The Wicked Sea (The Wicked Sea #1) by Jordan Stephanie Gray -- Starting September 12th 2026

[Jenn]

In this dark and sultry romantasy a mermaid battles hatred—and lust—for the wretched warlock who saved her life.

Mermaid Zephyra of the Syl dreams of freedom. On the run from a dangerous captor and years of abuse, she’s shed her tail, grown legs, and hidden herself on land in the merrow-loathing kingdom of Mortia, left to steal and barter on the dirty streets. But her freedom is short-lived when she’s caught and sentenced to death by the brutal warlock, Arion Stone.

Arion is as beautiful as he is cold and deadly, only interested in punishing the merrow he views as evil. He has grown as strong as any warlock might, but at great personal cost…which can only be remedied by the heart of the God of Death, lost to a fabled kingdom beneath the ocean’s treacherous depths.

So Arion offers Zephyra a deal she can’t refuse; help him find the mystical heart, and he’ll spare her life. With no other options, Zephyra agrees, entangling their souls and forbidden desires in a magical bargain until death do they part. But Zephyra's past is catching up to her, and the enemy she fled seeks vengeance. If Zephyra and Arion can't learn to fight together--and trust each other--there are worse things awaiting them than just death.

Of course, in the wicked sea, everyone has secrets, and no one should be trusted.

[Prisha]

Hi! I'm starting this a bit early.

[Prisha]

Chapter 3
(view spoiler)[ Why did she come all the way to sell the jewels to Magnus if she can't even trust him? (hide spoiler)]

[Joleen]

Chapter 1-8 (view spoiler)[ Not a great start for me. It took 2 whole chapters to get through a failed heist just to meet both our 2 main characters. That’s almost 30 pages of overly descriptive details on something that adds nothing significant to the plot except introducing them (since the rest of the heisters die anyways too.) Will admit I am intrigued about the warlock character – don’t see a lot of warlocks in books. He is a believable enemy to Zephyra because of his rather personal goal to save himself. So, kind of selfish – lol. This is not a bad set-up of enemies to lovers and banter appropriate at this point I guess – nothing too original though. So, there is something in the sea she is afraid to go back to, Ok. I’m still in it – but I hope it gets better (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Joleen wrote: "Chapter 1-8 [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ It had been pretty slow. Personally, I don't mind the descriptions too much but the characters themselves have not been that interesting to me so far. I just don't understand why he needs to live longer anyway. If the magic is killing him, stop using it. If you don't want to stop using it, deal with the consequences. I hope that the main characters become more likeable because it's hard to enjoy first person if the characters aren't even likeable. (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Chapter 14
(view spoiler)[ Gerald and Harold suddenly turning evil was unexpected.

I might be thinking too much into this but at the start when Zephyra insults Arion by insinuating that he has sex with the king, it felt like she was degrading him having gay sex? I felt that was strange. Then I saw the friendly gay couple and was delighted cause representation. But now they're evil? 😭😭😭 I think I'm just thinking too much into this.

Though I'm also pretty annoyed that she keeps thinking about Jacin. Grief is a great plot device and it really makes me feel bad for her. But this book is supposed to be a romance? I can't accept that they'll really like each other if she's still stuck on her ex. (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Chapter 23
(view spoiler)[ So Vesper sold her soul as well? They're all geniuses, aren't they. (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Chapter 29 (view spoiler)[ Why was the sorcerer so obsessed with her? What is so special about her? (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Finished
(view spoiler)[ I didn't expect the ending but it wasn't shocking in an exciting way. I felt almost bored as I read it. The story is different to the typical ones but to such an extent that it feels wrong. Everyone except Arion ended up being spies? She's a goddess? She's obsessed with Arion and Jacin? She ends up dying? It just feels like an overload of useless plot twists. (hide spoiler)]

[Joleen]

Prisha wrote: "Chapter 23
[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ Awww - what we do for love (or revenge). Never trust a person named Vesper (too close to viper). (hide spoiler)]

[Joleen]

Chapter 9-15 (view spoiler)[ She just continues to annoy me. I don’t like FMC’s that are so bossy or make threats that they cannot even remotely carry out. ☹ But man, he really doesn’t like her either – I mean a lot of fantasies from him – but about various ways to kill her painfully, which is different from most other MMC fantasies. BUT, in Chapter 14, I really thought the encounter with the shop keepers and the banter acting like they were husband and wife to them really was a turning point and then in the next chapter, I really liked them having to have good thoughts and just shouting out words was really really clever writing and it was cute. I’m warming to them……And then, at end of 15 “just run” – what is happening to Arion? I don’t know but I am starting to really like him. (hide spoiler)]

[Joleen]

Chapter 16-28 (view spoiler)[ First kiss, good one Arion….He’s so down bad for her…..poor guy. Ahhh, their sharing stories (octopus named Bean). I’m enjoying seeing this alliance grow and wow, pretty steamy spice scene. Neat trick Arion has. I don’t understand Vesper’s anger – Honestly, if I’m about to get killed, I’m gonna run too. Unless it’s my kids I probably have an all man for himself personality, especially when you go into something risky, but Zephyra is feeling so guilty. And even though they made an agreement, I absolutely do not trust Amaya. But looks like they’re heading toward her terrorizer. (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Joleen wrote: "Prisha wrote: "Chapter 23
[spoilers removed]"

[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ I love that. 😂 (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Joleen wrote: "Chapter 9-15 [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ Yeah I agree with you. The female mc is not that likeable. But yeah it was really cute in chapter 15. It was so hilariously unexpected. (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Joleen wrote: "Chapter 16-28 [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ Vesper is being pretty cruel but to be honest her sister died. It is pretty overwhelming. I'm sure she's distraught to the extent that she doesn't understand what is right. (hide spoiler)]

[Joleen]

Finished - (view spoiler)[ First off, not cool author (epilogue). That was some crazy s*&t at the end. I guess I wasn’t too surprised about the sorcerer being Mortem, or even about the betrayals, but what did surprise me was that she did it. I kind of lost a lot of respect for her then. If you’re going to step up to be brave, this would have been the time to do it. It confused me that during all that mayhem they never got a chance to get the heart to Arion? Why didn’t she just walk over to him and give it to him instead – like she could have squeezed it just right before putting into Arion instead. I liked this book, it was entertaining and I really ended up falling in love with Arion – but I did have some issues with it. In some parts, I think the author was so ingratiatingly descriptive or there was so much internal dialogue where a real-time few minutes of experience goes on for like 10-15 pages and it just felt like filler (and it was irritating.) Then at other times, the pace is quick, and more entertaining. The whole end scene with the heart and the betrayals and such was one of those; it just seemed to go on and on. Did you feel like that too? (hide spoiler)]

[Prisha]

Joleen wrote: "Finished - [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[ I didn't notice the internal dialogue or descriptions very much but I would say that the ending also felt really badly written to me. It just felt like there were too many plot twists at once and it just didn't seem to make sense that all this was happening all at once.
Her putting the heart back into Mortem didn't really make a lot of sense. I'm sure the author had her reasons and planned to explain it in a possible sequel but I don't really agree with her choice. So yeah I do agree that it was really stupid of the mc and the loosing respect bit.
Personally, I did like Arion for a lot of it especially as he grew more relaxed around female mc.
But him complaining about dying in the future really annoyed me. Because death reaches everyone. He's not special enough to deserve immortality. (hide spoiler)]