Lily! I was absolutely certain that I wouldn't be able to fit this entire thing into a comment and I didn't want to spam your board with multiple comments, so I decided to do it this way. :-)
First of all, I absolutely love The Lost Boys. It was the first story I ever read on Wattpad, and it basically was the reason why I stayed on here.
The story managed to lure me in from the very first chapter, made me want to read more, discover where this odd tale of the girl and the cemetery-ghost boy was going. I was actually lucky the first book was practically finished by the time I started reading it or I wouldn't have any finger nails left by now. Lily is the queen of cliff hangers, but she never leaves you hanging to disappoint you with her next update, she makes it even better than you expected, somehow. Every time again.
She made me fall in love with each one of her characters, even the bad guys. She made me want them all, especially the boys, which is quite an accomplishment when you take into account that I am quite lesbian. The way Lily describes her characters makes you feel like you know them, like they're the guys you met in high school as well as the famous pop stars you want to meet and want to be (with). I fell in love with Tristan when he was the perfect gentleman to Joe, pulling the most romantic old fashioned gestures out of his sleeve. It broke my heart to read how they had to keep their love a secret, but it mended soon enough when I pictured their loving glances, heartwarming embraces and more.
My stomach clenched with the tension between Harry and Joe, and I felt for her, because how could a girl choose between two of those not so perfect yet again absolutely perfect guys? I was absolutely relieved when that chapter was finally closed in the second book, even when it wasn't Joe in her normal behaviour when that happened.
I feel all warm and fuzzy reading about how wonderful they are as friends, how they always have each other's backs, even when it gets all crazy and magical and most of them don't understand anything of what is going on. It makes me want those kind of friends, even though I'm not exactly waiting for the magical mumbo jumbo that Joe has to go through :-)
I love the magic though. I love how it reminds me of Terry Pratchet, without confusing me as much as his books tend to do. I grew to love Sky and Vigil, and seriously, how good of a writer are you if you can make people love death and a strange creature that's closest to a grim reaper, I suppose.
I also love (am I using that word too much?) how it still all made sense, and made even more sense, when I reread the first book. Not only was I still drawn into the story and did I wanted to read on even though I knew very well how it would end, I fell in love with the characters all over again too. And there were subtle things I didn't get before, that only made sense when I knew the entire story already.
When the second book came out, I read along with the updates, and I used to get up early on Saturdays, to download the new chapter to my phone so I could read it as soon as I woke up properly. That's how crazy Lily actually got me, and I'm sure it won't be different when she starts the third book.
The emotions Lily made me feel while reading were incredible. I smiled, laughed out loud, giggled, cried, sobbed and got extremely angry. Even the second time I read it, it all happened again, crying when Tristan died, even though I bloody well KNEW the boy was coming back. Oh and how she broke my heart when Tristan and Joe fought in the second book, and glued it back together with a nice ribbon around it even when they finally made up and had the most perfect (non)wedding they could ever have.
Oh, and with all this I didn't even mention how beautiful they all look like in my mind. I mean, Tristan's eyes make me melt to think about. Harry's tattoo made me drool when I thought about it, especially when the meaning of it was explained (then I just wanted to hug him and hold him until the world ends). I love him so much, that guy, it's unreal. And Sam, Josh, Seth, Tiff, together they just rock the world and form the perfect match for each other. Ugh, I'm not even going to start ranting about them all or I'll write ten pages instead of one.
To be honest, Lily, I absolutely love the jewellery box you made, it's supernice and cool and beautiful and all, but I don't even care if I don't win it, because I know there's more Lost Boys to come and brighten my days, and I just wanted to get this out there. Publishers are bloody stupid for not wanting to publish your books, let me tell you that. If you ever decide to let them go and screw themselves and publish it yourself, let me know, cause I'd certainly buy it so I can read it a 100 more times and put it on my shelf when it's all worn out from reading and taking it everywhere with me.
Lots of love for you and every single one of your Lost Boys!
