“Do You Hear What I Hear?” Mini-Review: Hear Me by Viv Daniels

Listen… the bells have stopped ringing.Once upon a time, Ivy belonged to Archer, body, heart, and soul. They spent long summer days exploring the forest, and long summer nights exploring each other. But that was before dark magic grew in the depths of the wilderness, and the people of Ivy’s town raised an enchanted barrier of bells to protect themselves from the threat, even though it meant cutting off the forest people—and the forest boy Ivy loved—forever.

And there’s a naked man lying in the snow.

Three years later, Ivy keeps her head down, working alone in her tea shop on the edge of town and trying to imagine a new future for herself, away from the forest and the wretched bells, and the memory of her single, perfect love. But in the icy heart of winter, a terrifying magic blooms—one that can reunite Ivy and Archer, or consume their very souls.

Warm up this winter with a sexy, paranormal New Adult romance from Viv Daniels. Contains magic spells, true love, and the hottest scene ever set in a greenhouse. Not meant for readers under 18.

Review:

Last week, I talked about how Viv Daniels aka Diana Peterfreund always manages to surprise me with her novels – there’s always some sort of science or brainy/cool idea in them, and this paranormal new adult romance is no different.

Hear Me is the story of 20 year old Ivy Potter, who has been missing her childhood friend and lover Archer, for three years. Archer is of the forest nearby, and three years ago, the townspeople of Ivy’s town decided that the forest folk were getting too ensconced in dark magic and erected a barrier of bells – the bells having a sound that deters forest people. Unfortunately, the barrier’s effect is also painful to some of the townspeople who have forest blood in them – including Ivy, whose forest mother abandoned her and her townie father. Ivy’s father helped create a special tea that helps townies like her alleviate the effects of the bells, and that has become her job – to help people in town get by using the tea. Unfortunately, Ivy is also desperately lonely as her father died a few years ago and she’s still in love with Archer. The story begins as a rent is made in the barrier – and who should come out but Archer.

I’ve been reading a decent amount of romance lately, so the sexytimes in this book didn’t surprise me (although they were steamy as heck) – nor did the fact that Viv brilliantly created a paranormal world with its own rules of magic in about two chapters (no vampires, werewolves, etc here!).

What surprised me was how dark and creepy this novella was despite being a romance. Maybe it was because I was reading at night, but whoa, did this book scare me. I’m not usually scared by paranormal stuff, but the way that things grow, twist, turn, and go bump in the night in this book had me freaked out. Add to that a very dark hero and you have something I just…did not expect.

Psychologically, Hear Me goes into some really dark places with Archer and Ivy…places I was occasionally kind of uncomfortable with. I’ve never been a fan of bad boys, and while Archer isn’t one…some of his behaviour borders on scary. It’s explained well, and it definitely works with the creepy and dark themes of oppression of magic and race in the book, but as someone who likes her feet firmly planted on the ground, I’m not sure it worked for me.

Still, I can’t fault Viv with not following through. The descriptive writing had me scared, the characters were compelling, as were the more subtle themes of preserving nature in a world filled with technology.

If you’re interested in reading a dark wintertime paranormal romance for the holidays, this one is for you. Pick it up everywhere ebooks are sold for under $3 (or if you’re more into contemporary romances, check out Viv’s new adult, One & Only).

Are you interested in reading Hear Me? Are you a paranormal fan? A romance fan? How do you feel about very dark psychological reads? Have you read Viv/Diana’s other work? Let me know in the comments!