Flicker (Flicker #1) [Kindle Edition]

Kaye Thornbrugh (Author)

Book Description

All her life, strange creatures have flickered at the edge of Lee Capren’s vision, disappearing when she takes a second glance. Though they inspire her artwork, she can’t shake the uneasiness they bring. When she’s spirited away by these capricious faeries, Lee is forced to serve them as a portrait artist.

Enter Nasser: His magic has always been more of a curse than a gift, but he’s determined to use it to help others. After a chance encounter with Lee, he risks his safety to bargain for her freedom—and unleashes a danger he can’t yet imagine.

What felt like days in Faerie spanned years in the human world, and Lee’s old life has crumbled away. Now she’s living above a shop that caters to the city’s beguiling magical crowd and struggling to cope with her new life. Between clashes with Filo, the moody teenage boy who’s both her unwilling magic tutor and her temporary roommate; the discovery of her own powers; and her growing feelings for Nasser, Lee’s got a lot to deal with.

Meanwhile, a mysterious and cunning faerie is bent on using Lee as the key to a sinister plot. With dark forces closing in, Lee’s quest to protect her new friends, as well as her only chance at a real life, will take her through two worlds, both human and Faerie…

But she might not make it back.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

As a child, I wanted to be an Egyptologist--but when my fear of ancient Egyptian curses got the better of me, I turned to storytelling instead. An unrepentant nerd, I still play an N64, and I could probably teach a whole class about Pokémon. I worry about the zombie apocalypse every day, I firmly believe that librarians are the noblest people in the world, and I consider Dr Pepper to be the elixir of life. I'm currently a 20-year-old journalism major and author of Flicker.

Product Details

• File Size: 642 KB
• Print Length: 282 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007E1DZ96
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #456,641 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Blew away my expectations August 16, 2012

By Gretchen @ My Life is a Notebook

Format:Paperback

I will readily admit that Flicker is not the kind of book I would pick up at first glance. For reasons of personal preference, I don't often read books about fairies. However, when Ms. Thornbrugh contacted me about reading her novel, I was intrigued enough to say yes.

And I'm so very glad for that.

Actually, the book got off to a fairly rocky start with me. It opens up with Lee worrying about very cliché things I see in almost every single teen novel where the MC goes to some form of high school, where the main character is the loner type losing her best friend to the lust for popularity. Lee's best friend, Kendall, was fairly stock and not overly interesting. I could already see several cliché plotlines coming up.

And then Thornbrugh went and blew them all away.

Anything cliché about this book disappeared after Nasser rescues Lee from Faerie. One of the things that hit me instantly was the quality of all the characters after that fact. Nasser, Lee, Nasser's brother Jason and their friends Filo and Alice are all interesting, real people with depth and a definite 3D nature. Even the background characters had layers to them. This is hardly a common occurence in teen lit, and it made me practically overjoyed.

However, that transition into all these new characters wasn't entirely painless. The rest of the novel is told from several points of view, and directly after Lee is rescued from Faerie they are a little squashed together. Four or five POVs literally switch within paragraphs of each other. Though there are clear paragraph breaks, it was almost a little bit too much to handle, especially because we hadn't been introduced to all these characters yet, or even know why they existed at all.

Still, after that transition evens out at the POVs stop switching so quickly, it settles into being a really enjoyable read. Another thing that struck me was that there wasn't just one thing going on. Sometimes in teen lit, you have one plot where the characters are trying to get from point A to point B and they go there in a straight line, with everything they do pertaining in some way to that goal. Thornbrugh had legitimate subplots and side adventures, which helped not only give other characters depth, but also keep the story moving without pause while continually being interesting.

I also tip my hat to her for the romance. While Nasser and Lee didn't exactly have a huge base on which to begin their relationship, they felt real to me. Also, with so much going on, there wasn't an overly large amount of time dedicated to their relationship, which was nice. I'm all for romance, but I don't like when it is THE focal point of a story. Nasser and Lee were just two people who ended up falling in love in the midst of several bigger conflicts. My favorite kind.

I did, however, dock a few points for some subplot holes that didn't make sense, but they weren't numerous and really don't matter to the overall plot. They were just me being nitpicky because of Thornbrugh's excellent writing up until that point.

It should be mentioned that Thornbrugh is a very descriptive writing. Some people like this, some people don't-in fact, I usually don't. I prefer the book to move as fast as possible at all times. However, with the emphasis put on magic and art, I found her lyrical and descriptive prose to be the perfect way to tell the story, and it didn't really bog down anything all that much.

Overall, Flicker was a definite love for me. It had plenty of action, magic and gorgeous description, as well as a FANTASTIC group of characters that made me so happy at every page. There was romance, but not an overly large amount, but it felt real the way that it happened-two pluses for me. I've seen this book on a couple of "maybe" lists on Goodreads, but in my personal opinion it should be on some "definitely read" lists! It certainly is going on my "recommended" one!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Read April 2, 2012

By SmokyJo

Format:Kindle Edition

This was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I like the fact that Kaye was able to transport me to another world with her detailed, colorful descriptions. I felt like I was right there with her characters. I am looking forward to reading her next book. Kaye, take me away.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great first book! March 12, 2012

By Simone Carbonneau Kincaid

Format:Kindle Edition

Absolutely loved this story and the author is a true storyteller. Hope she makes it big with this book and I can not wait for the next book. Very likable characters, fairies, humans, good and evil, a true hip urban fantasy and all together makes a fun, enjoyable, and satisfying read. If you like Lia Block or Suzanne Collins you will love this book. I read a first edition copy of the book and not an ebook.

More About the Author

As a child, I wanted to be an Egyptologist--but when my fear of ancient Egyptian curses got the better of me, I turned to storytelling instead. An unrepentant nerd, I still play an N64, and I could probably teach a whole class about Pokémon. I worry about the zombie apocalypse every day, I firmly believe that librarians are the noblest people in the world, and I consider Dr Pepper to be the elixir of life. I'm currently a 19-year-old journalism major and author of Flicker.