Suzanne Lilly's A Thousand Little Secrets Shows Nothing Can Remain Hidden

Just one wrong move,

And you're cursed

With knowing too much.

Imagine that. Claircognizance sounds fun, but is it, really?

Cover design by KJ Jacobs

A Thousand Little Secrets is a YA paranormal romance written by Suzanne Lilly.

So what's it about?

All Marin wants is a normal life. Being claircognizant, however, makes that pretty much impossible. See, any time she touches someone whose emotions are high, she has a chance of hearing everything they're thinking. To most people that would seem like a benefit. But what happens when you 'hear' about a crime being planned, and have no way of explaining how you know about it?

Brock is the new guy in town, and Marin is his school ambassador. Her job is to show him the ropes and make sure he can find all of his classes. Marin doesn't quite know what to think of him in the beginning. Slowly, though, she begins to realize that there's more to Brock than his shallow appearance would suggest. When Marin discovers a plot to swindle the people of Olympus, Brock ends up being the only person she trusts to help her save the town.

Imagine what it would be like to know people's secrets - the ones that they've told no one.

It sounds like fun. That is, it sounds fun until you realize that some things aren't said for a reason. We wouldn't just hear the cool stuff... we'd hear the sad, the angry, and the boring things, as well.

Not only that, but we'd feel responsible for fixing some of these situations we hear about. That is, unless we suffer from clinical narcissism, which I assume the majority of us don't. When we see people in trouble, we want to help. Basically, this knowledge would be draining.

In Marin's case, she learns that a shell company is threatening the livelihoods of several people in town. She has no proof, of course. She knows this simply because she heard somebody else thinking about it.

So much for telling the police, right?

Lilly takes us through this dilemma, showing us the uncertainty, confusion, and frustration that Marin feels as she tries to do something about a crime that hasn't yet been committed. Naturally, she runs into one barrier after another, and even ends up placing herself into uncomfortable situations that cause people to doubt her character.

And then there's Brock.

The new guy in town, Marin is forced to spend time with him, since her high school places her in charge of getting him accustomed to his new environment. In the beginning, she's unimpressed with him - he's just some annoying, shallow guy that's gotten the attention of the popular crowd.

But at least she only has to deal with him for a few days...

Soon, though, she realizes that he's not annoying. Or shallow. Indeed, she finds herself trusting him more than anyone else after only a short amount of time. So much, in fact, that she

Tells. Him. Her. Secret.

Yep, he learns about her claircognizance. While he's unsettled at first, soon he's helping her try to save the town that he's so new to.

This ebook flows beautifully, leading the reader through Marin's world. Lilly did a spectacular job with character development, making us understand the difficulties that Marin and Brock face. While there were times I wanted to strangle them for making really bad decisions, I can't complain about this - we all make decisions that make sense in a given moment, but in hindsight, were really, really stupid. This is normal. Frustrating, but normal.

And real.

I did, however, feel that there was one glaring loose end that went nowhere. One of the characters mentioned a Society (capital S), but I never really discovered what that Society was. This appeared important, but no explanations were given, turning an interesting mystery into a red herring.

If you're interested in dialogue, however, the conversations were highly readable. I smiled quite a bit over the humor within some of the conversations, and shook my head in frustration when people refused to believe things Marin told them. Dialogue was extremely well done.

If you're looking for a light paranormal romance with a bit of amateur detective work mixed into it, A Thousand Little Secrets would be a good choice.

A Thousand Little Secrets can be found on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

Brandi Leigh Hall's Tethered Gripped Me Tight!

I knew it. Knew it!!!

But I won't tell you a thing.

Why?

Because that would be Spoilers! And all of you know how much I hate those...

What am I babbling about now? Well, you'll just have to read this latest ebook to find out!

Tethered is the first installment of the urban fantasy BirthRight series, written by Brandi Leigh Hall.

So what's it about?

For the last six years, Chloe has been living with her aunt, and far from the majority of her family. After the sudden death of her parents, she needed to get away from everything - especially the mystical talent that caused her to see them as they died in a car crash when she was only thirteen years old. She's worked hard at putting her past behind her, attempting to keep her ability as a seer from coming to the surface.

But now her beloved grandfather is in the hospital, about to undergo a risky procedure. Chloe and her aunt race back to lend their support, and Chloe is forced to deal with the past, as well as the guilt she feels for abandoning her remaining family. As if that isn't enough, while in the hospital she meets what appears to be the perfect man, her powers as a seer grow even stronger, and it's revealed that she and the rest of her family are at the center of a prophecy.

Chloe can no longer hide from her unusual life, and that terrifies her.

While not a "thinking book," this was definitely a good one.

This is one of those ebooks that give the reader an easy escape from reality. Hall takes the reader by the hand, leading them from scene to scene with ease. The story is remarkably fluid, making it simple for a reader to jump into Chloe's world. Tethered is definitely light reading.

The characters are extraordinarily likeable. 

Each has his or her own unique personality, causing the reader to pick favorites. Of course, these favorites changed from one scene to another, in my case, but that only added to their believability. People do and say things we like and dislike, after all, and our feelings toward them often tend to be colored by those statements. They're changeable... and Hall did a great job of bringing this out in Tethered.

Dialogue wasn't perfect, of course. I did roll my eyes a few times when some of the snarky comments fell a little flat. But then... I do that in real life, as well, so this is hardly something to shake my head over. 

And then there was the idea of predestination.

I'm not big on fate, believing that being predestiny removes free will from the equation. If you're destined for something, after all, your personal choice is meaningless. Predestiny is a running theme throughout this ebook, which naturally makes me a bit edgy.

But Hall pulls it off.

There were times that I got annoyed, of course, with statements like, "It's destined, after all" causing me to gnash my teeth. It felt like a cop-out.

But!

If you were at the center of a prophecy, and if something foreseen occurred - whether you like it or not - might you not react in this manner, as well? Sure, it feels like simply succumbing to the inevitable, even giving up on the idea of your own free choice... but it's realistic. And really... I think I prefer this to the idea of fighting destiny and having it play out, anyway. I mean, we do see that quite a bit.

Instead, Chloe recognizes that the prophecy will occur. Rather than fighting it, she concentrates on making it work out in her favor. I kinda like that.

And!

Free will isn't removed from the equation, as I may have led you to believe with all of my ranting. Chloe's visions of the future, after all, are malleable: If you see the future, you can act to change it. Sure, the prophecy has been predestined, but the individual events leading to it? Those can be changed.

So my overly critical brain was soothed.

I even found my eyes tearing up at one point. Hall scored some major points with that one! Really, this ebook was fabulous. Unfortunately, I think the author needs to go through another round of proofreading. There were many flaws centered around the letter s, and many of those dealt with apostrophes, as well. There were also a few too many italicized words, which caused otherwise perfect dialogue to feel stilted.

(You see what I did there?)

Overall, though, with just a bit of cleanup, this work would be exceptional. Reading the author's comments, however, tells me that she already knows this could use a few minor changes. It also makes me think that she could very possibly roll out an update in the future that would fix every one of the technical issues mentioned.

So while the technical aspects aren't ideal, this ebook is definitely worth looking into. If you want some light reading with a strong romantic quality to it, pick up Tethered. It's definitely worth the read!

Tethered can be found on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

Stimulate Your Imagination With Arianna's Awakening!

I apologize for the long wait on this one. Rural internet providers tend to take their time when an issue arises. 

But!

The wait was worth it.

My latest treasure hunt caused me to discover a paranormal romance that was truly enjoyable.

Cover Design by Phatpuppy Art

That treasure is called Arianna's Awakening, and it's written by Jennifer & Christopher Martucci - a husband/wife team. At the moment, the link to their page (darkcreationssaga.com) is broken, but I suspect that this is a momentary lapse as they update. I'll update my post, as well, as soon as I see that it's working again.

So what's it about?

As a girl whose mother has uprooted her from one home to the next throughout her life, Arianna Rose has led a far from normal life. When she moves to Herald Falls, though, she finds that her life is even more complex than she ever knew. Arianna exhibits strange powers that scare her, discovers that she's being hunted by a ruthless foe, and is told that she is the Sola, a powerful woman that is needed to defend others like herself from those that seek to destroy them.

Arianna's Awakening was a page-turner, and the dialogue was spectacular. I was able to not only believe that these words were spoken by the individual characters, but I was also able to give them unique voices within my mind.

I love dialogue like that!!!

I found myself wrapped up within the story, internally shouting things like, "No, Arianna... don't do that. You really don't want to do that. (pause as I read the next sentence) Oh, god, you did it!"

And then... I continued to read more, knowing that Arianna was going to go from bad situation to worse. I wanted her to be happy - yearned for her to be happy. And maybe she will be...

In the next book.

Ok, that's not true. I can wait that long... mainly because the next one, Arianna Rose: The Gathering, is already out for download.

Yay!

I really loved this one, and look forward to reading the next, but it wasn't quite a Treasured Tome. It's the closest one yet, though.

The only thing that kept this one from hitting Treasured Tome status was that I didn't feel the need to call everyone I know and harass them to hurry up and read it. This may have been because the passive writing voice slowed it down a little too much.

But it was truly amazing, and well worth a read. You can get it, as well as other Martucci ebooks at the Smashwords, Nook, and Kindle stores.

***Brief note: The cover art has changed since I downloaded this ebook, so don't be surprised when what you see isn't the same as what I show on this review.