You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO request is from Lianne, who is looking for an older fantasy/paranormal series:
This is for a book that’s at least twenty years old (sorry).
It’s a book in a series about romances between mer people and land people. One was set in ancient Greece, another was contemporary, but I’m looking for the book that was set in historical China, where the heroine was the mer, and the love interest is a Jewish doctor in the Chinese court.
I don’t remember much more than that, other than the cover was pink (ahhh, the dreaded “The cover was color x”).
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a plot setup this wild.
I have no idea, but I now really want to read this, so I hope someone finds it.
Maybe Jessica Bryan’s “Merfolk” trilogy? They were all published in the early 90s. The covers are glorious, btw.
“Across A Wine-Dark Sea”
“Dawn On A Jade Sea”
“Beneath A Sapphire Sea”
It sounds like the one you’re looking for is “Dawn On A Jade Sea”, book number two.
I’ve seen book number one, “Across A Wine-Dark Sea”, in used bookstores a few times. I keep meaning to get it and read it – the heroine is an Amazon warrior who is abducted by the King of the Merfolk and taken to his watery kingdom. She’s really ticked off by him abducting her (as, you know, one would be), but then realizes her Goddess has ordained the match and then it’s all good. 90s crazysauce is the best.
Darn it, I knew this one immediately (and I still have the original paperbacks since Fabio was the model for “Across a Wine-Dark Sea” and Steve Sandalis–the Topaz Man–was on “Beneath a Sapphire Sea”)! Oh, well, glad to have it confirmed.
Woo! The copywriting! “…the power of a love destined by the tides.”
https://www.goodreads.com/series/69906-merfolk-trilogy
Gotta say, I’m surprised I never saw these when I was in the book trade in the 90’s. I bet we could have cross-sold these titles in quantity to the New Age market.
“She was a sultry siren with an undiscovered heritage” – what a gravestone would it make! 😉
Yes! That is in fact the book. Now, do I still have it buried in one of my boxes? That is definitely the question, since the series is not available in ebook (why???) and it looks like that trilogy is the only books the author ever published (at least under that name)
According to Goodreads, the author also wrote a trilogy under the name Sarah Isidore.
This sounds like a fun trilogy but apparently the books are out of print. Too bad.
Oooo! Dawn on a Jade Sea really stuck in my mind because of the Jewish diaspora element. I had no idea there had been Jews in China dating all the way back to the 8th century until I read this book. It sent me down a research rabbit hole in the best way.
@taffygrl, yes, the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel were deposited along the Silk Road by the Assyrins after they defeated Israel. I read about it in an article in Scientific American in which the human genome study revealed people of Jewish DNA in China. Evidently the 1o Lost Tribes intermarried.
One thing I find fascinating is the similarity between much of the Hebrew Scriptures with the teachings of Lao Tze and Confucius. Which tells me the Jews tried to hold onto their Jewishness for a while.