Review: The Between by L.J. Cohen

The Between
By: L.J. Cohen
Publisher: Interrobang Books
Published: Jan. 6, 2012
Genre: YA
Rating:

Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

High school senior Lydia Hawthorne is less than grateful when Oberon has her snatched from the Mortal world and she finds out she’s actually Fae. And not just any Fae, but a trueborn with enough inherent magic to tip the balance between Oberon and Titania’s warring Bright and Shadow courts.

But that’s their game and she doesn’t want to play by their rules. Together with Clive Barrow, a Bright Court Fae with embarrassing family ties to the Mortal world, Lydia fights to regain her old life, fueling her magic with the very Human power of love and loss, challenging the essential nature of Faerie itself.

Lydia is your average teenager. She flies under the radar when it comes to popularity but for some reason has managed to draw the attention of a boy named Clive. He has been following her around a lot lately and she is started to become really uncomfortable with it. However, when everything she thought she knew about herself is ripped out from under her, Clive is the only one who might be able to get her back to the life that she once knew but he’s also the one that brought her into the mess.

When Clive is sent to the mortal world to retrieve Lydia for his king, he says anything he can that isn’t a lie to get her to come with him. However, after spending a little bit of time with her he realizes that taking her to his king might not be such a great idea after all. There is no way Lydia would be happy in the Bright Court. Once he comes to this conclusion, he does everything that he can to get her out of the King’s clutches and to safety.

Let me just start out by saying that the cover has everything to do with the story. You have Lydia who is in the middle of a feud between the Bright King and the Shadow Queen. Both will manipulate her anyway that they can to get her on their side. The maze in the background is actually a pretty big part in the story as well. So kudos to the author for going with a cover that sticks with the story.

The world building is pretty good. You not only have The Between which is an area that is exactly as it sounds. It’s the area between the Fae realm and the mortal world. You also have Faerie where a lot of magical stuff takes place. The author did a great job describing everything so that the reader could easily picture it in their mind. The characters were easy to relate to and the book as a whole was pretty entertaining.

“So you’re a Faerie”, she said. A Faerie. This was crazy. She swallowed a laugh. That wasn’t something you said every day in high school, at least not without getting the crap kicked out of you.