Publisher:
Hodder
Release
Date: 23rd
October 2014
Edition:
UK paperback,
BookBridgr review copy
From
a writer of unparalleled, vivid imagination and emotional insight, three stories
about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting for that moment when lips
touch...
In
Victorian times, goblins offered sumptuous fruits in exchange for maidens’
souls...and were usually successful. But what does it take to tempt today’s
savvy women. Discover the answer in GOBLIN FRUIT.
In
SPICY LITTLE CURSES a demon and the Ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of
a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in
love and decides to test the curse placed upon her.
And
in HATCHLING, six days before Esme’s fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns
from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small
safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want
with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?
Lips
Touch is a
collection of short stories that I’ve wanted to read for a very, very long time
so as soon as the paperback popped up on BookBridgr I had to request it.
GOBLIN FRUIT
I read this last year in a
sampler sent out by Hodder just before the hardback came out and reviewed it in
a Bite Size Books post. Here’s what I wrote:
Man, this woman can write! Her
prose is seductive, vibrant and enchanting. Kizzy’s desire leaps off the page
and smacks you in the face. Her straight up want to be wanted and to be one of
those girls that are is something I recognised in myself and Laini Taylor got
it spot on. That atmosphere, tied up in a re-telling of Christina Rossetti’s dark
and alluring poem ‘Goblin Fruit’ which I fell in love with at A-level, was
electric and even though I knew it wouldn’t end well, I couldn’t wait for Jack
and Kizzy to finally, finally kiss. Gorgeous.
SPICY LITTLE CURSES
This is a strange little story
and my favourite of the collection. Set in British-occupied India at what felt
like the turn of the 19th century, Spicy Little Curses blurs Indian legend, mythology and religion
with the Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, but turned on its head. I love
stories about Hell and the demons that lurk there, especially when they creep
out into our world and interfere with humans. A gorgeous story.
HATCHLING
Hatchling
is the longest
story in the collection and probably the oddest. Taylor takes fae as demons and
twists the mythology into something I have never, ever seen before. Their way
of existence and history is completely original and I was amazed at what she
drew out of a very frequently exhausted mythology. There’s a lot to it and I was
occasionally a little bit lost as all of the mythology and its relation to Esme
and Mab was revealed. Putting aside the stunning writing and Taylor pure skill
at weaving a story, Hatchling is
worth a read for the ingenuity alone.
This is a gorgeous collection
of three romantic and mystical stories written in exquisite prose and filled
with wonderful illustrations. I need to get a hardback copy of this to fit with
my copies of the Daughter of Smoke and
Bone series... I also need to get around to rereading the first two books
so I can finally see how Karou’s story concludes.
Thanks to BookBridgr and Hodder
for the review copy!
Sophie
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