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helenkat's review against another edition
4.0
Love the invention of a new race on earth - the Gadda. Found what they could do with the power interesting. On to book 2, me thinks.
emitchellwrites's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of my favorite books. Fresh, new, love it. READ THIS BOOK.
Nicole Murphy takes no time at all transporting you into another world, one not far from ours, but just different enough that it engulfs you. This is an un-put-downable book. I've never read anything quite like it and I can't wait to get the second.
I am quite fortunate to have won this, seeing as how I live in America, getting this would have been near impossible for me, and I would have had to ::gasp:: wait. This trilogy, I can already tell, will be in my top 5 series. Thank you Nicole, for writing such an amazing story.
Nicole Murphy takes no time at all transporting you into another world, one not far from ours, but just different enough that it engulfs you. This is an un-put-downable book. I've never read anything quite like it and I can't wait to get the second.
I am quite fortunate to have won this, seeing as how I live in America, getting this would have been near impossible for me, and I would have had to ::gasp:: wait. This trilogy, I can already tell, will be in my top 5 series. Thank you Nicole, for writing such an amazing story.
celiaedf12's review
3.0
"So, who are the secret ones?" someone asked me when I was reading this book. "Um - a secret race of people with magical powers called the gadda," I answered. It's not a terribly fascinating premise. (Also, gadda? Eh.) I mean, I appreciate the attempt at originality - this is paranormal romance/urban fantasy without vampires or werewolves - but when your secret paranormal race are basically humans with fantastic magical powers... there's not a lot of tension there. Oh, they can't have sex with humans - that's pretty much the only drawback. So that could have been a point of tension if the main character, Maggie, had fallen in love with a human. But she doesn't.
The gadda are supposed to hide their existence from the human race, which seems to be pretty easy, as any time something magical happens in front of a human the gadda simply exert their magical powers to make the human forget or think they saw something else. However, for some reason this issue of remaining separate from humans is a huge issue within the gadda community, which is essentially split down the middle between "purists" and "humanists".
This book is very much the first book of a trilogy - what I presume will be the main plot (the theft of the Forbidden Texts, capital letters and all) gets very little airtime. Instead, we're preoccupied with Maggie, her love life, her family, and monsters that keep attacking her grandfather. The only thing we get resolution on is her love life, and there's a lot of little side plots that go nowhere. I think the parts of the story with her family were the bits I enjoyed most - it's a nice dynamic. But I felt plot-wise this book was really scattered.
I just don't think paranormal romance is my genre - and this book is much more paranormal romance than urban fantasy. I have the second book and I will read it - it looks like the narrator has changed, which is a pleasant surprise. Maggie was becoming a little too perfect and all powerful.
The gadda are supposed to hide their existence from the human race, which seems to be pretty easy, as any time something magical happens in front of a human the gadda simply exert their magical powers to make the human forget or think they saw something else. However, for some reason this issue of remaining separate from humans is a huge issue within the gadda community, which is essentially split down the middle between "purists" and "humanists".
This book is very much the first book of a trilogy - what I presume will be the main plot (the theft of the Forbidden Texts, capital letters and all) gets very little airtime. Instead, we're preoccupied with Maggie, her love life, her family, and monsters that keep attacking her grandfather. The only thing we get resolution on is her love life, and there's a lot of little side plots that go nowhere. I think the parts of the story with her family were the bits I enjoyed most - it's a nice dynamic. But I felt plot-wise this book was really scattered.
I just don't think paranormal romance is my genre - and this book is much more paranormal romance than urban fantasy. I have the second book and I will read it - it looks like the narrator has changed, which is a pleasant surprise. Maggie was becoming a little too perfect and all powerful.
tsana's review
4.0
Review originally posted here: http://tsanasreads.tumblr.com/post/19799860950/secret-ones-by-nicole-murphy
Secret Ones is Nichole Murphy’s debut novel, published by Harper Voyager (Aus) in 2010. It’s a paranormal romance novel set in Ireland and rural New South Wales. Being a paranormal romance, rather than straight urban fantasy, the romantic plot line was significantly more prominent than what I usually read, which was an interesting change of pace.
The main character, Maggie, is one of the gadda, a race of magic-wielding people who look human, but aren’t (and can’t interbreed). Generally, the gadda start their magic training at the age of thirteen, then progress through levels of examinations as they gain more control of their powers. Maggie, however, didn’t want to start when she was thirteen. She stubbornly chose to finish her ordinary human schooling before entering the gadda world at eighteen. Even after joining the ranks of magic users, she continued to pursue human studies, slowing down her magical studies. The result is that, refreshingly, she isn’t a teenager (it’s possible I’ve been reading too many YA urban fantasy novels with be-all and end-all romantic plotlines) and nothing that happens is particularly unrealistic in terms of her reactions and how she deals with it etc. (And of course, there are more sex scenes than in YA.)
The male lead is a physicist (entirely biased yay!) who crosses the heroine’s path when he takes a research position in Australia at her grandfather’s university. Smart, smoking hot and with a dark past, he makes an excellent foil for Maggie and, to an extent, offers an outsider’s perspective on the gadda.
I found the structure of Secret Ones different to other urban fantasy books I’ve read (admittedly, I can only think of one other paranormal romance book I’ve read recently, so it could just be me). The romantic plot line seemed to be more or less tied up before the climax of the fantasy storyline happens a bit suddenly and then there are more ramifications than I expected. Which isn’t to say the novel was badly paced; quite the contrary, in fact. I didn’t feel bored at any point and there weren’t any paragraphs I wanted to skip. It was just different to what I’m used to.
Secret Ones is book one in a trilogy, but the other two books, Power Unbound and Rogue Gadda focus on other characters. That means that, while the overarching plot isn’t resolved, there was no cliff hanger at the end. Sometimes it’s nice not to feel like the world will end if you don’t pick up the next book straight away. …That said, I think I will pick up Power Unbound next.
I found Secret Ones to be an enjoyable, light read. I recommend it to anyone who feels like a bit of paranormal romance or urban fantasy.
3.5 / 5 stars
Secret Ones is Nichole Murphy’s debut novel, published by Harper Voyager (Aus) in 2010. It’s a paranormal romance novel set in Ireland and rural New South Wales. Being a paranormal romance, rather than straight urban fantasy, the romantic plot line was significantly more prominent than what I usually read, which was an interesting change of pace.
The main character, Maggie, is one of the gadda, a race of magic-wielding people who look human, but aren’t (and can’t interbreed). Generally, the gadda start their magic training at the age of thirteen, then progress through levels of examinations as they gain more control of their powers. Maggie, however, didn’t want to start when she was thirteen. She stubbornly chose to finish her ordinary human schooling before entering the gadda world at eighteen. Even after joining the ranks of magic users, she continued to pursue human studies, slowing down her magical studies. The result is that, refreshingly, she isn’t a teenager (it’s possible I’ve been reading too many YA urban fantasy novels with be-all and end-all romantic plotlines) and nothing that happens is particularly unrealistic in terms of her reactions and how she deals with it etc. (And of course, there are more sex scenes than in YA.)
The male lead is a physicist (entirely biased yay!) who crosses the heroine’s path when he takes a research position in Australia at her grandfather’s university. Smart, smoking hot and with a dark past, he makes an excellent foil for Maggie and, to an extent, offers an outsider’s perspective on the gadda.
I found the structure of Secret Ones different to other urban fantasy books I’ve read (admittedly, I can only think of one other paranormal romance book I’ve read recently, so it could just be me). The romantic plot line seemed to be more or less tied up before the climax of the fantasy storyline happens a bit suddenly and then there are more ramifications than I expected. Which isn’t to say the novel was badly paced; quite the contrary, in fact. I didn’t feel bored at any point and there weren’t any paragraphs I wanted to skip. It was just different to what I’m used to.
Secret Ones is book one in a trilogy, but the other two books, Power Unbound and Rogue Gadda focus on other characters. That means that, while the overarching plot isn’t resolved, there was no cliff hanger at the end. Sometimes it’s nice not to feel like the world will end if you don’t pick up the next book straight away. …That said, I think I will pick up Power Unbound next.
I found Secret Ones to be an enjoyable, light read. I recommend it to anyone who feels like a bit of paranormal romance or urban fantasy.
3.5 / 5 stars
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