Mermen (The Mermen Trilogy #1) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Coming off reading The King Trilogy by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff, I decided to just go ahead and wrap up any other books from her in my Kindle. I believe I had gotten this one in a deal on Amazon or free offer or something. I can’t remember anymore but its how I came up on it.

Let’s check it out!

Mermen (The Mermen Trilogy #1)
by: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

SOLE SHIPWRECK SURVIVOR LIV STRATTON had been adrift at sea for ten grueling days when salvation miraculously appeared: an uncharted island. Only, the deceivingly beautiful men who live there aren’t interested in saving her. No, not at all. Because they somehow believe she is their property, a gift from the ocean to do with as they please. This is not good.  Her only hope? Billionaire Roen Doran, of all people. A man who’s said to care for nothing and no one. But if he’s so heartless, then why is he about to risk everything to help her? – Goodreads

There are days I start off this genre of books and I get worried. I only read on trilogy from Mimi Jean Pamfiloff and honestly, I enjoyed it fairly well. If you didn’t see the reviews, it was something of a slippery slope as it fell into some aspects I didn’t like but what I enjoyed about this author was her dedication to making her characters (all of them) not feel disposable. I’ve never read anything about mermen so I don’t know what is expected about it. My vision of it is still from movies like The Mermaid and The Little Mermaid, so when her plot is about these men without tails on this hidden island, well, it sets up quite an intriguing premise.

If I’m being completely honest, the world-building and lore behind the mermen was much more fascinating than any other part of the book. It sounds harsh but its really not cup of tea. The characters here were pretty generic. The rich billionaire Roen was quite one dimensional. The only reason he seemed more than that was because of the effect of the mermen lore and that doesn’t contribute back to who he is. Then we have Liv who turns into this exactly what you’d expect sort of damsel in distress. She tries to keep herself up for a while but essentially just breaks down into the ladies in this genre that I really don’t like, like falling for the man..but then maybe it had to do with the lore a little.

Either way, I don’t have an incredibly huge amount of things to say about Mermen. It was pretty disappointing see as King trilogy had some really strong aspects to it. You probably can guess that I’m not going to continue this book series. I’m just not really a fan even if the potential for the mermen back story could have had a lot of potential if it wasn’t in this genre. I’ve been watching a lot of cool movies lately and in a fairly decent mood from all the sunny weather and loving the summer, so I don’t feel like ranting more about this one. If I was you, I’d stay away from it. The only reason I gave it 2 stars out of 5 was because I saw some potential in building the mythology of this tribe of Mermen and having some interesting creations on the island itself. Everything else, I honestly could care less about.

King for a Day (King’s Trilogy #2) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Check out the review of the first book, King’s here.

King for a Day (King’s Trilogy #2)
by: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

When Mia Turner’s life becomes tethered to a mysterious billionaire, who she swears is the devil himself, she knows she must break free. It doesn’t matter if everything about him—those sinful lips, those pale gray eyes, that perfect male body—keeps her awake at night. He’s evil. She has to get away.

But when this man, known simply as King, suddenly disappears, Mia will discover she’s not home free. Because without King, she’s no longer safe from his ruthless, depraved, power-hungry social circle.
To survive, Mia will have to conceal King’s absence and walk a mile in the evil man’s twisted, cruel shoes. What she discovers will leave her more terrified and her heart more conflicted than she ever imagined.

King is not who she thought. She wasn’t even close. – Goodreads

One of the things I love the most from the King’s Trilogy, and maybe it has to do with Mimi Jean Pamfiloff’s writing but I have only read this trilogy so I have no comparison, is that the setup of the mystery and the characters are quite multi-layered which makes it intriguing to read. In the first book, we learned the basics of Mia and her dilemma, got hints of King and how he is not quite human and of course, the twisted elite 10 Club and the disturbing people involved. But those are fairly skin deep and leaves a lot of room for both the mystery and the characters to grow. In King For a Day, that was exactly what happened. And no one was left out in this character and situational development process, which is always nice to see, making all the characters meaningful to the story as a whole and more depth for the mystery in this one. At the same time, the scope expands with the story widening to other locations and the extent of King’s “powers” being revealed a little bit more.

King for a Day does fall into a familiar path that I didn’t really want it to go down. Part of it was rather predictable and the story line here really seems to fall away from why I found it unique in the first place. However, Mia stays true to her character and King, well, is King, filled with mystery and discovery. The fantasy of figuring out bad boys really never dies. You know, the quiet and cryptic ones who seem to have a lot to hide and are probably wildly dangerous. This story feeds on that mentality for sure. Its always nice to remember when to pull a character out to cool down a little just as King of a Day does as it removes King and makes him disappear, leaving Mia to fend for herself with the help of King’s loyal helper, Mack. Both properties of King, the 10 Club is ready to claim them and they need to find a way to hide the fact that he is missing even if they know who is behind it all. It add tension when the main character is left in the dark especially when the secrets and dangers seem pressing.

With that said, this is a fast-paced read. Even with the few twists that come in play, there is still a playfulness to this one that transforms quickly into a mix of feelings. It builds primarily the depth of King’s backstory and who he is, while also giving Mia her strength and building upon her learning more about what it means to be a Seer and her abilities. At the same time, what I loved from the first one is that this one teases sexual tension and attraction but manages to keep Mia from doing anything that will betray herself even if she finds this strong attraction and pull to him, not only because she was marked (or claimed) by King. Its been one of the characteristics in this series that I’ve enjoyed a lot.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with King For a Day. Its a worthy sequel. There were some predictable moments but it was a fast-paced read. The story and characters both had a decent amount of development to not only keep the mystery and suspense keeping the matter at hand fairly contained but building on the backstory for King as well as the future of Mia and King as well as their tension. At the same time, the other characters never feel dispensable as they also get a fair growth and development to their characters to make them necessary in the story.

King’s (The King Trilogy #1) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Back with more Kindle Store adventures, this was also during that whole batch of books I’ve been downloading with my last two reviews of those books that kind of pissed me off. At this point, I have no hopes and if this is another steamy romance, I’m about ready to rip it to shreads.  I didn’t even bother to read the description of this one and decided to just jump in.  With that, a deep breath and be brave, we are checking out King’s (part of The King Trilogy) and written by a New York Times Bestselling Author.  Now, I’m a little more confident about this one. 🙂 I mean, it can’t get worse than the last one, right?

Let’s jump right in!

King’s (The King Trilogy #1)
by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

When Mia Turner’s brother goes missing in Mexico, while on an archaeological dig, she believes that life couldn’t get much worse. But when she’s blocked at every turn from finding answers, by both local and U.S. authorities, she must turn to a man she swears is the devil. Others might be fooled by his private jet, fine tailored suits, and disarming smile, but Mia knows something dark, sinister, and unnatural lurks behind those penetrating, pale-gray eyes. And the more she learns, the more she realizes she may never be free again. – Goodreads

 Now we’re talking! King’s was a fun book to read! What makes King’s different from the other two is that it exceeds our expectations and the sexy bits are simply adding onto the mystery building both Mia and King’s character.  Its not afraid to tease its audience with the scenes as we watch their connection grow throughout the deal they have with each other.  Okay, its a little mystery paranormal mixed with a mild investigation thriller.   Its a good mix and it sets a decent tone that matches the story it wants to tell.  Point is, the writing is refined but casual enough to be an enjoyable read.  You know exactly what sort of book you are getting into and it keeps it well-paced to make sure there’s enough of both character development and mystery to make it intriguing to keep reading. However, while the writing is refined, there are still moments of clunky or cheesy dialogue.  I guess its unavoidable but with a decent story, it gets rewarded with a little laugh.

But, nothing quite beats this quote that just cracks me up and changed the tone of the book completely.

Okay.  So, apparently this entire conversation was code for, “Come and get me, muthafucka.” and “Oh, I’m comin’, all right. Your ass is mine.”… -King’s

Mia seemed rather uptight and really incredibly weird that she kept thinking about getting into King’s pants even when she claimed that she didn’t like him at all, but they kind of explain that by the end. I’m happy with that, you know, reasonable enough explanations for things that come out of the ordinary.  It adds a little weird to it since it gives Mia’s character a little mystery.  And that is where this book does well in adding some fun but folding in a little mystery for each character.  However, this book is definitely only meant as a beginning for a series because the ends with a cliffhanger that would only be answered.  That is something I don’t quite like about books (or movies) that aren’t self-contained enough.  However, I did end it right there and didn’t pursue the next book yet (but intend to eventually).

While Mia’s character is fun because we read from her perspective throughout the entire book, the character that is the most intriguing has to go to King’s, our mystery man. King’s is a dominant character here but also quite smart.  It doesn’t take long for us to realize that not only does he have some connections but also that he has some mystery skills/powers that teases us throughout the read.  It makes us wonder until one scene where its apparent of what it is even if we don’t quite know the why. With that said, there is only a limit to what I can say to make it still a fun journey for you if you haven’t read this yet.  However, there is one more character which plays a supporting role and I believe at this point has a book in the series to himself, Mack, the guy who flies the plane for King’s and is something like a right hand man and while he can’t tell more about King’s to Mia, he plays as a messenger but also a mentor to how to interact with King’s and gives his friendly advice.  If there’s anything about this series, I can’t wait to see how his character is developed.

Overall, King’s is a fun start to a series.  It might not be that self-contained but it still is well-paced and mysterious enough of a story to keep me interested in eventually reading the second one.  King’s definitely surprised me and to think it has a few more books already in the series released makes me feel like there is still a lot to look forward to. However, King’s does have a well-paced story, enough mysteries to keep the reader intrigued and good characters all wrapped up in some casual reading package and I like all that quite a bit.

Have you read King’s?