Review of "Wicked Lovely"

"Wicked Lovely"
Melissa Marr

4

Pub. Date: May 12, 2007
Pages: 352

Synopsis: Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.

Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.

Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.

But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

Faerie intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning 21^st century faery tale.

I have wanted to read "Wicked Lovely" for a while now and I was so excited to borrow the audio book from the library. There are a lot of things that I loved about this book; the characters were my favorite part. Keenan's character was fantastic because I actually felt bad for him. He may be beautiful and powerful, but he destroys lives and has to live knowing he is hurting the women he cares for. It would be easy to hate him if he did this out of sport, but he doesn't have a choice in the matter. I actually felt if Keenan had any choice he would not be putting the women through the test of the Summer Queen. This was reflected in his feelings for Donia. I would love to explain why Donia is so wonderful, but I would end up giving things away. Aislinn (Ash) is strong and independent, but she is also caring at the same time. I love the fact that she has been trained not to flinch as faeries poke and prod her. Seth is also a great character, but I don't want to say too much about him either. I just like the fact that he's not the stereotypical leading man in most romantic fiction.

Another thing I love about the book was all the faery mythology; Marr adds a brief excerpt of faery lore at the beginning of each chapter. I enjoyed this because it just helped make the story feel more real. When you are seeing quotes from classic authors about faery mythology, you realize that these kinds of stories have deep routs in many cultures.

Something that bugged me about this book was that the end was a bit anti-climactic and I felt like it was a little too happy. We were warned about the wrath of the faeries so much throughout the entire story that I felt let down at the end. I also felt that certain parts of the book moved a little slow; there was almost a little bit too much planning done by the characters and not enough action.

Overall I really enjoyed the book, I loved the plot and wanted to know the fate of each character. I have no idea what to expect from the next book in the series, but I hope the faeries show their power a bit more. I want to see less of their sex appeal and more destruction. I swear that I am not blood thirsty, I just like when villains live up to the hype; Voldemort is a perfect example.