Review Hidden Deep by Amy Patrick
2:00 AM
Hidden Deep (Book 1 of the Hidden Trilogy)
by Amy Patrick
Release Date: 03/23/15
Oxford South Press
319 pages
Summary from Goodreads:
Give in to the Glamour…
Sixteen-year-old Ryann Carroll has just run into the guy who saved her life ten years ago. You might think she'd be happy to see him again. Not exactly. She's a bit underdressed (as in skinny-dipping) and he's not supposed to exist.
After her father's affair, all Ryann wants is to escape the family implosion fallout and find a little peace. She also wouldn't mind a first date that didn't suck, but she's determined not to end up like her mom: vulnerable, betrayed, destroyed. Ryann's recently moved back to her childhood home in rural Mississippi, the same place where ten years earlier she became lost in the woods overnight and nearly died.
She's still irresistibly drawn to those woods. There she encounters the boy who kept her from freezing to death that long ago winter night and was nowhere to be seen when rescuers arrived. He's still mysterious, but now all grown-up and gorgeous, too. And the more she's with him, the greater the threat he poses to Ryann's strict policy-- never want someone more than he wants you.
Seventeen-year-old Lad knows the law of his people all too well: Don't get careless and Don't get caught. It's allowed his race to live undetected in this world for thousands of years, mentioned only in flawed and fading folklore…
Lad's never been able to forget about Ryann since that night ten years ago. When he sees her again, his fascination re-ignites and becomes a growing desire that tempts him to break all the rules. He's not even supposed to talk to a human, much less fall in love with one.
And the timing is atrocious. The Assemblage is coming, the rift between the Light and Dark is widening, and mysterious celebrity fan pods are becoming more and more widespread and influential. Lad may have to trade his own chance at happiness to keep the humans, especially Ryann, blissfully unaware and safe.
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MY REVIEW:
HIDDEN DEEP by Amy Patrick was an interesting one for me. I
love books about Fae, and I really liked how the world Amy Patrick built was
filled with so much fantasy yet still bended into the real
world so well. I loved the Fae community and all the strangeness that went
with them.
Then why only 3 stars, you're wondering. Well that's simple really. This
book was at a four star for me for more than half the book.
I like Ryann, most of the time. She was dealing with a lot, struggling
through her parents divorce, dealing with a now bitter mother and a grandmother
that's hiding quite the secret. She was determined to help out her mom, which
is one of the reasons I liked her so much, but I got really angry when she
treated Lad, the guy she's beyond head over heals with (insta love people, or
at least kind of insta love) There were times where she treated him pretty
crappy and purposely made him jealous. But there were others when she was
beyond loyal and caring, which redeemed her.
Side note, I get that this book is set in Mississippi, and having lived
in the south for a few years I understand the importance of sweet tea. But,
even taking into account the end of the book, there was just way too much
energy and words devoted to sweet tea.
Lad was a nice, fun and very--me tarzan-- at many
points kind of guy, but his lack of understanding of the real world, and Ryan teaching him
about it gave us plenty of awe moments when he seemed like more of a younger
teen rather than the big shot elf he was. He was beyond hot, of course, and capable
of leaping through big trees in one bound. I mentioned insta love above, and it
was in a way, except for the fact that he had saved her life as a child and she
had always believed him real, even when everyone else always told her he was
just in her imagination. You see, Lad saved Ryann from freezing to death when
she was a kid. After that he became obsessed with knowing more about the
humans, despite the fact it was forbidden by his people. He wanted to know more about Ryan, get to know her and befriend her. Then they run across each other years late, while Ryan is skinny dipping in a lake behind her house and Lad just happens upon her.
I think that was one of my favorite parts! (Thank goodness Amy Patrick had the good sense to make Ryann realize that a stranger/stalker who is ogling her and telling her that she needs to come with him was a BAD situation and she did as much as possible to get away from him. We all know there are many other YA books where the girl just went along and you wanted to slap her!)
Nox is the other guy who makes his way into Ryann’s
life. He’s the exact opposite of Lad, bad boy rocker who has all the ladies
gaga over him. That’s about all I can say about him, outside of the fact he was persistent. I just wish I knew why, after Ryann saying he didn't seem to ever notice or even talk to her, that he suddenly show up hitting on her pretty hard. W never really got any explanation on that either. Maybe it'll be addressed in book 2.
Because here is where this book dropped in ratings
for me. The entire book was kinda one dimensional for 80% of the book. I felt
that the “twists” were too obvious and predictable. I won’t spoil any of
them, because I do recommend this book for a quick amusing read; but I feel
confident saying that many people will see the whole story coming from miles
away.
Outside my issues with the flatness and
predictability, I really liked this book. There was also a concept introduced
called “fan pods”. It took me a hot second to understand what they were because
they were mentioned/referenced without any real detail, but once it was
explained…the concept turned kinda cool.
This is the first book in a trilogy, but following
with the whole predictable thing, I am pretty sure I can see where book 2 and 3
will go and what the endings will be.
I will read book 2,and if it gets better with the predictability,
flat things then I may go on to read book 3. But I’m not sure. I like Amy
Patrick’s writing style and the voice of Ryann, which were also pluses in favor
of HIDDEN DEEP.
~Dynomoon
About the Author
Amy is a two-time Golden Heart finalist (2013 and 2014). She lives in Rhode Island with her husband and two sons and actually craves the heat and humidity of Mississippi, where she grew up. She's been a professional singer and news anchor and currently narrates audio books as well as working as a station host for a Boston TV station.
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