Mini review: Moon-Bright Tides by RoAnna Sylver

I was sent this book by the author but all opinions are my own.

Summary: The night sky is very dark without a moon, and there hasn’t been one for decades. Without one to govern the oceans, it falls to Riven, reluctant sea-witch, to sail out alone every night across the midnight ocean to cast a spell to call in the tides.

She hates it. Hates the moonless dark, hates the endless deep, and hates the fact that without a witch to sing in the tides, sea and land alike would fall to ruin. Riven faces her worst fear every night for years – until she meets a mermaid. Her new friend is lost, starving, and just as lonely as she is. And now that they’ve found one another, neither of their nights on the midnight sea will be the same.

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★★★★★

I was trying to find a reason to give this less than five stars but there simply isn’t one.

This short story is about a human witch and a mermaid who fall in love. They’re both alone for different reasons and they find company and eventually love in each other.

The witch, Riven, has the important and inescapable job of creating tides with her singing, since the moon has been missing for many years. This has affected the mer world and merfolk population, and Moonbright’s own life.

The story is very simple but I wouldn’t expect anything more complicated than this in such a short tale. What truly is remarkable and is immediately apparent are the author’s worldbuilding skills. For example, the mermaid’s name not being pronounceable by a human, the meaning of her name being something we don’t have a word for, and many other details… Those are small things but they tell me a lot about the author’s imaginative skills. It tells me that fantasy is absolutely their genre and it makes me want to read more by them, and honestly you should get intrigued about their work too.