Hear Me by Viv Daniels

Hear Me by Viv Daniels
Release Date: November 14, 2014
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 170
Series: n/a
Review Source: eBook from author for review

Synopsis: (from Goodreads)

Listen… the bells have stopped ringing.

Once upon a time, Ivy belonged to Archer, body, heart, and soul. They spent long summer days exploring the forest, and long summer nights exploring each other. But that was before dark magic grew in the depths of the wilderness, and the people of Ivy’s town raised an enchanted barrier of bells to protect themselves from the threat, even though it meant cutting off the forest people—and the forest boy Ivy loved—forever.

And there’s a naked man lying in the snow.

Three years later, Ivy keeps her head down, working alone in her tea shop on the edge of town and trying to imagine a new future for herself, away from the forest and the wretched bells, and the memory of her single, perfect love. But in the icy heart of winter, a terrifying magic blooms—one that can reunite Ivy and Archer, or consume their very souls.

Warm up this winter with a sexy, paranormal New Adult romance from Viv Daniels. Contains magic spells, true love, and the hottest scene ever set in a greenhouse. Not meant for readers under 18.

My Thoughts:
Hear Me is a dark fairy tale-esque story from New Adult author Viv Daniels, who has written some awesome YA fantasy/sci-fi stories as Diana Peterfreund. Basically, if you think that dark fantasy story + sexy adult action equals a win, I suggest you check out this book.

Hear Me definitely contains all the things you might expect when you think of fairy tales and fantasy horror stories. This book may contain a hot romance, but it’s so much more than that. It has the morality element of good versus (supposed) evil, the old ways versus the new theme (modernity and technology encroaching, etc), plus the sense of The Other. This isn’t a super long book, more like a longer novella, so it’s impressive that Viv manages to include all these things alongside an interesting plot and that sexy romance.

The story is in third person, but it's a close third person, so while we don't completely get in Ivy's thoughts, we’re still able to get to know her and understand her motivations for the most part. How Ivy feels for Archer is quite beautiful. The Archer we meet is different from the Archer Ivy fell in love with, but he's still pretty delicious. The glimpses of the "real" Archer show us how sweet and attractive he is, inside and out.

Setting-wise, Hear Me is extremely interesting. This is a modern fantasy, but even though Ivy’s village is set in our real world it’s also very much a fantasy setting. The village has a sense of isolation to it, a part of the real world, but also not really. The forest beside the village is a place of magic without modern technology. Both the separation of these two worlds and how they intermingled fascinated me.

Overall I was very intrigued by this story, and I couldn’t wait to see how it all turned out. Viv Daniels has proven here that she can craft a good fantasy and tell a fulfilling story within a short amount of pages.

The Cover:
Kind of undecided on this one... thoughts?

Rating:
[4/5]

Purchase Links:
Kobo | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Google Play