Reviews

The Forgotten Mountain by Heather Lyons

kerrythefire's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

4.0

Solid, although not as good as the first two. It felt like it was important for the story to keep moving along but I wasn't sucked in and emotionally invested like the previous books - more just listening to make sure I knew what was happening and could get to the conclusion in book 4. I mean, I'm fulling committed to the story now so it wasn't hard.

I did enjoy getting to spend a little more time with the AD, though. I was so excited at the end of the last book because I thought we were going to get more chapters from Victor's point of view in this book, so was kind of bummed when we didn't. He better
not die
in the next book. I really love him and wish he had more screen time, so to speak.

The whole last chapter had me so anxious and frustrated. On the edge of my seat... Definitely going to jump right into the last book to get some resolution!

nicolemhewitt's review against another edition

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5.0

This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction

I feel like I’m starting to repeat myself when it comes to these books. It’s impossible to describe how incredibly smart, heart-wrenching, pulse-pounding, romantic and full of humor the books in this series are! If you are 18+ and you are even remotely interested in any type of retelling, I am telling you to read these books NOW! You will not be sorry!!

What I LOVED:

Everything I loved about the first two books.
I know that’s a bit of a cop-out, but I honestly feel like I could just parrot back everything I wrote in my review of The Collectors’ Society (click on the link to read it, if you haven’t!) – not because there’s nothing to say, but just because the books are so consistently amazing that I’d just be repeating myself!

Fairy tales!
In this third book in the series, we get to see some fairy tale Timelines! And, of course, these aren’t the Disney princess fairy tales that we watched as kids. (Not that there aren’t some true fairy tale moments!) Like everything in this series, we see the darker, grittier side to the stories (the stories closer to the way they were originally written). That’s right, this book serves up the Grimm version of the fairy tales. And let’s face it, most of those old stories were pretty twisted! As always, Lyons masterfully weaves the characters and circumstances of these fairy tale stories into the main plotline. If you’re a fan of retellings, you will be more than satisfied!
The mystery unfolds. In this third book, we find out much more about who is truly behind the danger to the Timelines. As Alice and company struggle to save the people they love and the lives of strangers in countless Timelines, they start to unravel the mysteries of the ultimate villains’ true goals. There are lots of revelations and lots of surprises and some incredibly heart-stopping moments thrown in!

Alice.
Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to repeat myself, but I have to point out that Alice somehow becomes an even stronger heroine than she was in the first two books. Alice is never a damsel in distress (even when there’s someone kicking her while she’s down)! She is every inch a Queen of Wonderland, and you can’t forget that for a moment!!

That ending!
The ending to this book is pretty much diabolical. It is possible that it will induce insanity in both the book’s characters and readers alike. You have been warned.

The negatives:

I got nothin’.
Are there some? Probably. Okay, yeah, at one point I thought that our team of happy heroes was jumping into danger without a solid plan one time too many, but they were really desperate to rid the world of the evil villains and they had all this faith. So, minor, minor detail really. Once again, the only real negative is that I have to wait for the fourth and final book!!

This series has definitely made it onto my all-time favorites list! An enthusiastic 5/5 stars!

***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

mccorbin's review against another edition

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5.0

If you have been following my reviews on in this series, you will know that the first two books rocked and received our 5 out of 5 (might I add lovely) books icon as a rating. So how did the third book fair?

The Forgotten Mountain is basically pure brilliance. I have no idea how Lyons dreams up these amazing characters and worlds. I would have never thought to take most of the classic books and spin their characters and plots around to build an entirely new and wondrous series.

As always, this book, like the following two, is filled with every kind of situation that kept me on my toes and actually fist-pumping to myself while others were around. I will also admit that once I received the ARC, I gave a few fist-pumps just because I was so excited.

The last that we know of, Finn and Victor are hurt and in another time line while Alice is back at the society and searching not only for Finn (and Victor) but some serious answers. In this book, we the readers get some of those questions answered. We learn how all of these villains are interconnected with each other and we find out just how far Alice and Finn are willing to go for each other.

Instead of going on and on about how much I loved this book and how much I love the series (because I think I made it very apparent in the first three paragraphs of this review,) I am just going to end my review soon and let you be the judge. I have no doubt that you will feel the same way that I do: mad love for this series and Heather Lyons.

*Just a side note: the book covers are so beautiful and it is amazing how they capture that specific book’s plot.*

jen286's review against another edition

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5.0

This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland

Gah! I thought the end of The Hidden Library was suspenseful but it has nothing on The Forgotten Mountain! I got to the last chapter and was just like no! This is....I only have a few pages left and I need more! When will the fourth book be here?!?! Such a great read, but I need to see how it all turns out!

The Forgotten Mountain is the third book in the Collector's Society series. Man these book are so great. I just love them. I love how the author talks about different stories, seeing how the characters from different stories act, seeing them all interact together, it is just awesome. The bad guy? Oh he is fun. These books are simply fantastic.

At the end of The Hidden Library we had Victor and Finn just barely escaping the timeline that was destroyed and ending up in Sara's (Finn's old partner) world. Finn had been stabbed by a glowing sword that has some magical power and he is not healing from it like he should be. It was left with a what will happen to Finn?!? Most of the people back at the institute believe they are dead, but Alice refuses to believe it. She knows Finn is still alive. She would know if he wasn't. He is her north star, they are binaries, she would know. Oh Alice was amazing in this story. She is on a war path to take down the bad guy. She is not going to waste any time and let him get ahead of them again. Nope, she is all about the action. She must find Finn, she must take down the villian, she must get her revenge. Man I love her character. She is a very strong capable lead and so much fun to read. The scene where they are trying to search Bücherie? Amazing! Alice with her war hammer...she is awesome.

"If he foolishly believes he has brought me, Wonderland's Queen of Diamonds, to her knees, I wish for him to feel bitter, frustrating pangs of disappointment."

This book had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. First it was will then find Finn? If so, will they be able to cure him? Will we have to wait until the next book to do that? Gah! I just wanted to know what would happen so I was reading as quickly as possible. These books stress me out so much while reading because anything could happen, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love them. I love the story, I love what happens, I love how things are so interconnected, they are just great.

"'Do you believe in good and evil?' Mary asks.
'It is the foolish who do not understand that the world is built of many shades of both,' the woman says simply."

The A.D. plays a bigger role in this story and I really enjoyed him. He is shown to be kind and caring while at the same time he still is his rascal self. I am glad we got to see more of him in a more main character role. He is quite a fun read. We also have Grymsdyke, the spider assassin from Wonderland, Mary, whom I still don't care for at all, and Victor who has been off his meds while he is trapped in the other timeline. They make a great team, everyone having different strengths and weaknesses, and it is just a really fun story.

"'Houses made out of candy,' Grymsdyke mutters. 'What utter ridiculousness. You would never find something so undignified in Wonderland.'"

You learn a lot more about who is destroying timelines and where they come from. Alice and friends must travel to the world of fairy tales to try and get answers and find the villain. Really cannot wait for the next book to come out. I need to see what happens next. What will Alice do? How will she figure out the right course of action? Hopefully book four will be here soon!

thebooktrollop's review against another edition

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5.0

By the end of this book, I was rocking in a corner, pulling my hair out... Alice style.



Seriously, Lyons, do we have to have this discussion of leaving me hanging, AGAIN?? You evil, sadistic woman, who happens to be enormously talented!!

Sigh, even though I think you are evil, I am so glad you are on this planet to give me some great drugs to get lost in. Total oblivion is achieved while reading your books, and even if you leave me cussing you out and cursing your existence, I am always itching for more. And a sick, twisted, piece of me (ok maybe all of me) loves the high I get... just not the withdrawals...



This book broke my heart, mended my heart, had my anxiety at near max capacity and then the ending just left me in a pile of WTF!!!!

I had so many scenarios of what was happening running through my brain, even talking about them in the secret group had me developing even more!! I just NEED to know and it makes me utterly depressed that there is only ONE more book being written! I feel like it is a disservice to the world to let these characters go.

I don't wanna...EVER!!

Alice is exactly where she was left in The Hidden Library, picking up the pieces of her very broken home and heart. But she has one objective and you can use your own imagination to determine what that exactly is. She has new sidekicks and both of them grew on me in this book, especially the A.D. I thought he was a douche in the previous books and even though he pretty much still is, I can now determine his main objective and it is not as sketchy as I previously thought.

Alice kicks ass, takes names but is very smart in her quests. Even if it would kill her, she was determined to do what she had to do, no matter whose toes she stepped on or head she chopped off...

This book was bloody brilliant and action packed with the right amount of love, sexy, and drama to keep you invested and turning the pages until you are weeping with heartaches and WTFs at the very end.

My only advice is to stock up on comfort food and alcohol, lots of both in order to get through the months it will take until the final book is out.



Umm do I even have to rate this book??

Ok fine, 5 "Sadistic, evil, WTF, WOMAN" Stars

yviie_reads's review against another edition

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5.0



Oh my god. I already declared my undying love to Heather Lyons in every one of my previous reviews but I just have to say it again ... this woman? SHE'S FREAKING AMAZING. Heather is one of the nicest and sweetest authors I've ever had "contact" with. Sadly, I haven't met her yet (sometime in the future, I hope!) but I bet she's as great in real life as on the internet.

My personal experience with trilogies or longer series is that they usually tend to get a bit boring after the first book, if they're "good", maybe only after the second but at some point there's always this "ughhhhh" feeling I get (except for awesome series like Shatter Me, VA/Bloodlines, Lux and all these) ... The Forgotten Mountain is the third book in The Collectors' Society series and well, let me tell you: It's still as amazing as the first book. Simple as that.

I really don't know how Heather is doing all this - just read the books and you'll know what I mean! The ideas she comes up with ... the worlds and settings and how everything adds up to something EPIC in the end is brilliant and I admire her a lot for that! I wish I could write stuff like this!

But enough of that now ... let's move on to the book itself and the characters! I already mentioned in the previous reviews how much I like Alice, Finn, Victor and all the others, so in this review I want to focus on some other characters. The first one is The A.D., also known as the Artful Dodger! Can I just say that I highly enjoyed his character in this book? He's so interesting and I liked how Heather told us a bit more about him and showed us some different sides ... at first I thought he's a douche but thanks to The Forgotten Mountain I know now that there's so much more about him! He's brave, loyal, smart and proves to be a really good friend that is there for you and'll fight besides you in desperate times. Same goes for the coolest spider ever - Grymsdyke. I love him so much!

I'm also utterly fascinated by all the other little stories within this book ... it's not only about Alice & Finn or The Society but about various stories from our childhood. Characters from Peter Pan, Sweeney Todd and of the Grimm Brothers' stories are featured which only made it so much more interesting and unique! The side characters in this (actually in all 3) book were great and I wanted to know more about each and every one! No matter how little their role was, I was absolutely intrigued.

I know I'm very vague in my review but I don't want to reveal anything if you haven't read it yet. And while we're at it: You should totally get your copy NOW. The story continues where we left off in The Hidden Library and therefore anything I'd say would be a spoiler to the people who haven't read the books yet ... but DAMN. I desperately need to talk about the ending and what happened to certain characters - if you've read the book and want to talk about it ... I'M HERE. I VOLUNTEER!! And to Heather: HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO US?!? Didn't we already suffer enough? Ohhhh my god! That ending is just unbelievably cruel and makes me want to read book 4 immediately. I'm serious. I need it. *rocks and weeps in corner*

So what's my conclusion? I totally recommend this! I already got a few people into reading this series and so far they haven't been disappointed and loved it as much as I did. Please, please, please give it a try and jump down the rabbit hole yourself! Discover amazing worlds, a well thought-out story with lots of surprising plot twists, badass characters that you'll immediately fall in love with and scenes that'll leave you breathless and wanting more!

www.aworldbetweenfoldedpages.blogspot.com

shannon_cocktailsandbooks's review against another edition

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5.0

I'm at a loss for words right now. Full review to come.

mamabirdgraph's review against another edition

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the "OMG-this-is-Alice-In-Wonderland-Fanfic" feeling has passed. We're left with more questions than answers. And a cliffhanger!! I'm ready for the ever after of this story.

foxy_roxy's review against another edition

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5.0

"Madness - that old, dear friend of mine - has come home for a visit. And I welcome its return with open arms."

That is exactly how I felt when I finished this book. I don't even know where to begin.

This book here, The Forgotten Mountain is the reason why I started this series. I came across the book cover and immediately fell in love with it. I was completely mesmerized by it. Then I read the premise for the Collector's Society and I couldn't help myself. I read and read until I couldn't stop. I fell in love with it all.

The book picks up right where The Hidden Library left off. And for that, I am thankful. Like the previous books, this one does not disappoint. There is definitely action from the very beginning.

I’ve had a flutter of butterflies that have taken residence within me since I started reading this book. The more I read, the more intense they felt. There were times when I felt like I was going to burst because of the intensity or suspense of the book. And that there is exactly what I look for in a book. Something that I can lose myself in. Something that can bring me to the edge of my seat and keep me wondering and hoping.

I have to say, Heather has a gift; to tell a tale and twist many into one and still have a good outcome. I loved that we got to know the A.D. A LOT more! There is more to him than just being a Master Thief. There are more sides to him that Alice certainly noticed, although she didn’t admit to anyone. But she noticed, and coming from The Queen of Diamonds, that’s a lot to say.

I absolutely loved Alice. Her attitude and the drive that she had to overcome the trials that they were presented with. I loved that she was able to develop and cultivate her relationship with Mary. I loved that they were both there for each other, and that they never gave up. They were both strong female characters that wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The relationship between Alice and Finn was as good as or even better than the previous books. They both knew what they wanted and were willing to do anything for the other.

"Hold on, love. Even if it requires me moving heaven and earth, I will find a way to fix this. All I ask of you is to hold on."

There were moments that I wanted to cry because of what they were enduring as a couple. They had already been through so much, how either of them could handle more was beyond me. But they did. Because they had something that not many experience in their lives…

"True love encourages you to live."

I do have to say, that the last chapter in this book gave me severe anxiety. So much so that I was in tears. I felt like I couldn’t breathe because of what was going on. I thought I was going mad/insane. I wanted to reach right into my iPad and pluck her out and set her straight.

I enjoyed every bit of this book. From the main characters, to the minor ones. And the turn of events with everything that was going on and the attacks on the society. I seriously can’t wait for the next book to be released. This has turned out to be one of my favorite series. Thank you Heather for your gift, and for your willingness to share with us - your readers.

raciethereader's review against another edition

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5.0

I was going to rate this a 4 until I reached the end. Heather Lyons is an evil genius.