Hello all! Hope you're all enjoying the summer! I'm currently on holiday in a huge castle in the South of France and enjoying relaxing, playing games, and of course reading a lot! Today's post is a review of a dreamy summer romance that's perfect for your holiday TBRs! Title: A Sky Painted Gold Author: Laura Wood Series: n/a Pages: 356 Publisher: Scholastic Date of Publication: 5th July, 2018 Source: Publisher for review* Synopsis from Goodreads: Growing up in her sleepy Cornish village dreaming of being a writer, sixteen-year-old Lou has always wondered about the grand Cardew house which has stood empty for years. And when the owners arrive for the summer - a handsome, dashing brother and sister - Lou is quite swept off her feet and into a world of moonlit cocktail parties and glamour beyond her wildest dreams. But, as she grows closer to the Cardews, is she abandoning her own ambitions... And is there something darker lurkin...
Katy Moran
March 7th 2013
Walker Books
When Lissy meets a mysterious and strangely beautiful boy on her way to Hopesay Edge, she is deeply unsettled by their encounter.
She discovers that the boy, Larkspur, is a member of the Hidden, an ancient group of elven people, whose secrets lie buried at Hopesay Reach. Before long, Lissy and her brother Rafe find themselves caught by a powerful magic and fighting to escape a bargain that can never be broken.
It's been a while since I've read a book about proper creepy fairies, so I wasn't too sure how I would feel about Hidden Among Us, especially seeing as I'd started it before but couldn't get into it. However, I'm really glad I did give it another go because I really enjoyed it despite it being pretty different from a lot of other books that I've read recently.
Hidden Among Us has a lot of different POVs, which I think was the original barrier for me the first time around, especially considering that Lissy's doesn't crop up until about 6 chapters, but it did actually work well. I'm not always too keen on a book with a lot of 1st person POVs because it can get pretty confusing, but it did give lots of different perspectives on the story (which I guess is kind of the point) and filled in a lot of the holes with things like the family drama that there would have been with just one or two perspectives. The only problem that I really had with that is that I felt like I didn't get to see as much as some of the characters that I wanted to, I guess, and even though it made the story as a whole really good, I didn't get that sense of connection with some of the characters that I wanted to have.
The plot was actually a lot more unique and exciting than I thought it would be. From the summary, I was kind of expecting a typical paranormal romance (which kind of always makes me uncomfortable when it's with fairies because they are so creepy and I can't understand why anyone would want to be in a long-term relationship with one, but that's just me) but it really wasn't. I mean (and I don't think this is a spoiler) there wasn't even any romance, which was kind of nice because sometimes you really to read a romancey book and sometimes you just really, really don't. Also, Lissy was only 14 so if she had fallen in some everlasting love for Larkspur that would've just been really creepy, also for other reasons which I won't say because they are totally spoliery. But yeah, I don't really want to ruin anything for you because it is the sort of book that you really don't want to be spoiled because there's a lot of really interesting stuff going on that would only really have the same pzazz if you didn't know about it (also, can you believe that pzazz is actually a word?! I cannot.)
Yeah, as I said before, some of the characters I felt like I didn't really connect with, but most of them I really enjoyed reading about. I liked the intricacy of all of their relationships and the family issues that had come about as a result of the events of the book, because, you know me, I love a good, interesting family dynamic. Rafe, Lissy's brother, was probably the least likeable of the characters (at the beginning, anyway) but I did think that he was one of the most interesting to read about. His and Joe's (their cousin) storyline was really different to anything I've read about in a book primarily about fairies before and I was desperate to know what was going on with them. I also liked Lissie a lot, too, and I enjoyed her storyline as well. There were sort of 2 or 3 different plotlines going on, so it was great to see how they all converged to make this really interesting book. I'm still not sure about the ending, though. I mean, it was really good and kind of unexpected, but I'm not sure if I liked it.
And the setting, too, really drew me in. Their house and Hopesay Edge had this really great, slightly creepy atmosphere, and combined with the fairy/Hidden world, it was a lot more chilling and creepy than I thought it would be. Not to say that it was a particularly creepy book, but there were some parts that left me a but creeped out, and Katy Moran really captured the atmosphere of an old, creepy house and the expanse of history and the Hidden's role in it really well. There's no way this book could have been set any where other than Britain, really, because I just think that fairies/Hidden/Elves/that type of thing are just really well suited to the landscape and history of Britain. But that may just be me.
Hidden Among Us was really interesting book that wasn't what I expected it to be at all, and I urge you to think about reading it if you like fairy books but you're looking for something completely different to your typical paranormal romance (not that there's anything wrong with that, either.)
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