Stealing the Wind

Mermen of Ea, Book 1

By: Shira Anthony

Narrated by: Michael Stellman

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

Taren Laxley has never known anything but life as a slave. When a lusty pirate kidnaps him and holds him prisoner on his ship, Taren embraces the chance to realize his dream of a seagoing life. Not only does the pirate captain offer him freedom in exchange for three years of labor and sexual servitude, but the pleasures Taren finds when he joins the captain and first mate in bed far surpass his greatest fantasies.

Then, during a storm, Taren dives overboard to save another sailor and is lost at sea. He's rescued by Ian Dunaidh, the enigmatic and seemingly ageless captain of a rival ship, the Phantom, and Taren feels an overwhelming attraction to Ian that Ian appears to share. Soon Taren learns a secret that will change his life forever: Ian and his people are Ea, shape-shifting merfolk...and Taren is one of them, too.

Bound to each other by a fierce passion neither can explain or deny, Taren and Ian are soon embroiled in a war and forced to fight for a future - not only for themselves but for all their kind.

©2013 Shira Anthony (P)2015 Dreamspinner Press

Started out as if it would be M/M/M PWP...

Any additional comments?

Started out as if it would be M/M/M PWP, then morphed into what I was expecting from the (very pretty) cover art as the story progressed.

When I bought this, I was expecting an epic fantasy romance with Mermen (just look at that cover!). I’d never read anything by Shira Anthony, and I was a bit thrown when, during the early chapters, it seemed like the story was heading into slave-fic, menage, territory. Hang on, I thought, wasn't this supposed to be more fantasy and less... erotica? I actually started getting discouraged, but the story changed direction once Taren is separated from Rider and Bastian, and meets Ian. From there it was more what I hoped it would be. Fantasy, romance, and some action.

So, if you were actually looking for M/M/M PWP involving the ship’s captain, quartermaster and their newly acquired slave, then you’ll be disappointed because the  the story doesn’t revolve around that relationship even though you do get a few explicit scenes in the beginning.

Overall I liked the characters, their dynamic, and how mermen were portrayed.

This isn’t my first experience with Michael Stellman’s narration, and as expected, I enjoyed the way he read the story. He’s not the kind of narrator who uses a wide range of character voices and lots of flashy stuff, but I totally have a voice-crush on him (is that a thing? Should be a thing). His voice just sounds so pleasant to me. No issues with pace and enunciation, either.

I’ve already gotten the next book in the series.

It Gets better

Would you try another book from Shira Anthony and/or Michael Stellman?

yes

Was Stealing the Wind worth the listening time?

Yes, the story gets better as it goes!

Any additional comments?

The book starts as overly simplistic m/m fantasy erotica, but by the end it acquires a plot and evolves into a fairly unique & interesting world. Parts of the story are only worth 2 stars & others 5; I settled on 3 because the transitions are clunky & even the best parts are somewhat predictable. However the book is well narrated and has a lot of potential. I'd love to see what the author could do w/ the world they created with the help of a good editor.

Merfolk & Pirates!

If you could sum up Stealing the Wind in three words, what would they be?

Merfolk, Pirates, Adventure

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked Taren because he always tried to make the best of his situation even when he was a slave or indentured

What does Michael Stellman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He brings the characters to life in a way that just reading doesn't do

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Adventure with Pirates & Merfolk

Very rich, complex story, excellent narration

We start this with Taren being sold to a pirate captain (Rider) by the man who essentially raised him in return for gambling debts.
Taren then falls into a triad relationship with Rider and his current “cabin boy”, Bastien. Rider offers Taren his freedom if he agrees to stay on board for three years. To say Taren is grateful is putting it mildly. The relationship is consensual if you disregard that Taren is Redier’s property and can’t really say no, but Taren does enjoy it and he eventually develops feelings for the other two.

There is a skirmish and Taren is tossed out to sea (after two years with the triad) where he is rescued by Ian, another sea captain, Ian, of a rival ship.

Ian is a merman and it turns out so is Taren. Ian develops feelings for Taren and the two begin a relationship. Taren has to embrace his origins or else he might die so Ian helps him to transform into his alternate form.

When Taren and Ian return to Ian’s homeland, Taren is accused of being a spy and thrown in jail. Ian has to decide if his affection and strange connection to Taren is more important than his trust in the rulers of his land. There is a bit of a twist thrown in as well and we are left with the two essentially in a HFN scenario that leads to book 2.

**
This is an amazingly rich and dense book. I’m assuming that all the wonderful world building will carry us through the next books in the series and we will see more of the relationship and the mysterious tie between the two of them develop more fully.

I had a hard time seeing Taren with others in an on-page relationship and this keeps me from giving this book 5 of 5 stars. I can appreciate that it’s part of creating his back story and giving us the full impression of his life up until he meets Ian, but I can’t say that I liked it.

We don’t get to see much of Taren and Ian together and happy in this book so I look forward to seeing where the two will go from here.

Shira Anthony writes beautifully and has a gorgeous imagination and I’m looking forward to seeing where she takes us in book 2.

4 of 5 stars

Audio

I really like Michael Stellman. He is a very easy narrator to listen to. He doesn’t go over the top in differentiating the voices of all the many characters in this complex story, but you can always tell who is talking. He does a nice job with the new names and definitely adds to the overall experience.

4.5 of 5 stars

An intriguing tale of Mermen

This is the first book of the series and you do need to read them in order as each picks up where the other left off. High fantasy isn’t one of my favorite genres though I love a good well-written one from time to time especially if the subject is myths. This an absolutely amazing take on merfolk.
Taren is a young human boy that knows nothing of merfolk except that they are myths and stories. The only father he ever knew was his first owner Mr. Laxley. He learned his love of the sea from working for him. To his dismay, he was sold to the innkeeper to settle a gambling debt and kidnaped from there by a pirate.
Rider was no ordinary evil pirate. He told Taren that he was to serve him for three years then he could choose his freedom or a job on The Sea Witch. It wasn’t long before he knew he would never leave Rider or his lover, Bastian. Not willingly.
This was a very intriguing first book of a series. I loved how the author worked the title into the story. Jam-packed with interesting information, intriguing characters, and a cool new world. As I mentioned above I don’t read a lot of high fantasy stories. The main reason is the worlds and names are usually umpteen syllables and hard to pronounce. That wasn’t the case here. The words were simple the names were unique easy to pronounce and fitting of each character. The descriptions painted a mural in your mind. I could see each sexy man, picture the ship, smell the sea or the nasty prisons, feel the torture.
I will warn you here that there were a few scary scenes that included some torture. Where they are pretty explicit they move the story forward and the minute details such as background noise and things that happen during the scene are important as it shows character growth.
The love scenes are the same. Though they are not over the top explicit, they are hot, sexy, and breathtaking. This book there is a threesome. The sex does not dominate the story and some are off the page. What is on the page is well written and sooo sexy!
I loved this story with all the twists and turns and couldn’t wait to sink into the next book. Luckily I had it waiting!

Michael Stellman gave each character just enough lilt and personality to make the story shine even more. I highly recommend this series to help make your chores or commutes go faster.

If you like myths, action, well-written new worlds, Mermen, twists, pirates, threesomes, and some hot Man-sex this is for you!

LOVE this triology

I bought this as an m/m romance - which it is - but that part of the story is so not the most interesting part of the books. The World the author created in this series is amazing and by now, when i read the last book as a kindle (not available in audio yet) i am a solid fan. I kind of felt like when i was a child and read stories like the lion, the witch and the wardrobe and was begging that i would find that World behind closet Doors. If you dont Think much of it after this one - keep reading/listening - it only gets better by the second and third book. The only Reason the overall is not five Stars is that sometimes the story jumps a bit - like a couple of days - with no pause and at first i thought it was the narrator - but when i read the last book i discovered it is the Way the book is written. So narrator does a good job.

Mermen of Ea, Lovers across Time

This combined smooth nerration with sexy characters and a real nice blend of Fantasy and swashbuckling elements into a glorious story. Really good story of two souls finding each other despite death and time itself 🥺🥰☺️

loved it.

what a great book that was looking forward to reading the next 2 books to continue the Saga of Ian and Taryn.