Viv Daniels

For an eBook of not even 200 pages, Hear Me sticks with me, a good 7 months after I finished reading it. In one sitting. Viv Daniels (Diana Peterfreund) has cemented herself as an absolutely extraordinary writer and story crafter. Typically when I go about “topic-tagging” a book, as I call, it there are usually about 10 to 15 that I assign, 5 to 10 for the books that are not at all complex or intriguing. This one? 33. That’s on par with a good series and, it weighs in at only 170 pages.

I had previously written off New Adult as being just “young adult with a steamy sex scene thrown in.” Does Hear Me fulfill that? Yes. If there was an R rating for books, this would have it. But Hear Me does so much more than tell the tale of loner Ivy and her aching, Archer loving heart – it explores the themes of oppression and racism, self-loathing and self-acceptance, desperation and sacrifice, all in the name of love, and in a world that is far from kind and frequently cruel and unjust. So, as is often the question with New Adult these days it seems, does it need the sex? No. Does the steaminess make it more enjoyable? Maybe. Does Viv Daniels do an expert job in telling an interesting, intriguing, and thought-provoking story? Absolutely.… (altro)

Normally, I avoid books with "love triangles" like the plague. As soon as I see two male/female characters in the synopsis, I immediately list the book as a pass and move on. I can't stand the back and forth between the heroine (or hero) and the idea that "I love both of them so much in different ways" (aka Bella-Swan-I-can't-live-without-him syndrome) has never made sense to me. I'm a hopeless romantic but even I have my limits.

Why I ended up picking up this book--despite the fact that it screams love triangle--is the fact that Tess is an illegitimate child. Nowadays it isn't a big deal if your parents aren't together and affairs seem commonplace but the idea that Tess' mom is a legit mistress to a man really captured my attention. So I put aside my fears of an irritating love triangle and focused on some good drama.

To be fair, the love triangle isn't really a love triangle (in my opinion). I also like that Tess isn't the one torn over two guys, but that she is the "other woman" essentially (which she would hate to classify herself as :P). It put a different spin on things and it made it easy to be on her "team".

Tess and Dylan are both likeable characters and watching how they meet and fall in love is super cute. And as a science student myself, I can appreciate their hard work and great brains.

I found the drama pretty mild but I did like that the story wasn't predictable. There were a few things that threw me off course and that kept things interesting. I also really enjoyed the characters so it wasn't a chore to read this book in the slightest.

Overall: A solid and well-written New Adult read. It isn't like other books out there so it is super refreshing!

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESous Book Reviews as well as read book series recaps!

… (altro)

I really enjoyed Hear Me by Viv Daniels. I read the book in one day and loved every minute of it. The story takes place in a world much like ours but they have beings that have magic. Like many other fey tales Iron hurts them and the human world can weaken and kill them. The setting of the story is in a small town that borders the forest that keeps the Fey-like beings safe. However, the humans start to fear the fey and build a fence to keep them in their forest and away from them, thus, cutting them off from the rest of the world. Once the fence is up the half fey humans are struck sick from the fence made of bells.
The story starts up three years after the fence has been put up. The people of the town still fear the fey and want nothing to do with them. The half fey have learn how to handle the sickness caused by the fence. Ivy the heroin of the story is easy to like and sympathize with. She is trying to move on with her life after losing the love of her life, Archer a fey. The night we meet Ivy she finds Archer has broken through the fence and is in need of her care. Sparks fly like old times and the draw between them can’t be denied.
Archer has given his self over to dark magic to break through the fence. He does this to save the lives of those he holds close. However, he also has done it to see Ivy one last time.
As the story progresses lies are exposed and hearts are mended.
I really like this story it was easy to get into and enjoy. The author does a great job of illustrating a story that is so easy to fall into. This story has PNR in it but is not the total story. Therefore, if you are not PNR reader you will still enjoy this read.
I give this book 4 stars.
***I was given this book for an honest review.****… (altro)

Before reading this book, I was unaware that Viv Daniels is the alias of Diana Peterfreund. I enjoyed Peterfreund's YA post-apocalyptic retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (For Darkness Shows the Stars. I was a bit surprised to read that she labels this book “an adult romance novel,” but it does have a protagonist who starts out at age 18 and ends at 21, and does feature sex. (It seems to me it fits more in that new “in between” genre for older young adults called "New Adult" which roughly means YA but with explicit sex.)

One & Only is the story of Tess McMann, who, along with her mom, lives a life shrouded in lies. They are the second family of a rich married man who insists they tell no one about him. In spite of the struggles (especially financial) Tess and her mom have had, Tess is always generous in her judgment of her dad:

"As much as I hated to admit this, I understood why Dad had made the choices he did. I understood that he thought he could better provide for his families if he kept his reputation and his business intact.”

Tess is a science whiz, and wants to go to her dad’s alma mater, Canton University, because it has one of the best bioengineering departments in the country. But her dad insists she go to the state college, and refuses to pay for Canton. He has the money and he makes the rules, so she reluctantly agrees and heads off to a summer science camp at Cornell, for which she paid herself by winning a science prize. There she meets Dylan Kingsley, and they fall for each other. But he is going to Canton, three hours away, so Tess breaks it off.

Two years later, Tess wins a scholarship to transfer to Canton, and runs into Dylan again, but he has a girlfriend: Hannah. When Tess was six, she found out, by looking in her dad’s wallet, that she had a sister who looked about her own age. And of course, this sister is Hannah, and this is why her dad resisted her going to Canton. So Hannah not only has a “legitimate” family and the money to do what she wants and attend college without working, but now she also has the only boy Tess has ever loved.

Discussion: The mother, who puts up with a life for herself and her daughter of monetary deprivation, secrecy and isolation is portrayed as a sympathetic character who is just a reasonable victim of love. That’s very annoying. Tess also accepts her fate to a degree that doesn't ring true, especially since she is obsessed with not ending up like her mother. Dylan is perfect to a degree that seems unrealistic. The sex scenes are kind of hackneyed and insipid. Once again, I found myself making grocery lists while reading about sex...

Evaluation: I liked that the protagonist was a female who excelled at science, but otherwise, I wasn’t much taken with this book. But many reviewers disagree with my assessment.… (altro)