Tome Thursday: Lily & Thorne

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome back.

 

As I plan to take next Tuesday off (this weekend being Easter and all that jazz), I thought I'd dig up the last vestiges of energy I can possibly summon and get a book review up and running.

 

After all, this is what the blog is all about, right?

 

Right.

 

So without further ado, we're heading straight into another ARC.

 

Because I've been so INSANELY lucky that the absolutely incredible and lovely Rhiannon Hargadon invited me to be a part of her team - The Darklings, IYKYK - and I received this short story one as an introduction, really.

 

Then again, I've read her Descendants of the Fates series thus far - haven't blogged them yet, might do in future however - and LOVED IT. So I was crazy pleased to be invited along for the ride.

 

Here we go then, into a slightly easier starter: Lily & Thorne!

 

I don't really have any links to show since I haven't blogged about the author on here yet but, this may change in future, so keep an eye out.

 

Lily & Thorne tells the story about, well, Lily and the "man" named Thorne LOL.

 

Lily's a bit down on her luck. She runs a bookstore, but can't keep a customer in the building long enough to sell them something, her marriage imploded and she's divorced while her ex is married again and just had a baby, and generally speaking things just do NOT go according to plan.

 

Which is when Thorne crash-lands in her life, er, bumper of her car, and because she feels guilty for literally running into him, she takes him inside to nurse him back to health.

 

It doesn't matter that he's as sinfully handsome as Jamie Fraser. Nope, not at all.

 

And suddenly, things start changing.

 

Her bookstore gets a whole lot of foot traffic because of an Instagram post she makes featuring Thorne.

 

Her plants all come to life all of a sudden.

 

Thorne loves hanging around and actually sticks around rather than leaves outright once he's feeling better.

 

It's almost too good to be true - especially once they give in to the mutual attraction between them, despite the rule that Thorne seems to have about not sleeping with the same woman twice.

 

He sleeps multiple times with Lily, natch.

 

Then suddenly, after she's revealed her darkest secret - that she can't have children, tried for years, finally had a healthy baby, and unfortunately he died in his sleep because she swaddled him too tightly in a hand-made blanket - his sister, Ivy, pops up, saying there's an uprising, and that they need him.

 

At which point it becomes clear that, hey! Thorne is FAE.

 

Lily pushes him out of her life, but misses him too much to function, and eventually summons a demon for help in getting a message to him. The demon reveals that if a Fae sleeps with the same woman three times, they give her their heart, and they will forever be in pain after if they're not close to her.

 

Then Lily makes a deal: a memory for getting the message to Thorne. She doesn't even remember what was taken - but readers know the demon takes her memory OF THORNE.

 

When her life turns around, her bookstore thriving, and her up and at it, a handsome, Jamie Fraser-lookalike suddenly walks into the shop, and Lily feels like she should know him. He smiles sadly and promises that, he hopes she will. And invites her out to dinner.

 

The end!

Before I say anything else I want to give a HUGE shout-out to the author. Rhiannon Hargadon is an absolute, honest-to-goodness sweetheart, so very approachable and with a wicked sense of humor. I am truly so very honoured to be a part of her Darklings group!

Now, to Lily & Thorne.

Overall, I like this. It's short, sweet, and to the point. It introduces the ex we love to hate (go to hell, James) and adds a BFF we all need on our side (Corinne is basically me and I will fight anyone who wants to harm a hair on her head). Conveniently, Rhiannon ALSO uses a world-wide fan-favourite of Sam Heughan, aka James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser, he of Outlander fame, to help us picture Thorne.

I was also rather pleasantly surprised at what the demon Lily summons takes from her - I mean I was betting it would be that or the memory of Christopher, but then it was a coin toss as to what shade of demon we were getting. Rhiannon does NOT disappoint when making the difficult choices and then speed-running from those.
 

Now, I'm only slightly confused. This is obviously a continuation/spin-off of the Fates series, which is fine (shout out to title-dropping Malinda's book all over the place, we love to see it), and I'm sure we'll learn about more as we go along (the Fates' war obviously, Linden, etc), but as the next is supposed to cover a different couple if memory serves, this one feels ... unfinished? A bit like starting the movie in the middle and cutting off after the big rock-bottom moment when we're getting back on our feet and expecting to see the upward climb again. As it is, we can only INFER what happens next, unless we get a part two to this, maybe an epilogue chapter, or if I'm reading this wrong and Lily and Thorne will be back front and center the next installment time.

Besides which, I may be a bit daft because I can't figure out how Lily figures out who Thorne is. The text simply says she 'read about his family, his father doing x, his brother being y,' but this is BEFORE she summons the demon, and as Thorne never gave her anything beyond his name, and she only knew he was Fae ... well, maybe I AM daft, but how does knowing his name, his mythological race (to Lily then) and the number of his siblings get you their life stories? 

 

Maybe it's me. I might be the problem, I freely admit. But Lily has A LOT of books about Fae. Even though this is set in the same universe as Fates, there SHOULD have been OTHER options for her to pick through before landing on Lorcan, another clue to tie Thorne to Lorcan specifically (beside the fiery hair lol). I don't know, maybe there is and I missed it, but if there isn't, this may be a thing to pad out a little bit. Note: I'm not saying it needs to be spelled out. I'm saying it needs a breadcrumb more to make a bit more sense to people who might not have read Fates (yet). Keep them pitchorks parked, people! Haha.

Otherwise, I definitely recommend! Lily and Thorne are likeable protagonist. I think you'll enjoy this book if you pick it up for sure AND you might be tempted into reading the mothership. Either way, you win even if you just pick Fae Jamie!

 

xx

*image not mine