Release Day REVIEW: Helen's Tale- Otherworld Trilogy Prequel- Hermione Lee

Title: Helen's Tale
Series: Otherworld Trilogy Prequel
Author: Hermione Lee
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Teen and Young Adult, YA Fantasy
Publisher: World Castle Publishing, LLC
Release Date: May 15, 2023
Format: Kindle
Pages: 222
Source: Amazon

Helen Edmunds, Representative Elder of the Court of the High Advisors, has devoted the last fourteen years of her life to King Patrick and Queen Marianne of the Otherworld while confining herself to the royal palace and enduring the hostility and hatred of her fellow Elders. Yet when she is assigned to mentor Evonne Fitzgerald, a young, youthful Elder-in-training, her life brightens up in every aspect. The two of them grow inseparable, soon becoming each other’s twin flame as they form a bond of sisterhood. However, a tragedy befalls Evonne one day, leaving Helen to deal with the aftermath. Her guilt and defiance eventually lead to her spiraling into a descent of madness. When everyone and everything threatens to destroy Helen, she must learn to find hope and reprieve as life pits her against the dark side of humanity.

Read less

Reviewed By Linda Tonis

Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team

In the Court of High Advisors, Helen Edmunds is the Representative Elder, the leader. She has held this position for fourteen years, fourteen years with no friends other than Lilith and Zack, two of the Elders. Helen is not liked by the almost 200 plus Elders and there was one group who hated her and at every meeting did their best to humiliate her. Helen manages to keep her feelings bottled up inside but after a while those feelings must let loose.

Everything changes for Helen when she is assigned a new protegee to train. Evonne Fitzgerald is a young girl who sees beauty in everything around her. She is naïve, innocent, kind and compassionate and was determined to see her mentor happy. Walks in the garden, talks and Helen has a friend that she trusts and can confide in, she finally has light in her dreary life.

When Helen is sent on a mission to the Underworld to attempt a truce between them and the Otherworld, she insists on bringing Evonne despite her being new and inexperienced. Their journey in the Underworld is filled with danger, every kind of monster imaginable stands in her way of finding the castle. When Lilith, Zack, Evonne and Helen find themselves stuck in a maze they get separated and unfortunately a tragedy occurs involving Evonne and the group returns to the Otherworld.

Upon their return Helen is met with hostility from the group of Elders who have hated her before and now their hatred knows no bounds. Helen realizes that humans can be the worst kind of monsters and these monsters are determined to destroy her. Helen begins to have nightmares and soon her nightmares and her reality become entwined. Zack and Lilith experienced the same horrors as Helen when they were in the Underworld and do their best to help her but the only way, she can see an end is death.

The horrors Helen experienced mentally because of the human monsters in her daily life were heartbreaking and extremely emotional. When you keep all your feelings inside those feelings will build up until they get released and Helen’s release came in the form of extreme headaches and nightmares.

This book was filled with surprises and terror, but I highly recommend it because once you start it you won’t be able to put it down.