Amber Hamilton

Would you ramble extemporaneously about the many uses of cedar for 1000 pages?

Would you write smut for former pastors’ kids?

Chapter 2 is up, Potterheads! I really enjoyed writing this one and getting back into the heads of these characters who have lived rent free in my brain since I was nine.

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What if there’s a fate worse than death? What if there are forces more insidious than the Dark Lord?

Five years after the war, Harry is a hotshot Auror. Rumors swirl around his defeat of Voldemort, and, to his chagrin, he has almost reached legendary status, especially among former Death Eaters.

Meanwhile, life has never been better for Ron, who is head strategist in Auror Department, and Hermione, an up-and-comer in the Department of Magical Law. They're getting married, and Harry couldn't be happier for them, of course. But seeing them settled reminds him that he hasn't done a great job of living his life after the war. Things fizzled out with Ginny when she started traveling with the Harpies, and he hasn't even seen her in years. His life is his work--the unrelenting task of fighting the dark arts and purging the world of every last trace of Voldemort.

Okay let me just explain why I think Quinlar isn’t endgame.

I know there will be some folks on here who have reread the books a thousand times, so correct me if I misremember. I’m new to Sarah J Maas books, but they’ve taken over my life since January 🤷‍♀️

So my reasoning is that:

Hunt and Bryce got together way too easily. I suppose that they had that period in HOSAB when they weren’t TOGETHER together, but overall, they never had many barriers to overcome in their relationship. I think that’s why (personal opinion) a lot of the heat was just sucked right out of their relationship in HOSAB.

Is it just me or did they basically just DECIDE that they were mates. 🤨 If this was the real world, I’d be like, Sure, you can pick your soul mate. No rules. But this is not the real world. This is the Maasiverse where mates are destined to be together and the revelation of one’s mate hits them like an effing freight train. Basically, Bryce and Hunt had this awkward conversation in bed where they went from “I love you, but I’m scared to admit it” one minute to “we’re basically married except way more hardcore because you can’t divorce a mate.” I find this fishy.

Lastly, the revelation about Quinlar’s mated-ness came at a strange place in the novel—about halfwayish I think? Maybe a little later? Generally speaking, big moments in the storyline happen at the inciting incident, the midpoint, or somewhere in Act 3. The thing with Bryce and Hunt just felt like it was tied in a bow too easily and far before it should have been.

So based on that, here’s my theory.

Hunt and Bryce are currently separated. I think they’re going to have a big, beautiful reunion in Crescent City 3, followed by *dundundun* Hunt’s death. Like real death, not Rhys/Feyre dYiNg like a hundred times and then getting magically resurrected. (Don’t get me wrong, I love those scenes, and I don’t care at all that they’re repetitive. I read them, and I just want to cry into a pillow about mates and love that conquers death. 🥺)

But I think poor Hunt is going to for real die, and it will be tragic, and it will utterly break Bryce. But then we’ll have this glorious story of her learning to live with grief. Then she’ll get her *actual* mate, and it will turn out that Hunt was her Shahar. 😭

I hate that I think this will happen, but I’ve somehow made peace with the whole RuhnXLidia situation, so if I’m right I’ll get through it somehow.

A magic carpet.

3rd person past 😍

1st person past 🤨

3rd person present 🤢

Side characters are important and can be as compelling as the MC

If you want to surprise the reader, foreshadow the opposite of the truth. HARD. This is how you make a plot twist feel like a punch to the gut

A good Bad Guy is smarter and stronger than the MC…until they’re not

Create an MC who is colorful and messy

Swords are just cool. Write more of them

Make readers question their own moral compasses by having the Bad Guys make a little too much sense

You can blend up irreverence and drama into a deliciously chaotic literary smoothie and it works

Diamantine

Placid

Age-worn

Heedless

Ire

Reticence

Sardonic

Wend

Vanguard