Kerry Adrienne | What makes Mari a heroine worth reading about?

Mari is a mermaid who wants to have her independence. She runs a small touristy beach souvenir shop (located in the building the hero owns) and she plans to prove her mother and family wrong. She can make it on her own. She is betrothed to a merman from another tribe, but she has no intention of marrying him. She’s trying to figure out how to best break the news to everyone. She cares about her mom’s feelings, but there’s no way she’s marrying the guy someone else picked out for her.

I’d hope that readers would be drawn to Mari’s independent spirit. She faces
obstacles with a pretty good attitude, usually by whistling and taking a swim to
think about things. Overall, she has a pretty balanced mood—maybe leaning more
toward the glass half full personality.

She also has saved her man from death. So, she’s strong! Not just physically,
but emotionally. She’s had to live with the knowledge that she saved him without
telling him—so it’s been difficult for her to love him from afar. But she keeps
a good mindset and enjoys her fantasy life about him. She’s really good at
pretending he’s a pirate.

When he tells her he’s selling the bar and moving inland, she is upset but she
immediately starts trying to come up with a plan to keep him on the island.
Bondage is out, though she does consider it briefly. I hope readers will like
Mari’s quirkiness and problem-solving skills.

She isn’t afraid of a hard day’s work doing manual labor. She may not love it,
but she does what is needed. She isn’t a fragile flower that needs tending. She
is able to get in there and help out. I think that is important.

Oh, and Mari loves pink. She wears it a lot and seems to prefer it everywhere. I
think it’s a happy color and something she can latch onto as a sign of
light-hearted happiness.

Even when she and Chase are faced with a strong hurricane and the threat of
losing everything, she stays pretty calm under all the pressure. I think readers
will find her believable, but not stupid. She knows about hurricanes, and the
eye of a hurricane and barometric pressure and the changes in wind direction.
She may be a freedom seeker, but she isn’t stupid. She really tries to get Chase
to see a different perspective and I hope readers like that in her. It’s always
good to at least try to see things from another person’s viewpoint.