The Captain’s Mermaid begins with promise, but towards the middle of the book I realized that the promise of interesting things to come would not be fulfilled. Even though the writing itself was well done, the characters and plot lacked originality and development.

Lavinia Stewart grew up in Jamaica with few societal restrictions. But when her uncle dies, she is forced to return to England to live with her scandalous brother. Gone are her carefree days, replaced with a life of living off a relative who refuses to spend any money on her, is a known debaucher, and expects her to watch his two children. Lavinia spends her days in the company of her niece and nephew and hiding from the known rakes her brother occasionally brings to the estate. That is, until Captain Chartwell moves in next door after being away at sea for years.

William Braedon Chartwell is honoring the wishes of a dead man and raising his best friend’s son away from the turmoil of the sea. This, though, does not mean that William will give up his sailing career. Instead he will return to his estate and raise his ward Angus until he is called to sea again. But this mundane life is interrupted when his neighbor Lavinia shows up in a snit with Angus in hand.

Lavinia catches Angus spying on her while she swims and she is understandably furious with the boy – that is until she takes him home to William. Her anger immediately turns to compassion when she finds out that the boy has no parents and that his punishment will be a whipping. Horrified, Lavinia insists on taking charge of Angus, education and all. Surprisingly, William agrees. After all, Angus does need a woman’s touch and William is soon to be leaving on a mission, unsure when he will be back. Yet, even hundreds of miles away, William cannot escape his memories of Lavinia, a woman he finds much too intriguing and attractive.

When William returns home, he finds that Lavinia is in need of rescue. With her brother’s lowlife friends invading her home, she has no where to go – until William insists she come to his estate. Lavinia does relent, but even with female companions in residence, her reputation is on the edge of being tarnished. As readers of Regency-set books know, there is only one way to solve that problem: William makes Lavinia his wife, but with the stipulation that she must never talk to or welcome his estranged family. When William disappears for months with no word, will Lavinia be forced to break her promise and their relationship?

Because there was such a point made of Lavinia growing up in Jamaica, I thought that this would show in her demeanor, making her a unique character. But beside the fact that she often went barefoot, there was little to show for Lavinia’s rare upbringing. She is likable, but not unique, and as for the Captain, at times he came across as a bully who often blew things out of proportion.

The plot, too, I thought would be interesting: Two opposite people with a unique upbringing, a man who ignores his family for some unknown reason, and sailors as household servants. Yet, these possibilities dwindled into nothing before my eyes. And when the hero and heroine are finally together, they are torn apart much too quickly. In fact, it did not feel like they were together much at all, making their attraction seem unlikely.

Blayney does handle the children well, all of whom add to the story without being obnoxious. All in all, the story had intriguing possibilities – the author just needed to see the plotline through and fulfill the promise of her characters. Ultimately, The Captain’s Mermaid is a decent read, but the sad fact is that it could have been so much more.