Young Adult books

Breakwater (book 1)

Realm Award Finalist for Best Debut
Parable Award Finalist
Alliance Award Semi-Finalist

A red tide is rising.

Seventeen-year-old Jade didn’t expect to witness a murder. When her fiancé kills a naiad, plunging the underwater city of Thessalonike into uproar, tensions surge between the mer and the naiads.

Breakwater is the spine-tingling first novel in a complete trilogy of young adult mermaid fantasy books. If you like enigmatic mystery, stirring romance, and harrowing intrigue, you’ll love Catherine Jones Payne’s riveting underwater world.

Plunge into a page-turning adventure perfect for fans of Carrie Anne Noble, Leigh Bardugo, Jennifer Donnelly, and Kiera Cass.

Crosscurrent (book 2)

A black tide is swelling.

In the wake of a horrific massacre, the naiads have chosen to leave Thessalonike, and the merman Jade loves is leaving with them. After disaster strikes, Jade must face sea dragons and the fathomless deep as she journeys to Marbella. There she learns of a rising empire in that will stop at nothing in its quest for dominion.

Crosscurrent is the heart-pounding second novel in Broken Tides, a page-turning trilogy of mermaid young adult fantasy books.

Maelstrom (book 3)

A white tide is crashing.

A Gathering Tempest (Broken Tides prequel)

A short-story prequel to BREAKWATER.

Fourteen-year-old Alexander keeps secrets. He’s in love with Jade Cleopola. He covers up for his violent, drug-addicted father. And he often goes hungry. His friends at school wouldn’t understand—they’re high-class mer like Jade.

When his father’s irresponsible choices leave Alexander facing a blade-wielding debt collector, Alexander discovers himself trapped in a tangled, ever-tightening net. He must find a way to survive in unfriendly currents. Even if it means losing her.

Dive into an underwater adventure in Broken Tides, a series of mermaid tales perfect for fans of Carrie Anne Noble, Leigh Bardugo, Jennifer Donnelly, and Kiera Cass.

To Wander the Paths of the Sea (a Broken Tides story)

A tidal wave is cresting.
Sixteen-year-old harpy Ti’s world ends when an army of overlanders and sirens slaughters her family and destroys her home. Adrift in the ocean, Ti makes her way to the city of Marbella, where she tries to piece her life back together.

Ti is given employment by the Benoras, a powerful merchant family. There, she learns a deadly secret: the Benoras’ illegal dealings are responsible for a surge of deaths in Marbella. And no one else is willing to stop them. Can she risk her life to put an end to the Benoras’ treacherous dealings? And will it cost her the new life she’s desperately trying to build?

Dive into an underwater adventure in Broken Tides, a series of mermaid tales perfect for fans of Carrie Anne Noble, Leigh Bardugo, Jennifer Donnelly, and Kiera Cass.

Daughter of the Rivers (a Broken Tides story)

A flood is surging.

Sixteen-year-old Tryphaena Moss just wants to be left alone. Her carefully planned life is upended when she steps forward to take the place of a friend condemned to death. This provokes the anger of the king and queen and attracts the eye of the roguishly handsome crown prince.

To survive, she must embark on a dangerous yuhjourney to travel to her father’s homewaters and seek an audience with a foreign queen. Can Tryphaena survive the venture into unfamiliar rivers, or will the rapids take her life? And will the prince’s newfound infatuation with her prove to be her doom?

Dive into an underwater adventure in Broken Tides, a series of mermaid tales perfect for fans of Carrie Anne Noble, Leigh Bardugo, Jennifer Donnelly, and Kiera Cass.