outlets as I felt I ought to take a picture of myself with Sky Heart, my new book releasing on 7th February.

First, I had to wait to receive my copy of Sky Heart from the printers. Then I felt too tired to do it in the evening after work but felt too tired. And, when I finally got around to take some pics, they looked awful. It is so dark at the moment, with the bad stormy weather. All the pictures came out gloomy. I returned to the drawing board and used Canva to update an old picture of myself – the one I use as my author pic – to include Sky Heart.

It wasn’t until 26th January that I finally sent it out. Yesterday, on 31st January, I heard back from good old Felixstowe Magazine to let me know that they were including my Press Release for Sky Heart. I am so thankful to Felixstowe Magazine, who always encourage and support me in my author journey.

The article is live and can be viewed here: New Book Release “Sky Heart” by local Gal, Ally Aldridge

Sky Heart can be bought from all good bookstores. Check out the Sky Heart page for up-to-date details on all the places you can buy Sky Heart.

Signed copies will be available to buy from Stillwater Books in Felixstowe, on Saturday, 8th February from 10:45am.

Or buy direct from my Redfae PayHip store.

Book Review: The Guidal – Saving Light by Roxy Eloise

This is book three in The Guidal series.

Wow! This was another amazing book in the series. There is even more magic in this one!

The book starts with Aurora disconnected from her feelings. This makes her less sensitive to the feelings of Pax & Tayo, and unable to use her powers. Don’t worry, her friends stick by her despite her trying to push them away, and they help her reconnect.

Meanwhile, we get to see more of the Kamalayans and the stakes rise. Aurora starts having dreams about the first Guidal and this reveals some of the history.

Beware, in this book Aurora suffers some hard losses. One that left me internally screaming NOOOOO at the book!

A lot happens in this book, and I’m desperate for the next one in the series. Really hoping for the return of a certain character.

You can buy this book from Amazon.

Book one in the series is The Guidal: Discovering Puracordis and book two in the series is The Guidal: Unearthing Secrets

You can buy book one (Discovering Puracordis) and book two (Unearthing Secrets) from Amazon too.

If you like the sound of this book, you might also like these:

Book Review: Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

This book was a page-turner. Sometimes it felt like a thriller, as I knew Jude’s true dark intentions. He reminded me of that guy from You, except there was no love or protection in his twisted thoughts. He just cold.

It was sad to see Sephy unravel. The way it hurt her to hang onto hope that not everyone was bad, wanting to see the good in others, but consistently being proven wrong. It took its toll.

The ending was a shock. I replayed it several times to try and make sense of it. It ended again with another tragedy. My heart felt heavy with all that had happened.

I think I will read more of the series, but this was a sad story, and I need a little time to process how this book made me feel.