Boston, Massachusetts; Cayman Islands - Present Day

Dr. Fredricka Bimm is a mermaid. Yes, strange colored hair, tail and all, Fred's life is far from normal as you can imagine. She enjoys her work with the sea animals; her best friend, Jonas Carrey, is in love and doing the horizontal mambo with her boss, Dr. Barb, and the two men who claimed to be in love with her both disappeared. Well, maybe not disappeared really, but they did leave her. Artur is Prince of the Undersea Folk, so he had to go back there and take care of business. And her fellow colleague and marine biologist Thomas Pearson had another documentary to film or another book to write. Sigh...

Fredricka aka Fred comes home to find two mer people waiting for her. It's time for the gathering of all the sea folk, and Fred is cordially invited by the King to attend the meeting. Fred doesn't want to go to the meeting, even though she will get to see Artur once again. Jonas volunteers to go along with her...for moral support. Fred arrives for the meeting and is puzzled by the looks she gets and the random thoughts she overhears. Finally, she learns the reason. It seems her father tried to overthrow the King and ended up being tossed out on his tail. Artur knows the truth and has all along, but he didn't say anything for fear of losing her. The King wants Fred at the gathering because some of the Merfolk want to go topside and let the humans know of their existence. He figures that she can give some insight on how they will be received above water. Fred is also surprised to see Thomas has been invited to the gathering as well. Now both Artur and Thomas are competing for her affections until Thomas becomes infatuated with a mermaid. Well shoot! Now what is Fred supposed to do about that?

SWIMMING WITHOUT A NET is an entertaining and charming read from author MaryJanice Davidson. Her writing style is witty yet sometimes has a serious note entwined. Fred is a funny character whom you'd just love to meet in real life. Both Artur and Thomas are handsome men who both show interest in our leading lady. Besides these three, my favorite character is Jonas. <g> He is just too funny. If you didn't know he was sleeping with Dr. Barb, as everyone likes to call her, you'd think he was gay. The man knows more about hair care than I do. One other intriguing character that made an impression on me was Tennian, another mermaid. This gal is not self-conscious about her nudity in front of humans at all. And boy does Thomas enjoy the view.

SWIMMING WITHOUT A NET is fast-paced, enjoyable, and at times downright hilarious. Grab your copy today.

Sinclair Reid