Eight years after her older sister was swept out to sea, eighteen-year-old Ava Adair still swears off the ocean. It takes a promise of the best vacation of her life aboard the Ocean Jewel with her friends to get her even within reach of the waves. When she steps aboard the luxury yacht to sail the California coastline, the last thing she expects is to gain the attention of gorgeous Carter Stevens, the yacht’s deckhand, who becomes the perfect distraction against her fear of the open water. On the yacht, a freak accident involving Carter reveals a secret he’s been hiding from Ava. She discovers that he’s a merman and by saving her, he changed her life. One misstep could reveal the new secret they share and ruin the life on land she’s desperate to maintain. Torn between a future on land with her family and a new life at sea, Ava must decide—is her former life worth fighting for, or can she accept that she belongs to the ocean?

One secret changed everything. The last thing I expected from my summer before college was to fall madly in love with Carter Stevens. Or that he’d save my life with a kiss that turned me into a mermaid. If only my new life didn’t mean I had to give up my beachfront condo for a rock house in the sea. Because there is nothing more I want than to return to land with Carter for the future we imagined and not the one set before us by a cruel and mighty king. But that’s the mermaid life. If I’m ever to see the beloved shores of my home on land again, I must adapt and prove myself worthy to the sea. If I can’t, Carter and I will never emerge from the deep. We’ll be trapped in the ocean forever.

One vow changed everything. All I ever wanted from life as a mermaid was to return to land with Carter. And that’s what we’ve done. Sort of. If only the ocean didn’t whisper my name. If only it didn’t bestow unruly magic upon me. Because now, I must face the wrath of a mighty king who would wash away cities to keep the merpeople secret safe. If I can’t learn to control my ocean-given gift, Carter and I risk losing the most important thing we Our forever.

All Ava Adair wants for Christmas is an uneventful holiday season with her merman mate, Carter Stevens. But when her family plans a tropical Christmas vacation to the Whitsunday Islands in Australia, Ava must break mermaid tradition and relocate all the merpeople in the sea down under to celebrate Summer Solstice instead of the much anticipated Winter Solstice. Luckily for the new mermaid queen, merpeople can adapt. Instead of snow angels and hot chocolate by the fire, Ava gets a deserted island full of brazenly transformed merpeople who refuse to stay submerged in the ocean, forcing her to call upon the sea for protection. After Ava’s ocean magic causes a boat to sink offshore, she must figure out how to save an unsuspecting human family from a fatal fate while hosting the best solstice she can. It doesn’t help that her human family wants her to remain on land. Uniting the traditions of land and sea proves harder than Ava anticipates, and she must step up as the mermaid the ocean chose her to be—or be deemed the destroyer of all holiday cheer.