A bonne in his teeth by Kellen Graves

Pages: 414
Genre: m/m dark fantasy-romance with smut and horror elements
Read in: August 2025

Summary:When a fall from the mast leaves Alba Marsh unable to sail, he finally has the chance to run away from his family debts in search of a better life. He hopes to reunite with his mother, Edythe, where they always promised to meet if things went awry, but finding the small, secluded, secretive town of Moon Harbor proves a greater challenge than Alba ever expected. Worse, upon arriving, no one seems to know anyone by the name Edythe Marsh at all.

Taking a job as the local lighthouse keeper while waiting for her to come, Alba attempts to find peace in his stolen freedom--but the sea has other plans. First come the shadows, then the voices, then watery trails left on the floor while he sleeps. He's inundated with erotic dreams of sirens calling out to him, and distant singing haunts his waking hours, all while the townspeople claim to hear nothing.

After a debtor catches up with him and he's forced to dispose of their body in the harbor, Alba is interrupted by Eridanys, the last merrow of Moon Harbor, who curses him from leaving until he can find out what happened to the other merrow that once filled those waters. Eridanys' demands, both mental and physical, are exhausting and endless--but as their relationship deepens, and Moon Harbor’s long-kept secrets are butterflied open to see, it becomes clear they may both be prey to the town in ways neither of them ever anticipated.

My thoughts:

I loved this book! Being queer myself I am soooo tired of reading romance about Cis-Het people lol so finaly reading a queer love story with a transmasc mc was exactly what I needed. Alba the mc was very relatable to me on a personnal level so of course I got attached to him very easily, and I loved the relationship he devlopped whith Eri, the love interest. I love how they managed to build a realionship in which they can both be vulnerable and rely on eachother. If you're into devoted patners Eri is the one. Alba is a little bit of a tsundere and Eri is definitely babygirl coded and it made their interactions really cute and funny at times. The mix of sumtt and horror elements is also a new thing to me and I really enjoyed it (I call it Horny Horror lol), I'll definitely try to read more similar things in the future. I live by the sea side as well so i felt like I was actually in Moon Harbor, and one thing about me is that I hate seafood, crustaceans and fish smell... Somes the descriptions of little sea creatures were more disgusting to me than the gory parts, which i find really funny.