Tempest Maguire has always known that her mother Cecily is a mermaid who left the family to live in the ocean. As her seventeenth birthday approaches, Tempest herself grows gills and develops a craving for the ocean. She's determined to stay on land with her father and brothers, but her plans are complicated by the evil sea witch Tiamat, who wants to use Tempest's powers for her own purposes, and by the handsome selkie Kona, who falls in love with her.
The books in the series:
- Tempest Rising (2011)
- Tempest Unleashed (2012)
- Tempest Revealed (2013)
Tempest contains examples of:
- And Now You Must Marry Me: In Tempest Revealed, Sabyn proposes marriage to Tempest so she can be his queen. When she refuses, he has her chained up in the palace dungeons. He visits her once a day to bring her food, ask her if she's changed her mind, and rough her up when she says no. Tempest remains his prisoner for about three weeks before Mahina sneaks in to rescue her.
- Anger Born of Worry: In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest swims alone to La Jolla to check up on the people from her old life. On the way back, she's attacked by five of Tiamat's goons, one of whom stabs her tail and almost cuts off one of her fins before she can fight them off. She loses a lot of blood but manages to make it to friendly territory. Kona meets her at the selkie clinic and yells at her for traveling alone when Tiamat is gunning for her, leading to their first real fight.
- Anti-Magic: When Sabyn kidnaps Tempest in Tempest Revealed, he gives her daily injections of a drug that neutralizes her powers and also makes her sleepy.
- Apparently Human Merfolk: Merchildren are born looking just like humans, aside from their gills. Sometime during adolescence, they gain the ability to transform their legs into a tail.
- Asleep for Days: In Tempest Rising, Tempest sleeps for two days after the fight with Tiamat and her minions.
- Badass Normal: In Tempest Revealed, neither Tempest nor Kona is able to harm Leviathan with their magic. Then Mark, who has no magic and is of entirely human ancestry, kills the monster by shooting him with a gun.
- Betty and Veronica: At the beginning of Tempest Rising, Tempest is dating her old friend and neighbor Mark, who makes her feel safe and comfortable even though she isn't nearly as attracted to him as she is to the mysterious Kona. By Tempest Revealed, the attraction between Tempest and Kona is pretty much dead. The two amicably break up and Tempest goes back to Mark, who becomes the first human merKing.
- Big Brother Bully: Tempest's thirteen-year-old brother Rio bullies their eight-year-old brother Moku by insulting him and knocking into him whenever their dad isn't looking.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Cecily walked out on Tempest's eleventh birthday. Six years later, she has a very stressful seventeenth birthday on which she gets attacked by Tiamat and almost kills Kona by accident.
- Book on the Head: In Tempest Unleashed, the merQueen Hailana gives Tempest princess etiquette lessons that involve floating upright with a book on her head. Tempest doesn't see how that skill will help her defeat Tiamat.
- By the Hair: During the fight with Tiamat's minions in Tempest Unleashed, one of them yanks her hair.
- The Chosen One: When Tempest was a kid, Cecily used to read her a poem about a half-human, half-mermaid fighting in a great battle between good and evil. The last line is "A tempest rising, without fail." Kona tells her the poem is actually an ancient prophecy. Most merpeople think it's about Tempest because of her name, her ancestry, and her powerful magic. Tiamat thinks so too, and ever since Tempest was ten, she's been trying to kidnap her in order to use her magic against everyone else.
- Contemplation Location: There's a large rock on the beach that Tempest climbs whenever she wants to be alone and think. She's been going there since she was eleven.
- Converse with the Unconscious: In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest, Rio, and their dad spend hours talking to Moku when he's in a coma, but he doesn't respond.
- Daddy Didn't Show: Mark's parents have a long history of this. In first grade, they sent the nanny to parents' day. On his ninth birthday, they didn't come to his party. When he was eleven, they forgot to pick him up from summer camp. During his freshman year, his basketball team made the state championships and his parents didn't come to a single game.
- Dies Wide Open: In Tempest Rising, Malu kills Kona's brother Oliwa by cutting his jugular. Tempest finds Oliwa lying on the seafloor with his eyes open.
- Distressed Dude:
- In Tempest Unleashed, Tiamat's goons kill Kona's parents and most of his siblings, abduct Kona, and leave a note on the mirror in his blood that says, "The new selkie king requests your presence at the Sahul Shelf." Tiamat also kidnaps Mark and keeps him chained up with an oxygen tank next to Kona. Tempest and her friend Mahina swim to the Sahul Shelf to rescue them.
- Something similar happens in Tempest Revealed when a large group of men, including Kona and Mark, goes to take down Tiamat. They all get captured and have to be rescued again by Tempest and Mahina.
- Dramatic Drop: In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest tells Kona, "Back the hell off!" A nurse drops her tray of instruments, because Kona is the crown prince of the selkies and she's never heard anyone talk that way to him.
- Eye Scream: In Tempest Revealed, a giant octopus grabs Tempest's dad, but he manages to stab it in the eye with his knife. The octopus thrashes around, trying to get him to let go, but only succeeds in injuring itself more. Finally it drops him into the ocean. Tempest stuns Turisas with a blast of electricity.
- Fainting: In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest faints when she sees the note in Kona's blood.
- Fingore: During one of Sabyn's meals with the captive Tempest in Tempest Revealed, he asks her to pass a drink. The drug makes her slow to comply with the request, which makes him so enraged that he starts violently beating her. He finishes off by stomping on her left hand, dislocating four fingers.
- Friendly, Playful Dolphin: While Kona and Tempest are swimming together in Tempest Rising, they run into a pod of dolphins that prod Tempest with their noses and then spin through the water. When Tempest tries to imitate them, she keeps tumbling over them, which makes the dolphins laugh.
- Giant Squid:
- The Lusca is a giant blood-drinking octopus-like monster with twenty-three tentacles. He is under Tiamat's thrall and kills people on her orders.
- In Tempest Revealed, Tempest and her dad are attacked while surfing by Turisas, an octopus monster three stories high. Tempest barely manages to fight it off and swim to safety with her dad.
- Hands-On Approach: Sabyn uses this as an excuse to sexually harass Tempest while training her for battle in Tempest Unleashed.
- Healing Factor: Selkies heal much faster than humans. In Tempest Rising, Kona is hit by lightning twice, leaving a huge burn on his chest, but recovers completely in twenty-four hours. After Tempest is injured in Tempest Unleashed, Zarek gives her some of his blood to help her heal faster.
- Healing Hands: Zarek is a selkie doctor who uses both human medicine and his own magic. In Tempest Unleashed, he uses his powers to bring Moku out of his coma.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Merpeople talk about struggling to keep their heads below, rather than above, water.
- How Dad Met Mom: Tempest's dad Bobby, a professional surfer, has told her the story of how he found Cecily on a beach in Hawaii. In Tempest Unleashed, she learns the full version of the story: after Cecily's parents and siblings were killed in battle, Cecily spent several days drifting through the ocean in a dissociative haze before washing up on a beach in her human form. Bobby found her unconscious in the sand, carried her to his car, and drove her to the nearest hospital.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: In Tempest Revealed, when Tempest finds that Sabyn has taken over Coral Straits, she thinks he's going to kill her, like he tried to in Tempest Unleashed. He tells her that if he wanted to kill her he would have done so already.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: At the beginning of Tempest Revealed, Tempest has broken up with Kona and gotten back together with Mark, and makes regular visits to San Diego to be with him and her family. But after her dad is almost killed by a giant octopus, Tempest realizes that as long as she has ties on land, her loved ones will be targets. She breaks up with Mark again and returns to the ocean, not planning to return until Tiamat is defeated.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: At the end of Tempest Rising, Tempest hears from her friends that Mark has been flirting with a cheerleader named Chelsea. Thinking Mark isn't interested in her anymore, she tells him to go ahead and date Chelsea, and the two have what she thinks is an amicable break-up. But in Tempest Unleashed, Mark tells Tempest that he still loves her and was never really attracted to Chelsea. He knew she loved Kona, so he pretended to be interested in Chelsea in order to give Tempest an excuse to break up with him.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Mahina is normally a highly intelligent mermaid, but she deals very badly with stress. In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest and Mahina are hiding in a nook, waiting for Sabyn and Scylla to attack them first, which Tempest says is the best strategy, until Mahina panics and attacks too soon. They still win the fight, but Mahina is injured.
- Life Drain: In Tempest Revealed, Tempest does a life drain on her own allies in order to gather enough energy for an attack on Tiamat.
- Long-Lived: Merpeople and selkies typically live about a thousand years, as long as they spend enough time in the water. If they move on land, they age at the same speed as humans.
- Magic Pants: Averted. Tempest has to bring a pair of bikini bottoms whenever she plans to turn her tail into legs.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Kona hates Tempest's trainer Sabyn because he used to date Kona's little sister Annalise, and he abused her and cheated on her. Then she died in an "accidental fall." Kona is convinced that Sabyn killed Annalise, but he can't prove it, and most of the other merpeople think he's innocent.
- Making a Splash: This is one of Sabyn's powers. In Tempest Unleashed, he forms a whirlpool around Tempest, trapping her in place and moving water over her gills so quickly that she can't breathe.
- Memory Jar: In the ocean, pearls are called tears of the moon because they can be charmed to hold regrets. In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest finds a cave full of pearls, each containing a memory Cecily regrets, as well as pieces of sea glass containing happy memories. When Tempest picks one up, she witnesses the memory in the third person while feeling the same emotions Cecily had at the moment.
- Mind over Matter: By the beginning of Tempest Revealed, Tempest has developed telekinesis. She uses it first to hold things in place and later to actually move things.
- Missing Mom: Before Cecily left, she wrote Tempest a letter promising to come back for her and help her, but she never tried to contact her family for the next six years.
- The Mole: Sabyn is working for Tiamat. He helps her infiltrate Coral Straits, where she destroys much of the town and kills many of the inhabitants, including most of the royal family.
- Mommy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: When Tempest was ten, Tiamat tried to lure her into the ocean and abduct her. That was how Cecily learned Tiamat was at large again. Two weeks later, Cecily returned to the ocean to fight Tiamat.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest suddenly has an overwhelming sense of doom, and knows something bad happened to her family. She and Kona rush back to San Diego, where they learn that Tiamat lured Moku into the ocean and caused him to hit his head on a rock. He's been in a coma for twenty-four hours.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: In Tempest Rising, Kona uses "every vile word I had ever heard, and then some new ones that I had to assume were native to the selkies."
- No-Sell: In Tempest Revealed, Tempest blasts the Leviathan with enough magic to kill any other animal, but the Leviathan seems to barely notice it.
- Over-the-Shoulder Carry: After Sabyn knocks Mahina unconscious in Tempest Unleashed, Tempest carries Mahina over her shoulder while she swims away. Mahina recovers after a few minutes.
- Pants-Positive Safety: Tempest Revealed has Tempest carrying a gun in the side string of her bikini bottoms.
- Parent with New Paramour: At the beginning of Tempest Revealed, Tempest's dad has a new girlfriend named Sabrina. Rio and Moku both like her, but Tempest just can't warm to her and is annoyed at her for butting in on her relationship with her family. She feels like a hypocrite because she's the one who encouraged her dad to start dating again. It turns out there's a good reason for Tempest's dislike of Sabrina — she's actually a mermaid who works for Tiamat.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: In Tempest Rising, Tempest references "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you" from Top Gun, but Kona has never heard of the movie and thinks Tempest is being dramatic. Later, she sees his movie collection, which is nothing but horror films.
- Power Glows: Merpeople and selkies have natural tattoos on their backs and shoulders that give off a phosphorescent glow deep underwater, but also sometimes glow when a person uses magic. Tempest discovers this when Mark and Kona almost get in a Cock Fight at her birthday party and she tries to push Kona away from Mark. Her magic causes Kona to stumble back five or six feet and causes her tattoos to glow bright purple. Tempest flees the party in a panic.
- Power Incontinence: While Tempest is staying on land in Tempest Unleashed, her worries over Moku and anger towards Tiamat cause her powers to rise out of control. Tempest runs to a deserted stretch of beach so she won't hurt anyone, but that isn't enough, because the energy she's pouring into the ocean creates a tsunami that threatens to destroy the neighborhood. She manages to channel all her magic into a piece of sea glass, which causes the tsunami to dissipate.
- Promotion to Parent: Tempest helped raise her brothers, especially Moku. After she moves to Coral Straits at the end of Tempest Rising, they feel as abandoned as they did when Cecily left.
- Psychic Strangle: Sabyn has the ability to strangle people or squeeze their hearts by making a fist.
- Punch a Wall: After Kona finishes telling Tempest how Sabyn killed Annalise, he punches a decorative mirror, shattering it and cutting his hand.
- Really 700 Years Old: Merpeople and selkies both grow at the normal speed until they reach adulthood and then start to age very slowly. Kona is 224 but looks 19, and Cecily is in her 600s.
- Recurring Dreams: At the beginning of Tempest Rising, Tempest falls off her board while surfing and almost drowns before her legs briefly turn into a tail, allowing her to swim to safety. Every night for the next week, she has nightmares about the ocean dragging her under.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Long ago, Cecily imprisoned Tiamat in a cage at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. It took her five hundred years to break free.
- Secret Room: The network of passages leading from the seafloor to the selkies' castle contains a bed of oysters, abalone, and clams that hides a watertight secret door. Behind the door is a room that contains a security feed of every room in the castle. When Tempest is fleeing from Tiamat's minions in Tempest Revealed, she goes into the security room, shuts the door again before enough water comes in to damage the surveillance equipment, and watches Tiamat's minions fruitlessly search for her. Unfortunately, the Leviathan can tell when he's being watched, and he forces Tempest to come out by threatening to kill her friends if she doesn't.
- Selkies and Wereseals: Kona and his eight siblings, although they're longer and skinnier than real seals. When they're not in seal form, they use a shrinking spell on their pelts, which they carry in small pouches around their necks. Their parents are selkie royalty and live in a castle on an island. Unlike most examples, they can breathe water in either their human or their seal forms.
- Shark Man: The five goons that attack Tempest in Tempest Unleashed are mermen with shark tails, human torsos, and facial features somewhere between human and shark.
- Shock and Awe: In Tempest Unleashed, Tempest discovers the ability to use lightning separately from her other weather-related powers. When she's attacked by Tiamat's five minions, she blasts them with lightning through the water. Three of them are killed, and the other two swim away.
- Signature Scent: Kona tells Tempest that she smells like raspberries even after living in the ocean for eight months.
- Sonic Stunner: In Tempest Unleashed, Sabyn uses his magic to create an unbearably loud, shrill noise that causes Tempest's eardrums to bleed. She's almost completely debilitated by the noise until she manages to shut him up by throwing a grenade at him.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Selkies can understand the language of most other sea creatures.
- Super-Reflexes: Tempest's mermaid ancestry gives her enhanced reflexes.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Kona has long black hair and tanned skin and towers over Tempest, even though she's almost six feet tall.
- Telepathy: Both merfolk and selkies can communicate telepathically. They can use different channels for communication, similar to radio frequencies. At first Tempest can only use the private channel she shares with Kona, but he teaches her to use a more common channel so she can communicate with his friends.
- These Hands Have Killed: In Tempest Rising, Tempest kills Malu in self-defense by stabbing him in the stomach with a shell fragment. She's disgusted and horrified by what she's done, even though it was necessary. In later books, she becomes more comfortable with killing.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Hailana insists on being called "Queen Hailana." She angrily corrects Tempest whenever she forgets the title.
- This Is Reality: From Tempest Unleashed: "I might be in the middle of a war with an evil sea witch, but The Little Mermaid really was just a Disney cartoon. Real life in mermaid territory was much more treacherous than Ariel could ever have imagined."
- Threatening Shark: Sharks usually leave merpeople alone, but while Tempest is swimming with a wounded tail in Tempest Unleashed, a shark smells her blood and starts circling her. Tempest doesn't have the strength for another fight. Fortunately for her, when the shark brushes against her it gets frightened by her magic power and swims away.
- Tracking Spell: In Tempest Rising, Tempest makes her first foray into the deep ocean to look for Kona. Her magic allows her to see a trail in the water like a silver thread, which she follows to Kona's home.
- Training from Hell: In Tempest Unleashed, Hailana has Tempest train in fighting techniques. Her first trainer is Jared, with whom she gets along well, but after eight months Hailana decides he's not pushing Tempest hard enough, has him transferred to Alaskan waters, and hires Sabyn to train her instead. Sabyn regularly beats her up so badly she feels like he's going to kill her.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: In Tempest Revealed, Sabyn takes over Tempest's position as monarch of Coral Straits at the same time Tiamat takes over the other four major kingdoms in the Pacific. Sabyn makes some effort to look like a good merKing, but Tiamat openly commits mass murder of her subjects.
- Underwater City: There are a number of these. Inhabitants live either in caves or in structures made of stone, coral, and shells. After Tempest moves into the ocean, she spends most of her time in Coral Straits, the capital city of Hailana's territory.
- Weather Manipulation: Tempest developed these a few years ago, although she doesn't realize it at first. When she's really upset, it rains. In Tempest Rising, she's fighting with Tiamat when lightning starts striking the beach, hitting Kona and almost killing him. After Kona tells her she has weather control powers, she starts learning how to control them.
- We Can Rule Together: Tiamat has gathered an army of slaves by promising merpeople whatever they want if they do her bidding, and using magic to force them to continue to serve her after she doesn't give them what she promised. She's especially eager to recruit Tempest, who doesn't believe her for a minute.Tiamat: It's not what I want from you, it's what I want to give you. Power beyond your wildest imaginings. Control over the seven seas. Eternal life. You can have it all, Tempest. I promise I'll give it to you.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In Tempest Unleashed, Tiamat pretends to be a human woman who lost her surfboard and hit her head. When Mark swims over to help her, she abducts him.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: Downplayed. Time passes between twice and three times more slowly in Kona's home than in the human world.
