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A review by perusing_pages
Mortal Skin by Lily Mayne
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
As a young boy, Ash doesn't care if his playmates are real or imaginary as long as he is getting to create his potions out of mud and leaves and have adventures. It doesn't matter how a strange world and beings slowly pour into his reality and visit him often. It doesn't even matter that these imaginary friends still visit well past the age other kids have already left that phase behind them. Eventually, Ash also grows up, leaves home, and barely remembers this part of his childhood. That is until he comes back home shortly before his 21st birthday, and that strange world rolls back in, showing its dangerous side with Ash getting kidnapped and taken into unseelie territory.
I was looking for a Fae story, not the soft fairytale version but a darker more twisty one with cold scheming, foreboding weirdness and not knowing what to believe or who to trust but with some kind of romance amongst it all. And did this story deliver that? Yes and no.
There were parts of this I found slow going. The beginning hooked me straight away, then the middle kind of stagnated, and then the ending picked the pace right back up again and left off on a major cliffhanger. So much so that I'm immediately jumping into book 2.
Anyway, without giving too much away about the overall story... I found the world building was done well. It wasn't info dumpy but was descriptive and felt tangible. The side characters are interesting, and I enjoyed not knowing who if anyone could be trusted or what their motives were. Lonan, the other MMC, has more to him than first meets the eye, and I enjoyed how the relationship between them developed, and as always, with Lily, the spice was delicious. This book is kind of a cosy fantasy, and yet there is an element of ticking time bomb threaded through it, so you are just waiting for the other shoe to drop, which creates some great tension. Overall, it is an enjoyable urban fantasy, MM, paranormal romance. Now, onto book 2.
" I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek as fear flooded me, the sharp pain bringing everything into terrifying focus. These things had kidnapped me and were taking me somewhere through the woods. I was fairly sure I wasn't dreaming at this point. Which meant they were real. This was real. The Folk were real."
"We ignored all of it because those were the things that were likely to tear apart the fragile thing forming between us. And the longer we ignored it, the stronger that thing became. So we ignored it all."
I was looking for a Fae story, not the soft fairytale version but a darker more twisty one with cold scheming, foreboding weirdness and not knowing what to believe or who to trust but with some kind of romance amongst it all. And did this story deliver that? Yes and no.
There were parts of this I found slow going. The beginning hooked me straight away, then the middle kind of stagnated, and then the ending picked the pace right back up again and left off on a major cliffhanger. So much so that I'm immediately jumping into book 2.
Anyway, without giving too much away about the overall story... I found the world building was done well. It wasn't info dumpy but was descriptive and felt tangible. The side characters are interesting, and I enjoyed not knowing who if anyone could be trusted or what their motives were. Lonan, the other MMC, has more to him than first meets the eye, and I enjoyed how the relationship between them developed, and as always, with Lily, the spice was delicious. This book is kind of a cosy fantasy, and yet there is an element of ticking time bomb threaded through it, so you are just waiting for the other shoe to drop, which creates some great tension. Overall, it is an enjoyable urban fantasy, MM, paranormal romance. Now, onto book 2.
" I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek as fear flooded me, the sharp pain bringing everything into terrifying focus. These things had kidnapped me and were taking me somewhere through the woods. I was fairly sure I wasn't dreaming at this point. Which meant they were real. This was real. The Folk were real."
"We ignored all of it because those were the things that were likely to tear apart the fragile thing forming between us. And the longer we ignored it, the stronger that thing became. So we ignored it all."