Thursday 16 July 2009

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

"Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries. Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world, and would blind her if they knew of her Sight.

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


Aislinn, Ash to her friends, is a scared, but tough 17 year old who, despite always following the rules and pretending she can't see the darker world around her, finds herself being stalked by faeries. Creatures she's always been scared of, always done her best to ignore. Keenan is playing human, unaware Ash knows what he really is.

Aislinn relies on her friendship with Seth to keep her grounded. To stop her from panicking and running, trusting him to deal with it and not run himself. And while he helps her, he tries to show her he's more than a friend.

Donia is a faerie girl, caught between her love and hatred for Keenan. She can help him, or save herself. The Winter Queen, mother of Keenan, wants to see him fail. No matter who has to suffer for it. As the plot unfolds and Ash finds herself discovering more than she ever wanted to know about the Faerie world around her, she realises that she may not have a real say about what happens.

Wicked Lovely starts a little slowly, but quickly picks up and then doesn't stop. Written in third person, from several different points of view adds to the depth of the world created. Ash and Seth's relationship develops slowly with a heart warming feeling, and you can't help but fall in love with them as well. Keenan is a little childish for someone who's lived for hundreds of years, but you can feel for him to a certain extent. But he isn't enough to distract from a well written and thought out story. I struggled to put the book down and can't wait to read the next two books, Ink Exchange and Fragile Eternity. 8/10

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