Except Evan may not be as alone as he thinks. There is something living in the lake, an ancient, mythical being that is connected to Evan in ways he never thought possible. The discovery might be just what Evan needs to help mend his broken heart—and to reignite the passion that he thought had been extinguished.
Tags: M/M, erotic romance, tentacles, human/mythical creature. Please be aware that this novella contains scenes from a past relationship featuring emotional abuse and manipulation.
This was an interesting and sweet diversion from the typical romance. For fans of exceedingly amorous declarations and tentacles, this book is perfect. I happen to really enjoy those things, so Love Beneath the Lake was a treat.
Evan has just been through a bad breakup and his manipulative, cheating, asshole of an ex has put him through an emotional wringer. He escapes to a family cabin on a beautiful lake to regroup and heal. He’s an author of a relationship blog and series of books, so not only is he feeling betrayed he also feels like a fool. He, of all people, should have recognized the signs of an emotionally abusive partner. Buuuuut, he didn’t and now he’s at the lake for a much needed sabbatical.
Evan is an incredibly sensual person and he begins to have some seriously erotic dreams after arriving at the cabin. The descriptions are very detailed and make sense for Evan’s personality, he loves touch and the sensory satisfaction he gets from it. Pierce (the asshole ex) would use Evan’s “need” against him by calling him a slut for it and complaining about his neediness. Pierce would withhold affection in order to manipulate Evan to get what he wanted and it really messed with Evan’s self confidence and view of his own worth.
Back to the dreams though, eh? The dreams started out somewhat vague, as dreams are wont to do and turned into fragments by morning. But as time passed, the dreams became more vivid and stayed with Evan longer. He swims in the lake daily and loves him some skinny dipping and self pleasure. Little does he realize he is being watched by the embodiment of the lake itself and quite soon he meets the mythological creature who he names Mer.
The two of them hit it off quite well and Evan is fascinated by Mer. Evan finds everything about him attractive and it probably should have taken him longer to reconcile his new found love of tentacles to everything he thought he was, but Mer gives Evan everything he never had with Pierce and more. The two of them spend more and more time together and fall more and more in love. It’s sappy as all hell and Even eats every little morsel that Mer dishes out with a spoon. Mer has been lonely for so long, so the relationship is a life changing for him as well.
The story is relatively simplistic. I appreciated that it didn’t try to be more than it would be able to manage in a story of this length. There’s no real depth for Mer beyond brief descriptions and his anatomy is described only as much as it needs to be. It fit for the time available and gave the story a fairytale feel. Evan is the same, he’s fleshed out as much as is necessary, but we really only know him in relation to his breakup and what he sees as his weaknesses (which aren’t weaknesses at all, that was Pierce’s BS talking).
If you keep the correct perspective on the story, you won’t be disappointed with any lack of world building. That’s not what Love Beneath the Lake was about, it was a mythological love story with a relatively reasonable ending considering, as the resolution was quite nice if a little abrupt. There was a comeuppance and closure for Evan with Pierce and a plan for Evan’s future with Mer. It was the best possible HEA for two men when one of them is mostly made of tentacles.
**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**
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