Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to listen to this ARC!

This Classic story reimagined is just as good to listen to, as it is to read. The Narrators tone matched the vibe of the story and it was not difficult to immerse myself.

This Little Mermaid retelling with a Dutch folklore twist was so intriguing and magical. The folklore elements added to the mystery and whimsy, but the classic Little Mermaid Elements allowed the audience to Identify characters and expect certain traits. I loved the fact that the roles didn’t follow the original story and the time on land added more depth to the story. The addition of the various water creatures was perfect and exactly what I would envision.

This was a beautifully written reverse Little Mermaid. Set in 1560 in the Dutch Republic, Clara is the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Her parents have arranged her marriage to a wealthy man, only Clara longs for more. She meets a young man named Maurits and suddenly, her life is looking up. There is an instant spark and now Clara wants nothing to do with her fiance. What Clara doesn't know is that Maurits is not what he seems and their romance might be doomed from the start. Clara must forge her own path and discover hidden depths of strength to deal with the many strange twists and turns her life is about to take.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for this digital audio e-arc.*

I adore historical fantasy and I love Hester Fox so A Magic Deep and Drowning felt like it was written just for me.

Atmospheric and lushly written, A Magic Deep and Drowning is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, a story about wanting and cost. Clara is not a superstitious young woman but when she ignores an omen of ill-fate, it's reality pushes itself to the forefront of her life. I loved the way Fox shaped a story we all know and love and the audio production was top notch. I loved the narration and highly recommend this version.

Audiobook/Book Review 📖🌊🎧
thank you so much partner @htpbooks_audio @htpbooks @htp_hive for gifted copy + audiobook!

A Magic Deep and Drowning
by Hester Fox
Narrated by Lauren Ezzo

About the book👇🏽

The Dutch Republic, 1650. One fine spring day in Friesland, twenty-year-old Clara van Wieren is faced with an ill omen: a whale, beached and rotting in the noonday sun. But Clara doesn’t believe in magic and superstition, and this portent is quickly dismissed when a proposal from a wealthy merchant arrives, promising Clara the freedom she seeks from her mother’s overbearing rule.

When her attempts at overseeing the household at the family’s estate lead to her chance encounter with a young man with russet hair and sparkling eyes the color of the sea, she finds herself strangely drawn to him. As Clara grows closer to Maurits, she must choose between the steady, gentle life she has been raised for and the man who makes her blood sing.

But Maurits isn’t who he seems to be, and his secrets, once hidden beneath the waves, threaten to rise up and drown them both.

🌊 My thoughts:

What a unique retelling of The Little Mermaid! I was not expecting the swap because I went in blind but man did it work for me. I binge listened to this book and I am so happy I did. The narrator had me completely engaged throughout the storytelling, there was just no stopping once I started. This story was lush and atmospheric in the best way and actually really makes me want to read Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. This is the first book I’ve read by Hester Fox but it definitely will not be my last! If you enjoy magic, folklore, and reimaginings that are truly captivating, you need to give this one a read! A Magic Deep and Drowning is out now!

Happy reading 📖 🌊🎧

This was a clever gender swapped reimagining of the Little Mermaid tale set in the 17th century Dutch Colony. While it wasn't my favorite Hester Fox book it did keep me entertained and I would recommend it for fans of that era or anyone who enjoys fairy tale retellings. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. What a wonderful book to read, in summer, on the beach. While reading, I felt the pull to go to the seaside, to sit in front of the oceans, described in this book.

I've seen this described as a Little Mermaid retelling and I can see the similarities, I suppose. However, don't expect signing Lobsters and clumsy, red headed mermaid collecting forks for coming their hair. This story is dark. This story feels like you're deep in the depths, where dangerous creatures are hiding, waiting to bite your toes. It's spooky. It feels like icy water.

Clara, the main character, is spoiled and somewhat grating in the beginning but she quickly redeems herself. There is plenty of death and destruction, but there is also a glimmer of light just above the surface. And although I felt exhausted at the end, I felt satisfied. I can't recommend this book enough. one of my favorites for 2025.

Set in the Dutch Golden Age this story has the fun storytelling, magic, and folklore woven into the reimagining of The Little Mermaid. Smart and beautifully done.

Clara, the main character, was likeable and I cheered for her. I could relate to her and understand the reasoning behind many of her decisions. Her people, her wonderful nursemaid, I liked them. Without giving any spoilers away, I think if Clara knew from the start how her beautiful home was procured she would have been a force to be reckoned with from the start. The great thing is that with the knowledge learned along the way, she was smart, brave, and resilient. She loved her people, but she could also see the wrong done to others for her to have the life she lived. Maurits is the other main character. I enjoyed his charm and care, until he just got sappy. Yes, be in love, but be smart about it. His flowery words were almost too much for me. I could see how his being so enamored by the human world made things easy for his brother, the antagonist. Maurits was irresponsible, and it was hard to reconcile my feelings for him with how things turned out. I would have liked him more if the book were longer. If more time were taken to develop his character, and give him more depth and maturity. The magical creatures and folklore were such great additions. This story is an entertaining, fun read. It is also a read that makes you think about climate change, slavery, and oppression. Hester Fox didn't write the topics of climate change, slavery, and oppression into the book in a glaring way; they are woven in and they are the foundation of how the town was built and how it thrived. They are what the wealthy stand on. There is no way to gloss over that.

Description: Set in the waning days of the Dutch Golden Age, this enchanting, lush reimagining of The Little Mermaid is perfect for fans of Jesse Burton’s The Miniaturist and Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar.

The Dutch Republic, 1650. One fine spring day in Friesland, twenty-year-old Clara van Wieren is faced with an ill omen: a whale, beached and rotting in the noonday sun. But Clara doesn’t believe in magic and superstition, and this portent is quickly dismissed when a proposal from a wealthy merchant arrives, promising Clara the freedom she seeks from her mother’s overbearing rule.

When her attempts at overseeing the household at the family’s estate lead to her chance encounter with a young man with russet hair and sparkling eyes the color of the sea, she finds herself strangely drawn to him. As Clara grows closer to Maurits, she must choose between the steady, gentle life she has been raised for and the man who makes her blood sing.

But Maurits isn’t who he seems to be, and his secrets, once hidden beneath the waves, threaten to rise up and drown them both. And when an ancient bargain, forged in blood between the mythical people of the sea and the rulers of the land, begins to unravel, Clara finds herself at the heart of a deadly struggle for power.

What can you expect in A MAGIC DEEP & DROWNING?
Lush & Enchanting
Gender-swap of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid
Historical Fantasy
Set in 17th Century Netherlands
Family Secrets
Atmospheric Vibes

I received this egalley from NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Graydon House I was under no obligation to give a review. All opinions are my own.

I would recommend this book to anyone who liked Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill or All the Murmuring Bones.

The premise of the story is so great-- I'm always down for historical fiction, Little Mermaid retellings, and anything that sounds even remotely gothic. The opening was also promising. I hadn't read much set in the Netherlands during this time period and the setup promised tension between magic and modern reasoning. That last bit especially hooked me. A woman on the verge of a traditional, arranged marriage is a classic historical fiction premise, but then meeting a mer prince? Such a fun genre bend!

In the end, however, I felt that this book was trying to do too much. It was historical fiction, a love story, a political drama, a cautionary tale about parental control, a bestiary of Dutch folklore, and a retelling of not just the Little Mermaid, but also Beauty and the Beast. As a result, none of the concepts felt fully developed and any time I started to feel invested in one thing, that idea fell to the wayside and another took its place. I will admit, the way some ideas were tossed out was definitely dramatic (if you read the book, please gasp with me at the holy crap moment about 40% of the way through!) and the occasional shock value kept me listening just as I was about to DNF.

This book also felt VERY long. When I came back here to write a review and saw it was only 350ish pages, I was shocked. I definitely felt like I had listened to about 500. I think this feeling of length had to do with the wandering, unfocused narrative and my personal lack of emotional investment in it.

Despite the wandering story, however, I might have still enjoyed it if I had liked the characters better. In the end, however, they were all too similar to each other (all of them petulant to varying degrees), the side characters were poorly developed, and none of them had clear growth arcs. Stuff happened to them and they moved on without taking any lessons from it or from their own actions. That particularly seemed surprised me, since this was a fairytale retelling, and fairytales are usually all about teaching lessons! Certainly, this book leaned more into the fairytale side of things than the historical fiction side of things, since I did not find the Dutch setting to particularly immersive. Anyway, all the characters came across as immature (fair, Clara has lived an extremely sheltered life), but even after many ordeals and traumas, they still felt exactly the same as they had at the start. Clara and Maurits fell into instalove, which I could accept because, you know, magic, but then other characters routinely formed instant attachments to each other throughout the book as well. For example, about 50% of the way through, Clara ends up meeting an older couple and after exactly one scene together, they're literally saying, "oh, you're like a daughter to us!" and Clara is all like, "please let me live with you forever!"

I also really struggled with the audio narration. I see lots of praise out there for Lauren Ezzo, so this is probably just a me thing. I did enjoy the way she read the actual narrative portions, which comprised the majority of the book. I did not love the way she did voices. She read all the voices at a faster speed than everything else, making the characters always sound in a rush, or brusque, or blustering. Her female characters sounded universally whiny (but you know, given how Clara and her mother in particular acted, that is probably an accurate reading!), and her male characters sounded cartoonish. Long story short, before purchasing the audiobook, I recommend customers sample an audio clip somewhere to make sure this narrator works for them.

Thank you so much to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for this audio ARC!

I've thoroughly enjoyed this book! The narration is top tier I was entirely drawn in start to finish. The story itself is so unique and well written I absolutely loved every moment of it

Lush world building? Regency-like feel with fantasy? A gender-bent retelling of The Little Mermaid? Yes, please! The one starts with a bang, and it just kept getting better. In a world where the stories of legend become truth, the FMC is stuck in a loveless family and yearning for a life outside of the confines of her parents’ home. On the heels of her nuptials to a kind but boring man, the FMC has a meet-cute with a mysterious stranger. I just can’t even continue because I don’t want to ruin it for you. But oh! The evolution in this one. Chef’s kiss.
The narrator is wonderful as well. She breathes (no pun intended) life and emotion into the FMC. You feel the frustration, yearning, and crushing heartbreak at her words.
If you love fantasy, stop what you are doing and go get this one.

I loved it!

I am always down to read a retelling of a traditional story because I love to see people's views on the story. With having friends in the Netherlands, I loved all of the Dutch influences in the story.

I loved the ending, it was happy all around the board. Unlike the Disney little mermaid where it was really only happy for Ariel.

The only thing I did not like was that it felt very long. We could shaved down some of the pining for one another. I wanted to hear more from the mystical creatures and their influence on our world earlier on in the story.

I was very excited to pick this book up, as many people have told me Fox writes Gothic novels. I was hoping for something more along the lines of All the Murmuring Bones/ A.G. Slatter. Yet, this read more like a fairy tale.

Fox's writing was great. I thoroughly enjoyed her prose and atmosphere. I just wasn't expecting the book to be more about romance than anything else. I did lose focus a couple of times due waiting for a plot to kick in.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I do think I went into it expecting something quite different and that kept it from being a five star.

This was a cute and fun gender-swapped retelling of The Little Mermaid. I'm generally not a fan of insta-love stories but I still had a good time listening to it.

Hester’s take on a genderbent the Little Mermaid felt fresh and original. However, as much as I wanted to love this, it unfortunately fell a bit flat for me, and almost read as young adult rather than an adult historical fantasy novel.

The romance between Clara and Maurits was my biggest gripe as they fell in love way too quickly. The book doesn’t give them enough time to get to know each other and develop feelings before they’re separated. They then spend the rest of the book pining after each other, thinking they’re so deeply in love when they’ve had maybe 4 conversations total. Clara can also be especially naive, which could be contributed to her upbringing. But she always thought the best of him and that he wouldn’t lie to her again, when he’s lied to her every time they spoke.

The plot was okay and covered important topics of environmentalism pertaining the ocean. I was not very immersed in the setting however, and it could have been any historical fantasy world rather than 17th century Netherlands.

Lauren Ezzo did a good job with the narration and I enjoyed the different voices she did for the characters, especially the Old Ones.

Thank you NetGalley for the ALC!

Clara has never felt loved in her home. So when her parents inform her of an arranged marriage she is surprisingly accepting of the news. Wishing for independence she had no idea that she could fall in love with a handsome stranger that was not in fact her fiancé. But when his secrets come to the surface, Clara begins to question everything.

Even though the romance felt sudden at first when you think that this is a young couple, it was pretty believable. I enjoyed the storytelling and the gender bending twist on a classic fairytale: The Little Mermaid.

I wanted to love A Magic Deep and Drowning more than I did. The premise is rich and the setting, 1650s Dutch Republic, felt immersive and fresh. But the story itself never quite came together for me.

Despite being pitched as a reimagining of The Little Mermaid, the romance felt underdeveloped (similar to the Disney movie). There’s definite instalove, but little actual relationship-building, which made it hard to feel invested in Clara and Maurits as a couple. And for much of the book, they’re apart, so this ended up feeling far more like Clara’s personal journey than a love story.

Unfortunately, Clara’s arc wasn’t compelling enough to carry the book. She often felt more like a passenger than a protagonist, drifting from one situation to the next without much agency. The pacing felt uneven, and even the central villain was dealt with so quickly that the climax didn’t really land.

There’s a lot of potential here, especially in the setting and the mythological elements, but without a strong emotional throughline or clear character growth, it ultimately fell flat for me. A beautifully written book, but one I’d only recommend with reservations.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.

Clara has been waiting until the day she can leave her family's household and start a new life, even if it means being married off and running a household of her own. So when her parents inform her of a proposal, she immediately accepts. While she attempts to learn how to run her family's estate in order to prepare for her new life, she meets a young man who claims to work for her betrothed. And so Clara lets her guard down and ends up opening up to the stranger. But he is not all that he seems to be, and she quickly learns that there is a whole world beneath the surface full of ancient beings and mythical creatures. Clara will have to figure out where she fits into this world, because the peace between the sea and the land is unraveling, and she is in the middle.

This was a little mermaid reimagining and it reads like a fairy tale. From the moment we meet Clara it is very obvious that she does not belong in the life that she lives, and when she meets Maurits it's very obvious that she was always going to choose him no matter what. But that journey from the 20-year-old who's waiting to marry her betrothed to the Clara we see at the end is beautiful and heartbreaking and tragic. I love that she finds herself during this whole ordeal, but it was at the expense of so many people (whether they deserved it or not). I loved the fact that, while this was a reimagining, we got a gender swapped story with a male mermaid. I love the structure of the underwater society and the people that live there, and the mythical creatures are interesting -- I would have loved to have seen more of them and I'll be curious to see if we got more of this folklore in future books by Hester Fox. The romance was beautiful, and I love the fact that as much as it was almost instalove, she is still extremely cautious around him and pulls away the moment she realizes what he is, forcing him to earn back her trust. I love the fairy tail feel of the plot and the way everything came together, I just wish it wasn't so slow at times. But I definitely recommend this beautiful historical fantasy.

A Magic Deep and Drowning by Hester Fox 4⭐️! Based in 1650s Dutch Republic, Clara is about to be married off and finally have freedom from her horrible mother. While practicing household duties she meets a mysterious young man named Maurits and finds herself drawn to him. She has to decide if she will stay faithful to her betrothed or pursue Maurits. Maurits isn’t who he says he is and holds many dark secrets that will change Clara’s world forever.
I liked this gender swapped little mermaid retelling! This really just had a few elements of the little mermaid and didn’t follow the story at all. The author also said there’s elements of other Dutch folklore in it. I would consider it a dark historical fantasy. I loved the magical world this is based in and all the creatures in it. I did find it super slow at times and absolutely hated the insta love. It also felt like YA but according to NetGalley it’s an adult romance 🤷🏻‍♀️

-insta love
-no spice
-fairytale retelling
-slowww burn
-cozy
-Dutch folklore


The audiobook was very well done. The narrator was fantastic!

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for a copy of the audiobook!

This was an enthralling new twist to the classic little mermaid story. Still nicely dark with a mermaid queen and her bargain for children in return for wealth to the barons of the land. Instead of a little mermaid longing for land, you get the handsome Maurits visiting Clara and sparks flying, a transformation, the sea rising and drowning a manor and town, and a plan to knock the rightful heir off the throne in a quest that starts as for justice but gets twisted to more power at the price of everything on land. Both Maurits and Clara are strong characters that must break through their easy lives to realize the bigger danger. I love how Clara choses to go under the water not for Maurits but for her dog. They save each other and then themselves which I like. There is no sea witch but voices still get taken and it takes a sacrifices to save not just the land above but also the sea below. And it sends a good message that we should not let greed consume us and strip resources for quick riches. There is always a price to pay and people and animals and the land and sea itself that suffer in the long run. It is a lyrical writing and quite the joy to listen to.

The narrator did a wonderful job in bringing all the characters to life and making it easy to visualize the city of Amsterdam, as well as the water kingdom and all the trials that Clara and Maurits go through to save both and find a bit of happiness for themselves. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen to this audiobook.

A gender-swapped little mermaid retelling with sinister tones, A Magic Deep and Drowning builds on the foundation of this fairytale in a beautifully dark way. I love how the main characters change places but still hold common motives to the original tale. Our FMC is trapped, seeking freedom in the unknown, and our MMC is mysterious in deeper ways than we know. One of my favorite parts of Fox's book encompasses the revelation of creatures and their lore, developing a sense of horror in this enigmatic world and making a simple fairytale complex.

Behind the story, we find a commentary regarding human consequences on the sea and the life therein, which we know little about.

The narrator has such satisfying inflection and tone, a joy to listen to.

For those seeking a cozy, albeit ominous escape, A Magic Deep and Drowning may be exactly the tale for you.