My Debut Novel Details!

Yes, you read the title correctly. My debut novel, Hide And Seek, expected to be released this June, now has a cover and its very own goodreads entry. You can check out the goodreads entry here!

It's a thriller, a mystery, a psychological thriller, but it still has a bit of romance and lots of friendship and relationships. The synopsis is below:

"Ellie and her friends don’t find it weird that they are banned from certain places, that there is strict censorship enforced by the town police, or that every suspicious death in their town is labelled a suicide.

Until one of them goes missing.

The loss of their perfect, seemingly untouchable best friend shatters the group in ways they never imagined. But while dealing with her disappearance, they start to realise that something’s not quite right...

What starts with a game of hide and seek slowly spirals into an intense search for answers.

What happened to Matilda Kennedy?

What is wrong with Worthington Falls?

A twisted, epic psychological thriller surrounded by a terrifying mystery that will keep you hooked until the very last page."

If it sounds like something you're interested in, get onto goodreads and click that "to read" button because it would just make my day three billion times better. You can also shoot me a tweet, an ask to my tumblr or an email to mywordsarearrows@gmail.com if you are interested and want to know more/get an excerpt.

I will happily provide free copies for those willing to post a honest review on goodreads, so if you're interested, shoot me an email/contact me via my socials.

As I mentioned earlier, the book is going to be released on Amazon and iBooks towards the start of June. It's so soon!

If you don't have an Amazon/iBooks account, let me know via my various social medias or my email sometime and I will get you a copy.

I'm super excited for you guys to read my novel and I hope you are too.

Stay tuned for more information!

A Court Of Thorns And Roses Discussion

Hey! So instead of writing up a review for the highly anticipated new Sarah J Maas book, A Court Of

Thorns And Roses, I thought I'd do a discussion sort of thing, because it's only recently out, and I want to recommend it, but I don't really know how I feel about it. So here is a spoiler-free discussion!

A Court Of Thorns And Roses, or ACOTAR, is about faeries. The main character, Feyre, is a human girl growing up in a faery-occupied world. She is a huntress, and one day, whilst hunting, she makes a huge mistake and is sucked into a faery world. Here is the blurb;

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Now, Sarah J Maas is my favourite author, probably. She's definitely up there with Cassandra Clare and Jandy Nelson. I adore Throne Of Glass, I really do, they're some of my favourite books. But this book did not live up to the standard I hoped it would.

Feyre felt like a more chilled Celaena (of Throne Of Glass). I liked her, but she didn't make me yell "MY SWEET BROKEN CINNAMON ROLL" like my other favourite SJM characters do. I felt like she was a bit more passive than Celaena, that she was a bit more observant rather than reactant.

I also feel that the narration would've been better in third person. The first person worked fine, but I must admit, I prefer my fantasies in third. I would've liked a few chapters in Tamlin's (the love interest) POV, or some of the other characters like Lucien (Tamlin's best friend).

The thing I was most thankful for in this book was the lack of love triangle. There was so much potential for a cheesy, horrible love triangle between Tamlin/Feyre/Lucien, or even Tamlin/Feyre/Rhysand, and I was so, so relieved that never happened. I loved that the friendship between Feyre/Lucien was completely platonic, and that Tamlin never needed to get jealous. We need more platonic relationships in YA.

I would have loved to see more female characters, though. Besides Feyre and her briefly appearing sisters, the only female characters we saw were Feyre's maid in Tamlin's court, Alis, and the evil faery queen.

The pacing of this book was hard to follow with. The start was fairly slow and romancey, and the end was fast, dangerous and bloody. There were some points in this book where it was hard to persevere (and maybe it's because I'm in a reading slump), despite the beautiful writing. I even had to stop and read another book before I could bring myself to finish the book.

Tamlin was just a bit dry, to be perfectly honest. He was quite solemn and stoic, and I did like him, but I would've loved to see some more developing of his character. I did, however, love his friend, Lucien. And another character, Rhys... well, you can form your own opinions about Rhys when you read the book.

ACOTAR was a good book. I did enjoy it, despite everything I've said here. I would recommend it to fans of Throne Of Glass and the Iron Fey series. So go and read it, then come back here and I might even write up a full review.

See you all next week!

Lily xoxo

The Darkest Part Of The Forest Review

Hello nerd-peeps! Today I will be discussing the new(ish) Holly Black book, called The Darkest Part Of The Forest. Words cannot express my love for the characters, the setting... everything about this book.

So basically this book is sort of urban fantasy, sort of psychological thriller and totally amazing. It's about this weird town called Fairfold where there is, undeniably, faerie presence.

There's a sleeping prince, two twins who both love this prince, a curse, the-faerie-next-door, true love, magic and more. It's an amazing read and I highly, highly recommend this book.

I won't give you a full synopsis because I don't think you should go into this book knowing everything, I think it's really fun to explore this weird, amazing book as you go along.

So go grab yourself a copy then head back here so we can properly discuss!

***SPOILERS***

Wow. This was everything I wanted and more. This whole world Holly Black has created, the whole atmosphere and especially the characters just roped me into this book and wouldn't let me go for the entirety of the time I was reading it.

First of all- Fairfold. What the ever-loving heck is up with this town? I loved the whole "well if you get hurt you're a tourist" type of mentality. It just added another layer of creepy to the situation, that these people excused the faerie's murdering and havoc by saying that their victims did something wrong, broke the rules, behaved like a dumbfounded tourist.

The mythology of this whole book was wonderful. The idea of having the prince in the glass case, the forest with weird enchanted creatures, the Alderking who everyone was scared of but didn't really talk about. The fact that these people in the town were so okay with all of this and that they just accepted it was very eerie and magical.

My favourite thing about this book was the characters. In my opinion, characters drive a story, and no matter how fantastic and wonderful the setting and plot is, if you have dry, boring characters your story can't succeed. That certainly was not a problem in this book. There are four main characters in this book, Hazel, Ben, Jack and Severin. Of course, there are other characters, too, like Carter and Mrs Gordon, but I'll discuss them later on.

Hazel, our main narrator, was everything I could've wanted from a kick-butt female protagonist of a supernatural novel. She was fiery and shamelessly flirty, a trait I don't see often in *positively portrayed* female characters. She wasn't afraid to fight for what she wanted and she was traditionally feminine but also a faerie knight, which was just a terrific change from the normal "I'm not like other girls" female protags. I genuinely thought that Hazel would end up with Severin, as well. It was only half way in that I thought maybe things weren't going the way I thought they were.

We got a few chapters from the perspective of Ben, Hazel's brother, and I was so, so glad. He was an amazing character and such a contrast from Hazel. Ben was a bit more demure than Hazel, more easily shaken. He was a bit like the typical talented artist, a bit kooky and unique. I loved that where Hazel didn't think much about love or romanticize her situation at all, Ben was a through-and-through romantic. His narration, although not in first person, was much more romantic and soft than Hazel's. I felt like Hazel was like a firework and Ben was like watercolour paint.

I didn't expect Hazel and Jack to end up together. I thought that she'd pine after him until Severin woke up, and then she'd fall in love with him. I thought, originally, that it was more likely that Ben and Jack might end up together. I wasn't super in love with Jack; he was fairly flat. He never really was overly interesting on his own, but I loved the dynamic he had with Hazel and Ben. The way his whole character was based around this idea that he wasn't even supposed to be there, wasn't even related to his family but still undeniably tied to them was really interesting and was just another amazing layer of intrigue Holly inserted into this novel.

Severin was everything I could've wanted from his character and more. I loved the mystery and magic that his character was surrounded by, and the way he was slowly trying to work out the "human" feelings he was having for Ben. I loved the way he spoke, like he was from a different time but he'd spend years and years listening and comprehending what people said to him, and his language was a mish-mash of different sorts of slang. And the way he just perfectly fitted into Ben and Hazel's tight little bond, like he really had been their prince was just amazing.

I loved his relationship with Ben and the way they bonded over family even though they were so, so different. It was so amazingly easy to ship and adore all the main relationships in this book.

To be perfectly honest, these four characters drove the story and I would happily read another seven books about them please Holly give me a ten thousand word novella where Ben and Severin and Hazel and Jack attempt to have a very normal life and Ben takes Severin out for ramen and cute domestic fluff like that PLEASE.

Even the minor characters in this book, like Carter, Mrs Gordon and Hazel's mother all had such an amazing atmosphere surrounding them. Mrs Gordon, Carter and Jack's mother, was the typical over-protective, homely mother, like Molly Weasley. But even she wasn't just as she seemed, with her whole backstory of being the Alderking's lover and demanding to get her baby back. The way Holly developed the average stereotype of small town people in this book into a slightly altered just plain weird set of individuals was really quite amazing. They were all such familiar character archetypes, but the way they interacted and dealt with the odd, supernatural events in the town made them foreign, maybe even more dark as characters. The whole town of Fairfold was not only an amazingly well developed setting but also made even better by the powerful yet minor characters who drove it.

The actual storyline, the problems with Hazel being the Alderking's knight and Sorrow's vengeance on the town was also an amazing element of the story (although I may have been too busy crying in awe at the characters to pay a whole lot of attention to the plot). The faeries, as per usual, were dark, enticing, dangerous creatures. A lot of the faerie mythology was the average sort of mythology but with this new twist of a sleeping prince and the "king of the forest". And also the fact that the entire town knew that there were faeries. I don't think I've ever read a book where everyone knows that faeries exist and are living among them.

In addition to the whole faerie-war aspect of the book, there is also of course the fact Hazel was a legitimate knight, in service of the Alderking. I certainly didn't see that coming, and if you did I salute you! I thought that was a really cool twist because the childhood flashbacks Hazel gave us had a vaguely fairy-tale vibe, with a prince and a knight and the more cerebral, strategic sidekick.

I really appreciated the way everything you expected from this book was flipped. As someone who reads a lot of YA fiction, I can tell you that a lot of the time, it's the same old tired narrative used over and over again. But in this book, the heroine was just that- a heroine. She was the knight, not her love interest, not her brother. She didn't fall in love with the charming swoon-worthy faerie prince, her brother did. Instead, she ended up with the guy who, ordinarily in YA fiction, might be flung into the unappreciated "friend-zoned boy-next-door" type. And I totally thought it was going to be that way! It was such a pleasant surprise to see something different and I hope I am able to find more books like this!

The Darkest Part Of The Forest was an amazing, dark, perfect read. I loved it a lot and I hope you guys did too! I will certainly be picking up some more Holly Black so if you have any experience with the other Holly Black books, let me know below in the comments.

If you agree, disagree or just want me to see some words you have strung together don't be afraid to comment below and let me know! If you want to get in touch with me and don't have a google plus account, feel free to send me a tweet to @lilypherondale, an ask to my tumblr, sherlockcrumpets or even an email to mywordsarearrows@gmail.com if you want discuss business or just say hi. I would love to talk to you, to be perfectly honest. I can send you puns and we can be friends. It'll be great.

See you next week for another post!

Lily xoxo