32 thrilling mermaid books for fans of young adult (YA) fantasy novels

Love mermaid books? Check out these YA mermaid novels! These books all involve mermaids, sirens, merrow or other retellings of classical oceanic folklore – often with a romantic element; sometimes the mermaids are good, sometimes bad, always interesting!

THE SIREN BY KIERA CASS

From Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes this captivating stand-alone fantasy romance.

WAKE (A WATERSONG NOVEL) BY AMANDA HOCKING

Enter the world of Amanda Hocking’s Watersong, a place of breathtaking beauty, immortal power―and terrifying secrets.

EMERGE BY TOBIE EASTON

DAUGHTERS OF THE SEA #1: HANNAH BY KATHRYN LASKY

Hannah is not like other girls in the turn-of-the-century Boston orphanage where she grew up. Instead of seasickness, she gets land sickness. She leaves a ring of salt in the tub when she bathes, and sometimes she sees a faint tracing of scales on her feet. It’s freakish, horrifying . . . and deeply thrilling. A choice lies ahead, and Hannah must discover if she is a creature of the land–or of the sea.

CAPTIVATE (THE SUBMERGED SERIES BOOK 1) BY VANESSA GARDEN

For the past twelve months since her parents’ death, seventeen-year-old Miranda Sun has harboured a dark secret — a secret that has strained the close relationship she once shared with her older sister, Lauren. In an effort to repair this broken bond, Miranda’s grandparents whisk the siblings away on a secluded beach holiday. But before Miranda gets a chance to confess her life-changing secret, she’s dragged underwater by a mysterious stranger while taking a midnight swim.

DROWN BY ESTHER DALSENO

Seven emotionless princesses.
Three ghostly sirens.
A beautiful, malicious witch haunted by memories.
A handsome, self-mutilating prince.

Belonging to a race that is mostly animal with little humanity, a world obsessed with beauty where morality holds no sway, a little mermaid escapes to the ocean’s surface. Discovering music, a magnificent palace of glass and limestone, and a troubled human prince, she is driven by love to consult the elusive sea-witch who secretly dominates the entire species of merfolk.

MONSTROUS BEAUTY BY ELIZABETH FAMA

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences. Almost 140 years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him.

THE VICIOUS DEEP BY ZORAIDA CORDOVA

He was gone for three days. Sucked out to sea in a tidal wave and spit back ashore at Coney Island with no memory of what happened. Now his dreams are haunted by a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth.

FATHOMLESS BY JACKSON PEARCE

Lo doesn’t know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea — a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid — all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she’s becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she’s tempted to embrace her dark immortality.

FORGIVE MY FINS BY TERA LYNN CHILDS

Lily has a secret, and it’s not her huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid—she’s a Thalassinian princess.

WATERFIRE SAGA, DEEP BLUE BY JENNIFER DONNELLY

When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be winning the love of handsome Prince Mahdi. And yet Sera finds herself haunted by strange dreams that foretell the return of an ancient evil.

OF POSEIDON (THE SYRENA LEGACY) BY ANNA BANKS

While Emma is on vacation at the beach that she meets Galen. Although their connection is immediate and powerful, Galen’s not fully convinced that Emma’s the one he’s been looking for. That is, until a deadly encounter with a shark proves that Emma and her Gift may be the only thing that can save his kingdom. He needs her help-no matter what the risk.

THE SEA WITCH: CAN LOVE TURN YOU EVIL? BY S.J. VALFROY

Though she works as a palace maid, Serena is no ordinary mermaid. From birth she manifested the magical powers of a sea witch, just like her mother, Moira. But Serena does not want to be like her mother, cruel and selfish, so she rejects her magical powers.

AWAKEN (AWAKENED FATE BOOK 1) BY SKYE MALONE

Running away from home was never Chloe Kowalski’s plan. Neither was ending up the target of killers, or having her body change in unusual ways. But the first day she goes out on the ocean, strange things start to happen. Dangerous things that should be impossible. Things to which ‘normal’ doesn’t even begin to apply.

DROWNING MERMAIDS BY NADIA SCRIEVA

As it becomes clear that the dark-haired woman is much more than she seems, Trevain is unprepared to uncover the staggering secrets behind her innocent facade. Neither the captain nor the princess can imagine that their lives will become forcibly entwined as a common enemy threatens both of their worlds…

CHOSEN BY THE SEA BY RENEE PACE

Everyone wants to be normal. But after a boating accident in the summer, nothing will ever be normal for Gemini again. Pulled under by a rogue wave, Gemini drowned. Beneath the surf she transformed into something…other…but she can’t remember what. Since her resurrection she’s been haunted by the lure of the sea. The anti-hallucinogenic pills her mother forces her to take do nothing to keep the mystical world at bay as imaginary worlds become real. But no one believes her, not her family and not the kids she used to call friends.

THE MERMAID’S SISTER BY CARRIE ANNE NOBLE

mermaid's sister novel carrie anne noble

One day, Clara discovers shimmering scales just beneath her sister’s skin. She realizes that Maren is becoming a mermaid—and knows that no mermaid can survive on land. Desperate to save her, Clara and O’Neill place the mermaid-girl in their gypsy wagon and set out for the sea.

RISING BY HOLLY KELLY

In a war between the humans and the inhabitants of the sea–humans will lose. Xanthus Dimitriou–the most lethal Dagonian to rise from the ocean–is on a mission to save mankind from annihilation. But first there’s one small thing he needs to do… kill a beautiful young woman in a wheelchair…

ICE MASSACRE BY TIANA WARNER

The Massacre is supposed to bring peace to Eriana Kwai. Every year, the island sends its warriors to battle these hostile sea demons. Every year, the warriors fail to return. Desperate for survival, the island must decide on a new strategy. Now, the fate of Eriana Kwai lies in the hands of twenty battle-trained girls and their resistance to a mermaid’s allure.

AGELESS SEA BY M.R. POLISH

The closer she got to him, the more her powers awakened. He was like a magnet she was drawn to. She knew things about him that he couldn’t remember, things that were blocked from his memory. He wasn’t from earth either, and she needed his help to save both of their worlds.

LIES BENEATH BY ANNE GREENWOOD BROWN

To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans and absorb their positive energy. Usually, they select their victims at random, but this time around, the underwater clan chooses its target for a reason: revenge. They want to kill Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother’s death.

THE RISING BY TERRA HARMONY

Seventeen-year-old Serena is the youngest member of a dying race. The increasing acidity of the ocean is destroying her home, slowly eating away at the once thriving underwater landscape. But since the night of Serena’s birth, it is an outside force that most threatens their dwindling population. Werewolves, who once served as protectors for mermaids in the Kingdom of the Undine, now seek to eliminate all who dwell in the ocean—and Serena is about to find herself right in the middle of the deadly conflict.

Returning: A Water Novella by A.L. Knorr

Mira Belshaw has lived in the ocean all her life — and she doesn’t know how long she’s been there, since it’s tough to keep track of time underwater. But Mira knows that eventually she has to find a mate, so she swims north to return to the place where she was last human: the city of Saltford. She has everything she needs to lure the perfect mate and become the mother to a siren child – she just needs to mingle with humans. But then she meets Nathan MacAuley, and she discovers that things won’t really go as planned.

What do the readers say?

“This is the kind of book that when you step away from it, you want to find your way back to it because it draws you in and hooks you on all fronts – from the story, to the characters, to the intriguing situations. Returning is a wonderful first story by a very talented writer, and I am very excited to see what’s next!” – RBS, Amazon user. [Review from Amazon]

SOUND OF SIRENS BY JEN MINKMAN

On the island of Skylge, electricity is only for the Currents – the rich ruling class who once came from across the sea and brought the holy fire of St. Brandan to Skylge. Ever since, the light in the Brandaris Tower has protected the islanders. Heeding the Siren’s call will drown your body and steal your soul, but the sacred light in the Tower will chase the merfolk away.

PROMISES (THE SYRENKA SERIES BOOK 1) BY AMBER GARR

When seventeen-year-old Eviana Dumahl is faced with the responsibility of an arranged marriage and clan leadership, she is forced to choose between the life required of a mermaid and one of a teenage girl simply infatuated with the wrong guy.

NERIDA (THE UNTOLD STORIES OF NEVERLAND BOOK 3) BY K.R. THOMPSON

Thespa, queen of the water sprites, has brought her own Lost Ones to Neverland. As the mermaids and mermen arrive, the magic returns once more to the Never Sea. But with these newest inhabitants, something darker and more dangerous than the crocodile lies beneath the surface.

DROPLETS BY MEAGHAN RAUSCHER

When Lissie ends up on a stranded island and meets its sole inhabitant, the handsome and mysterious Patrick, she begins to realize that meeting the dark merman was not a mere twist of fate. But if it was destined, why is Patrick’s past entangled with her future?

INK: A FALLING IN DEEP COLLECTION NOVELLA BY MELANIE KARSAK

Mere hours before she’s supposed to leave the ocean for her customary year as a drywalker, Ink meets Hal, an alligator shifter who warns her that a storm is brewing. There is malicious intent behind Ink’s marriage—and worse, meeting Hal has also caused a storm to rage in Ink’s heart.

INSATIABLE – A MERMAID’S CURSE BY DANIELLE LANZAROTTA

Arianna always felt like she didn’t belong in the world where she was born. Ever since she was little, she used to hide behind the rocks in the sea, and watch the human family who spent their summers on that island. Over the years, there was nothing she wished more than to be like them, especially so she could get close to Blake, the human boy who she saw turn into a troubled teenager and then, an unhappy man.

TIDES BY BETSY CORNWELL

Noah has landed a marine biology internship, and Lo wants to draw and paint, perhaps even to vanquish her struggles with bulimia. But then things take a dramatic turn for them both when Noah mistakenly tries to save a mysterious girl from drowning. This dreamlike, suspenseful story—deftly told from multiple points of view—dives deeply into selkie folklore while examining the fluid nature of love and family.

RIPPLE: FIRST EDITION BY MANDY HUBBARD

Lexi is cursed. Following in the footsteps of every woman on her mother’s side of the family, she’s a siren whose song lures unsuspecting victims to their watery deaths. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim to stay alive.

TEMPEST RISING (TEMPEST MAGUIRE) BY TRACY DEEBS

As her seventeenth birthday approaches, half-mermaid Tempest Maguire will have to make a decision. Stay on land? Or give herself to the ocean? The pull of the water becomes as insistent as her attraction to Kona, a gorgeous surfer whose uncanny abilities hint at an otherworldly identity as well.

SEA CHANGE BY AIMEE FRIEDMAN

Sixteen-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science. . .and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she’s happy to spend the summer on small, mysterious Selkie Island, helping her mother sort out her late grandmother’s estate. There, Miranda finds new friends and an island with a mysterious, mystical history, presenting her with facts her logical, scientific mind can’t make sense of.

SIREN BY TRICIA RAYBURN

Vacationing in Winter Harbor, Maine, is a tradition for Vanessa and Justine Sands, and that means spending time with the Carmichael boys. This summer, Vanessa is determined to channel some of her older sister’s boldness, get over her fear of the ocean, and maybe turn her friendship with Simon Carmichael into something much more

ATLANTIS RIPTIDE: LOST DAUGHTERS OF ATLANTIS BY ALLIE BURTON

For all her sixteen years, Pearl Poseidon has been a fish out of water. A freak on display for her adoptive parents’ profit. Running away from her horrible life, she craves one thing—anonymity. But when she saves a small boy from drowning she exposes herself and her mutant abilities to Chase, a budding investigative reporter.

HOW TO BE A MERMAID: FALLING IN DEEP BY ERIN HAYES

All Tara ever wanted was to be a mermaid. So she takes a year off between high school and college to don a fake tail and tour aquariums across the country in a professional mermaid troupe. Everything’s great until she meets a gorgeous real-life merman named Finn. Suddenly, what she thought was a dream turns out to be a nightmare — she’s turning into a mermaid herself. For real.

THE RISING BY TERRA HARMONY

Returning: A Water Novella by A.L. Knorr

What do the readers say?

“This is the kind of book that when you step away from it, you want to find your way back to it because it draws you in and hooks you on all fronts – from the story, to the characters, to the intriguing situations. Returning is a wonderful first story by a very talented writer, and I am very excited to see what’s next!” – RBS, Amazon user. [Review from Amazon]

SHEARWATER (SONG & TIDE) BY D.S. MURPHY

Shearwater is a young adult mermaid novel that will appeal to lovers of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, witches, Irish mythology, and supernatural folklore.

An ancient civilization, brooding under the ocean depths. A forgotten race of witches, with dwindling supplies of magic. And I’m the spark that will consume them both.

My move to Ireland was supposed to be a fresh start. Instead, it’s become a countdown to disaster. With the tragic loss of my parents and a series of chilling murders, death seems to be my new shadow. As I pry open the cryptic chapters of my mother’s hidden past, I’m caught in a whirlpool of intrigue, danger, and undeniable attraction to two enigmatic men – Sebastian, with his inexplicable abilities, and Ethan, a local heartthrob rumored to dabble in dark magic.

Strange new powers are awakening within me. My identity, my place in this world, they’re all adrift in a sea of confusion. But I must anchor myself quickly. If I can’t unearth the truth behind my mother’s flight from Ireland, or figure out who keeps trying to kill me, this wave of devastation will wash away humanity.

Have any other YA Mermaid Romances you love? Post them in the comments!