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.

CJ Brightley's Things Unseen Reveals What's Hidden Beneath the Surface

It's urban fantasy time, again!

What are the things 

Just beyond our perception?

Cruel Creatures out for blood?

Or beautiful beings hunted toward extinction?

Both?!

Things Unseen is the first book in the A Long-Forgotten Song series, an urban fantasy written by C.J. Brightley.

So what's it about?

Aria Forsyth is frustrated. She became a history major because she wanted to understand the past. Unfortunately, the last paper she wrote that deviated from the norm earned her an F. Her professor refused to grant anything more to a paper so full of unsubstantiated, unpatriotic drivel. It didn't matter, of course, that everything within the paper was cited, and that she had given opposing viewpoints, rather than proclaiming those words as truth.

That yearning for knowledge of history was clearly bad for her future. More so, however, her curiosity turned out to be bad for her health. After overhearing a conversation in a bookstore, Aria found herself unable to keep from paying attention to a man whose very presence was strange. Anything deemed unusual should be pointed out to the authorities, but Aria couldn't help but follow him so that she could learn more. Little did she know, her decision would change her life forever...

Brightley gives us a world in which people's knowledge clashes with the truth. Even things people remember are false. There's a whole world that goes unseen by the majority of the human population. People believe what the authorities tell them, never questioning what lies beneath the surface.

Hmmm... sounds kind of like our own world, doesn't it?

Ok, ok... I realize I'm being a bit of a cynic here, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Brightley was trying to point out this very issue.

Or not.

It's very possible that I'm trying to dig a little too deeply beneath the surface. Like Aria. Of course, Aria's curiosity leads her toward the truth, so maybe I'm not so wrong here. Hmmm...

Brightley takes us into a world where the government was toppled a few decades prior. "Things are better" now, of course. Nobody has any reason to doubt that.

No reason that they understand, anyway...

And therein lies the problem within Aria's world. People believe in their government wholeheartedly. They have no doubts. The government protects them, keeps them happy, and makes their lives comfortable.

That is, as long as they're not too curious...

Unfortunately for Aria, she is.  When she meets a man named Owen, one that very clearly doesn't seem to belong, she discovers that much of what she thought she knew was wrong. Not only is there more to the world than she thought,

There are more than just humans.

Owen isn't human. Rather, he's fae. He's stronger, faster, and older... older than any human, though he appears to be relatively young. He's also trying to save his entire society from the human government, which is trying to eradicate them... and they're doing a rather good job of it, too.

Aria finds herself drawn not only to Owen, but also to his cause, and soon she finds herself in a deadly battle with the human authorities and their experimental pets.

Brightley created a vivid world with vivid characters.

She took pieces from several different myths and legends in order to create the fae within these pages. These are not the fairies that you're accustomed to, with flitting wings and mischievous giggles. They're strong, they're rough around the edges, and I never saw a single wing flitting about.

Brightley did something different with their creation, and I strongly recommend that you discover the intricacies of the species of fae that she designed.

The characters are well fleshed out and easy to relate to. Even the fae, whose entire society has different rules from our own, can be sympathized with. You don't just like her characters... you really like them. And the ones you dislike? They'll truly disgust you.

This work is well worth reading, and I look forward to the next book in the series, 

Things Unseen can be found on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.