About the Book

Book:  Common

Author: Laurie Lucking

Genre: YA Fantasy

Release Date: February 14, 2018

Only one person knows of the plot against the royal family and cares enough to try to stop it—the servant girl they banished.

Leah spends her days scrubbing floors, polishing silver, and meekly curtsying to nobility. Nothing distinguishes her from the other commoners serving at the palace, except her red hair.

And her secret friendship with Rafe, the Crown Prince of Imperia.

But Leah’s safe, ordinary world begins to splinter. Rafe’s parents announce his betrothal to a foreign princess, and she unearths a plot to overthrow the royal family. When she reports it without proof, her life shatters completely when the queen banishes her for treason.

Harbored by an unusual group of nuns, Leah must secure Rafe’s safety before it’s too late. But her quest reveals a villain far more sinister than an ambitious nobleman with his eye on the throne.

Can a common maidservant summon the courage to fight for her dearest friend?  

Click HERE to get your copy.

 

About the Author

 

An avid reader practically since birth, Laurie Lucking discovered her passion for writing after leaving her career as an attorney to become a stay-at-home mom. When she gets a break from playing board games and finding lost toys, she writes young adult fantasy with a strong thread of fairy tale romance. Her debut novel, Common, won the Christian Editor Connection’s Excellence in Editing Award, placed third in the Christian Women Reader’s Club Literary Lighthouse Awards, and is a finalist in the ACFW Carol Awards. She has short stories published in Mythical Doorways, Encircled, and the upcoming Christmas Fiction off the Beaten Path. Laurie is the Secretary of her local ACFW chapter and a co-founder of Lands Uncharted, a blog for fans of clean young adult speculative fiction. A Midwestern girl through and through, she currently lives in Minnesota with her husband and three children. Find out more by visiting www.laurielucking.com.  

More from Laurie

 

Common started with the simple premise that I wanted to write a friendship-first romance that would be innocent enough for pre-teen readers, but complex enough for teens and adults to enjoy it, too! My love for fairy tales soon kicked in, inspiring a Cinderella-type dynamic of a secret friendship between a maid and a prince. Then came the “what if” questions. What if the king and queen arranged a betrothal between the prince and a foreign princess? What if the maid tried to help the prince find happiness with his new fiancée, but accidentally made things worse? What if she then discovered a plot against the royal family and was the only one who could stop it?

 

Looking back, it’s fascinating to see how my story expanded from a sweet romance to so much more. The romance is still there, prominent enough to satisfy any reader who loves rooting for a fun couple. But there’s also so much personal growth for my main character, who learns though her journey that even a lowly maid is anything but common and that the biggest challenges and disappointments we must overcome are preparing us for something better. I didn’t set out to include a spiritual thread, but my protagonist kept contemplating and reaching out to God until I finally realized her story wouldn’t work without a faith component. And that faith component led to an entire group of characters – spunky, mysterious nuns who now form the backbone of my entire Tales of the Mystics series.

 

The end result is an inspirational, romantic fantasy adventure perfect for fans of Melanie Dickerson, Anne Elisabeth Stengl, and Jody Hedlund’s new Lost Princesses series. Book Two is in progress, and I can’t wait to see how much it will change and develop along the way!

 

My Review

 

For the most part, I am not a fantasy devotee. My go-to genre is historical fiction, but I challenge myself to read outside of my tried-and-true Christian fiction categories in order to develop a more broad level of experience and hopefully connect more readers with more authors. When I signed up to review “Common”, I went mostly by the cover and only briefly skimmed the description because, as I’ve previously mentioned, I prefer going into books without knowing the plot beyond the bare minimum. I also apparently didn’t pay attention to the series title. As a result, I was surprised when this book turned out to be a young adult Christian fantasy romance—the first I’ve read in this genre to date!

With “Common”, Laurie Lucking begins the Tales of the Mystics and weaves a tale that seamlessly blends multiple genres. The fantasy elements are mostly subtle, and it took some time before I began noticing them. Likewise, identifying a time period for the novel’s setting is not straightforward because the locations are fictional, but it seems to be late Medieval. As a side note, a search into the term “Trellan” (in the story, someone from Trellich) appears to be translated at times as, roughly, “homestead near the church”, which is very apropos. Overall, this ambiguity serves the story well, and in my opinion fits well with the plot itself and the fact that “Common” reads much like a fairy tale. This lends it a timelessness, and the focus remains on the characters and on the unfolding action. The romance component is rather predictable but still tension-ridden enough to be interesting.

The characters run the gamut from good to neutral to evil. Leah narrates the story in the first person, placing the reader into the unexpected changes occurring in her life shortly after she reaches Maturation at age 16. As a palace servant in Imperia, her friendship with Crown Prince Rafe is verboten, and when Rafe becomes betrothed to a Trellan princess, Leah learns of a plot to assassinate the royal family. Making the king and queen aware of it upends her life and, to me, also brings to mind Jesus’ teachings that the world will hate us for speaking the truth. John 15 succinctly summarizes Leah’s situation. In “Common”, God is referred to as the Luminate, and although Leah does not put much stock in Him initially, whispers of faith echo as she faces heartache and the loss of the life she once lived. The story exemplifies Proverbs 29:23: “A man's pride shall bring him low: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit”, and serves as a reminder that if God is for us, it doesn’t matter who is against us (Romans 8:31).

While the target audience is young adult, I also recommend “Common” to adults who enjoy a clean, adventurous fairy tale, as well as for fans of Hannah Currie’s “Heart of a Royal.” May we all seek to remember that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us, and that He has wonderful plans for all of us, nobles and commoners alike.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through CelebrateLit and was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are my own.

Blog Stops

 

Giveaway