From the author of the Fate series and The Deep
End of the Sea comes a fantastical romantic adventure that has Alice tumbling
down the strangest rabbit hole yet.After years in Wonderland, Alice has returned to England as an adult, desperate to reclaim sanity and control over her life. An enigmatic gentleman with an intriguing job offer too tempting to resist changes her plans for a calm existence, though. Soon, she’s whisked to New York and initiated into the Collectors’ Society, a secret organization whose members confirm that famous stories are anything but straightforward and that what she knows about the world is only a fraction of the truth.
It’s there she discovers villains are afoot—ones who want to shelve the lives of countless beings. Assigned to work with the mysterious and alluring Finn, Alice and the rest of the Collectors’ Society race against a doomsday clock in order to prevent further destruction . . . but will they make it before all their endings are erased?
*This is the first book in the Collectors' Society series.
There’s absolutely nothing I can say that will
convey how much I absolutely love and adore The
Collectors’ Society. I was in absolute awe the entire time I read it.
Watching the story unfold made me realize how brilliant Heather Lyons is. The
story is original, the writing is flawless, the details are intricate, the
romance is beautiful, and overall, there is nothing about this story that you
will not love. It’s obvious that Heather put lots of time and effort into
interweaving this complex and amazing story. The world of The Collectors’ Society is a world I wish I could live in.
“What say you, Alice? Are you up for another
adventure?”
“Madness. I must be dreaming right now.
Either that, or you’re all just as mad as I am.”
“I assure you that you are awake, my dear.”
“Now or never, Ms. Reeve. Countless souls
are relying upon you, as unaware as they may be of who their savior is.”
You know, I say this a lot, but seriously I can’t
say anything about this plot. Everything is a major spoiler. The plot starts
unraveling pretty fast, but until then my lips are sealed. TCS starts off with Alice all grown up. No longer in Wonderland,
but instead we find her in an insane asylum. She’s mostly recovered from her
time in Wonderland, and she is thinking about what she’s going to do with
herself when she gets out of there. Then, one visit from an unexpected stranger
will change her life. Because she’s Alice, she gets sucked into a whole new
world like nothing before. A new adventure that even she can barely comprehend—and
she’s freaking Alice from Wonderland.
“Knowledge is always one of the fiercest advantages, and can be the differences between failure and achievement of purposes.”
You don’t have to like or even know anything about
Alice and her classic story before reading TCS.
I sure as hell didn’t know much about Alice, and this is one of my all-time
favorite books ever. And how could it not be? Alice is one of the best heroines
ever. She’s strong, she’s feisty, she’s a badass, and overall, an extremely likeable
book character. Lately, it’s been hard for me to find non-whiny heroines that
don’t make me want to punch them in the face. Alice is definitely not one of
them. She’s determined and guarded, and throughout the book we watch her find
her purpose again.
“Sometimes, love is not enough, though. Not when
everything else is wrong. Sometimes you must move on, even when it hurts to do
so.”
The secondary characters in TCS are all so wonderful. And this is where I start raving about
how much I’m in love with Finn Van Brunt. Seriously. He’s a perfect match for
feisty and witty Alice. He’s a good guy. The brand of good guys that Heather
writes are incomparable and he’s another one for the top book boyfriends list.
He’s a gentleman, he’s mature, he’s sexy, and I just swoon, swoon, swoon so
hard just thinking about him. His chemistry with Alice is off the charts. AF
(Alice/Finn—you’ll get it once you read it) have some of the sexiest scenes I’ve
ever seen Heather write and it’s so perfect *swoons*. There’s so many other
characters to love. Every time you meet a new one, you’re going to be shocked.
And it’s too difficult to explain without giving anything away.
“Us.
Two letters combine to make a tiny word whose connotation is massive. There is
an us here. He and I, we’re partners… But when he says this word, when these
two letters combine to make a single syllable from his mouth, it feels more
than that. It feels both broader, more significant. And yet smaller and
exclusive all at once. Us is a heady,
dangerous word.”
Every page, every word, made me fall more and more
in love with the book. By now, I bet you’re thinking that there’s no way
everything I’m saying is true. I must be over-exaggerating right? Wrong. I
mean, you could just read for yourself. But, it’s all true. It’s adventure, it’s
a fairy tale, it’s a romance, and it’s a whole new world like you’ve never seen
before. Heather is one of my absolute favorite authors and this is one of my top
books of the year. AF owns my heart. The
Collectors’ Society owns my soul.
“I was
lost, without purpose when I left Wonderland. I feared I would never find my
footing again. Never find anything that would help me move past the confusion
and desolation and helplessness of my past. But then I came to the Collectors’
Society. I met you. My feet found solid ground. A fixed star shines in my sky.”
Heather Lyons has always had a thing for words—She’s been writing stories since she was a kid. In addition to writing, she’s also been an archaeologist and a teacher. Heather is a rabid music fan, as evidenced by her (mostly) music-centric blog, and she’s married to an even larger music snob. They’re happily raising three kids who are mini music fiends who love to read and be read to.
Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella are both my favorites because they are about looking past the outward appearance. :)
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