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Wonder and Magic
The Tale of Capri centers around a wounded mermaid who washes into a tide pool and the young lifeguard who finds her and changes both of their lives. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
The idea for this book came from the global drawing phenomenon, MerMay, started by former Disney animation legend Tom Bancroft. The challenge encourages artists and creatives around the world to develop their drawing and storytelling skills during the month of May by drawing mermaids, following a designated series of prompts. I’d been following the challenge for a number of years, but in 2019, I decided to fashion a serialized story based on the prompts. The story eventually fashioned into what became the skeleton for The Tale of Capri. The story sat in the back of my mind for a few years, and in early 2026, I revisited the tale and overhauled it to create the deeper, more fleshed-out story it deserved to become.
Were there fairy tales, films, or ocean stories that influenced the tone of the novel?
I’ve always been a fan of fairytales, and ultimately, I think The Tale of Capri became a modern fairytale. The Little Mermaid was certainly an influence in the process, but it was merely a springboard into what the story eventually turned into. I’d also interviewed a diver who shared some of his experiences, including a run-in with a cranky moray eel. Elements of that encounter appear in a scene in the book. There is also a small side character, Mr. Cuthbert, who is Eden’s kindly neighbor. He is based on the real-life Mr. Cuthbert, a close friend who lived in Huntington Beach, CA, which inspired the locations in the book in the first place. This sweet man passed away a year ago, but his personality and characteristics are preserved in this book.
Capri sees human life as both beautiful and tragic. What interested you about exploring humanity from an outsider’s perspective?
I’m on the autism spectrum (high functioning), and the world around me always feels bright, fresh, and new all the time. I wanted to give readers a taste of that experience by presenting it through the lens of a mermaid who’s new to the human world. Readers have found the perspective refreshing, joyful, tragic, and altogether interesting to explore everyday moments and environments with a sense of wonder and magic that was always there waiting to be discovered.
Can you give us a glimpse inside the next book in The Capri Saga? Where will it take readers?
The next book in The Capri Saga is The Mermaid Without Scales. The story will pick up one year after the events of The Tale of Capri. Eden discovers a homeless girl named Skye who’s been wandering the beach, and he refers her to his friend and fellow lifeguard, Adam, and his sister, Gabby, who have a guest annex at their beach house. Skye is on the autism spectrum and sparks a connection with Adam, who is also on the spectrum. When Adam wakes up one day with a fish tail in place of his legs, and Skye wakes up with scales on her upper body, Eden steps in to piece together what might be going on, especially after receiving a strange, unsigned message in a bottle which washed ashore with his name on it. Eden guesses Capri might be behind this somehow, and he sets off with Adam and Skye to solve this mystery, and maybe get them back to their original forms…whatever those might be.
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She mistrusts humans. He hides a dark secret. One wish will change everything.
Eden is a kind but lonely young lifeguard whose world comes to a sudden halt when he encounters something impossible in the tide pools along the southern California coast—an injured mermaid who goes by the name of Capri. She’s beautiful, but she’s bitter and wants nothing to do with humans after what they’ve done to force her and her pod to move out into deep and dangerous waters in order to survive. Now, after narrowly escaping death and with no chance at survival at sea, Capri must rely on the human kindness of Eden for protection, finding refuge in his secluded saltwater pool until she can recover.
As the two spend time together in secret, Capri’s guarded heart begins to melt as she discovers a different side of humanity…and Eden finds himself reluctantly falling in love with someone he can never truly be with. Even worse, Eden is hiding something—a secret from his past that, if revealed, could shatter the fragile trust he’s developed with the mermaid.
To express her gratitude for saving her life, Capri offers Eden the gift of a lifetime—a wish! Eden’s unexpected choice could forever change his life and hers, binding their worlds together in a way neither of them anticipated, and reveal far more than either of them ever bargained for.
With direct inspiration based on the official 2019 prompts from Tom Bancroft’s worldwide phenomenon MerMay, this charming mermaid fantasy is sure to delight readers with its slow-burn, no-spice romance, cozy coastal vibes, and gentle ocean conservation messaging.
The Tale of Capri
Kathleen Solis’s The Tale of Capri is a tender fantasy romance built around an inviting premise: a wounded mermaid washes into a tide pool, and the young lifeguard who finds her changes both their lives. The book began as a MerMay-inspired story, and that origin shows in the way it thinks visually, with scenes that feel sketched in light, water, scales, gardens, and moonlit coastlines.
At its center are Capri and Eden, and the story works because their connection grows through care before it grows into romance. Eden doesn’t just rescue Capri once. He feeds her, tends her wound, gives her space, listens to her, and slowly becomes someone she can trust. Capri, in turn, brings him closer to the ocean he already loves but doesn’t fully understand. Their bond has a soft, earnest quality that fits the fairy-tale setup without making the emotions feel empty.
The strongest parts of the book are the moments when Capri experiences the human world with fresh eyes. Her wonder gives everyday things, like sand, food, swimming pools, seat belts, and sunsets, a new texture. One of the loveliest lines comes when she says, “Being human sounds…beautifully and tragically wonderful.” That sentence captures the book’s whole mood: curious, romantic, a little sorrowful, and deeply attached to the natural world.
The environmental thread gives the romance more weight. Capri’s pain isn’t only personal. It’s tied to polluted coastlines, ghost nets, and the way human carelessness reaches creatures humans never see. Eden’s guilt and Capri’s anger make the second half more emotionally complicated, especially once wishes, transformation, and the wider mer world come into play. When Capri tells Eden, “I forgive you,” the moment really works because the story has spent so much time building both the wound and the tenderness around it.
The Tale of Capri is a sincere, ocean-soaked fantasy about rescue, trust, and learning to love across a divide that seems impossible at first. It’s romantic in an open-hearted way, but it’s also about stewardship, grief, wonder, and the strange beauty of being seen by someone from another world. Readers who enjoy mermaid stories with gentle intimacy, environmental feeling, and a dreamy coastal atmosphere will find a lot to enjoy here.
Pages: 225 | ASIN : B0GYQF91BP
