Fred The Mermaid Books in Order

Fred Bimm is a mermaid, but not the dreamy, sing-song kind. She is prickly, practical, and often in a bad mood, which is exactly why the series works. Fred has spent most of her life trying to manage her half-human, half-undersea identity without turning it into anybody else's business.

That plan does not last.

The books begin with Fred working at the New England Aquarium, where environmental trouble, human curiosity, and undersea politics all crash together. Soon she is juggling a marine biologist, a mer prince, a deeply inconvenient love triangle, and the fact that her own people have big expectations she never asked for. Davidson gets a lot of comedy out of Fred's refusal to be impressed by any of it.

The setting matters here. Boston, the aquarium, and the shoreline give the series a grounded feel, while the hidden world of the merfolk adds court politics, family complications, and real danger. Later books widen that world even more, especially once the existence of the Undersea Folk stops being such a secret.

These are breezy paranormal romances with mystery woven through them, but Fred herself keeps them from feeling sugary. She is funny because she is unimpressed, and the series is at its best when it lets her push back against the magical nonsense surrounding her.