Because of my long office hours, I spend a lot of time reading.  I read anything that sounds interesting at the time, and quite often its something that combines an interesting story line with some sort of romantic tone mixed in.  Most recently I downloaded an anthology of a few “First of series” Faerie books, and came across this gem.  (Pictured above is actually the cover for the prequel to the series of the same name.  I don’t have the cover shot for book 1 because it wasn’t featured in the anthology — Sad)

It caught me by surprise, mostly because all I expected was to be entertained by some new authors for a short time, I never expected that I would become so fully engaged in this trilogy, and start recommending it to others.

A surprising mix of Sci fi and magic that I found simply delectable, bundled into a YA novel that anyone can enjoy.  If your a gamer, or just someone who likes the idea of what technology we will see moving forward in our evolution as a species (think oculus rift, but better) the core concept of this book will grab you.  The characters are high school age, and so the author chose to create her own slang for the time period (rather then pop culture terms) that fits with the plot and setting.  I found myself needing very little explanation to follow it, and found that it wasn’t used so much that it became tiresome.

The main love interest is a classic case of rich girl meets interesting guy from the wrong side of the tracks.  I loved this, as it gave us an opportunity to see how each half of the society lived in this futuristic world.

You’ll notice that I’m not really explaining much about the story line, but merely explaining elements of the story.  My reason for this is because I didn’t have anything before I started to read this book.  I hadn’t read an explanation of it, or seen a cover.  All I had was that it was about faeries, and away I went.  I have a feeling that’s half of the reason why I’m so wonderfully in love with this series.  It was like a hidden gem I discovered with the first chapter, and I found it difficult to put it down once I started.  I don’t want to deny anyone else that chance at the same discovery I had.

Sometimes the discovery alone is worth its weight in gold, that feeling you get as you piece together what you’ve just started to read.  We forget that feeling more and more often, when we skim book descriptions and know immediately if we’re going to reject them or consume them.  I’m just as bad as the next person, I hate starting to read something new without knowing if its something I’m going to like or not.  I browse certain genres and authors first before branching out into the unknown.  I’ve been burned before by buying books I really don’t like, but then there are times, like this one, when I find something so wonderful, I just can’t help but share it. ❤