AUTHOR: Heather Lyons
RATING: 5 stars!
PAGES: 550
PUBLISHER: Self-published
SERIES: AMOF #1
SOURCE: Author
Chloe Lilywhite struggles with all the normal problems of a typical seventeen-year-old high school student. Only, Chloe isn't a normal teenage girl. She's a Magical, part of a secret race of beings who influence the universe. More importantly, she's a Creator, which means Fate mapped out her destiny long ago, from her college choice, to where she will live, to even her job. While her friends and relatives relish their future roles, Chloe resents the lack of say in her life, especially when she learns she's to be guarded against a vengeful group of beings bent on wiping out her kind. Their number one target? Chloe, of course.
That's nothing compared to the boy trouble she's gotten herself into. Because a guy she's literally dreamed of and loved her entire life, one she never knew truly existed, shows up in her math class, and with him comes a twin brother she finds herself inexplicably drawn to.
Chloe's once unyielding path now has a lot more choices than she ever thought possible
(synopsis taken from Goodreads)
A Matter of Fate is unlike most fae, mythical, or other-worldly creature books that readers can find. It’s unique, frustrating, breath-taking, and enticing all put together. In this debut novel by Heather Lyons the reader is captured by the easy flow of words and the life of the Magicals. Chloe Lilywhite is a seventeen year old girl who feels lost in her world, and others. Life begins to abruptly change when a shocking event occurs: the boy she’d been dreaming about since she was a child shows up in her math class, well and truly alive.
So I’ll be honest here. I hated Chloe, in the beginning at least. More than a few times I found myself rolling my eyes and wishing she’d get over it. But. As I got further into her story, I realized that maybe there is indeed a viable reason behind all this to explain her rather brash behavior. Once the pieces began to fall into place it all began making sense to me, and I found that I at times enjoyed her and watching her change. As a Creator, Chloe has an epic amount of pressure on her shoulders at all times (no thanks to her parents of course) and how she begins to handle things really makes a reader champion her!
“Love is pretty much instantaneous, passionate, and only builds, never dulls.”
As for the twins well, I was pretty torn. Jonah and Kellan are opposite yet they are the same. It took me a long time to finally declare myself a team, but I’m a reader whose dead set on HEA, and the fact that we all have an other-half out there. Jonah easily won me over because of his quiet demeanor, everything he did I completely understood. Both of them are interesting to listen to, the way they handle situations and their feelings is pretty impressive.
But, my all-time favorite character in A Matter of Fate is Cora. Someone needs to get this chick a medal for being plain awesome. She’s funny (at times I was laughing out loud, yea, I got a lot of strange looks) and she’s incredibly loyal. The perfect best friend or “Cousin”. Every book has that one outstanding character, and in my opinion Cora rocked it!
“Men, she’s repeatedly told us Cousins, are good for only one thing: furthering the continuation of the species.”
Heather Lyons really sells the Magicals and their world. I found myself becoming interested in the little details, often re-reading scenes and pieces just to see if I could pick up on something that would tell me what was going to eventually happen. In her debut novel she certainly doesn’t disappoint. We’re treated to mystery, challenges, growing-up, self-discovery and the best of all: Love. Lyons is a new author whom I’m sure I’ll be raving about for years to come! A Matter of Fate is the perfect read for when you feel the need to escape from all the usual boy-meets-girl-and-they-live-happily-ever-after-with-no-problems. I will certainly be waiting for the next installment to this breath-taking new series!
“Take the punches and roll with them. Because honestly, sometimes you don’t have a choice.”
Guest Author Post Topic:
How did you manage to develop the magicals and their abilities and how did you come up with the idea for the World of Annar?
Heather Says:
Growing up, I was obsessed with Greek mythology. An avid stargazer, I was always reading up on the legends behind constellations. Eventually, I expanded my repertoire to include Roman myths, and then Norse, and then Celtic, and on and on until I became a collector of sorts. I was completely fascinated with how the ancients built elaborate stories and personas to help explain both the amazing and mundane aspects of daily life. There were gods and goddesses who pulled the sun into the sky and helped babies be born, ones who oversaw crops and storms and health. I often wondered what our world would be like if these myths were actually true—what if there were beings that controlled our lives?
These stories kept popping up when I began to brainstorm A Matter of Fate. And then it came to me—what if one of the most powerful of these so-called gods and goddesses was actually a seventeen year old girl who suffered from boy problems? It seemed too fun of an idea to pass up. I really dug the idea of a girl coming into her own, super-powerful as she is, who was also painfully human (er, Human Magical, in this case).
Once I had the concept of my lead character down, I knew I had to create a world (scratch that—worlds!) that matched. Annar (an Old Norse word meaning other), the secret city-state plane of existence the Magicals’ in my story control, needed to be both extraordinary (it’s filled with magic, after all) and yet normal. People live and work there; they go to school, eat at restaurants, shop in stores, and do all the other sorts of things that people do in their daily lives. I got a kick out of imaging sweatband wearing Dwarves jogging and Goblins obsessed with their cell phones on the streets while the Council nearby was deciding whether or not to unleash storms or diseases on the other planes. I wanted Annar to be filled with relatable beings, not the horrible creatures fairy tales so often depicted. Hopefully I’ve done my job, and Annar’s charms will pull readers in!
Author Bio:
Heather Lyons has been putting stories to paper since she was a little girl. Her first "published" book was a humorous retelling of The Princess and the Pauper. After detours in archaeology and teaching, she is now writing and living in Southern California with her husband and three sons. She likes cupcakes, baseball, hockey, reading, and collecting far too many handbags.
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