On the Bookshelf

Aislinn has been raised to live by a set of very important rules:
Rule number 3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Rule number 2: Don't answer invisible faeries.
Rule number 1: Don't ever attract faeries' attention.
If the faeries knew of her Sight they would certainly blind her.

However, faeries have started stalking her, but it's not because she can see them. Keenan, the Summer King, has been seeking his Queen for centuries and he believes that he has finally found her in Aislinn.

To be perfectly honest, I had difficulty getting into this book. I didn't particularly dislike it, but I did did not really like it either.

I didn't really feel like I got to know Aislinn enough as a person separate from these events. I found her relationship with Seth to be a necessary grounding quality though, something away from faeries, even though Seth, too, was being drawn into the situation. I also found it odd that we didn't see more of her noticing herself changing. Seeing as her Grams is also Sighted, I thought she might have cottoned on to what was happening sooner, might have noticed the changes in Aislinn, especially given what happened to Moira. Keenan, at least, seems like he has a lot of potential to be developed into a more complex character, needing to balance his own wants and desires with what he needs for the Summer Court. Beira, the Winter Queen, on the other hand, came across as a rather cliché villian, in my opinion.

I liked Donia a lot more than Aislinn and thought a story about Donia would have been more interesting and entertaining. Or perhaps even that of Moira, Aislinn's mother. The plot was still original to me, but I still felt like I could see exactly where the story was headed from the get go. I guess my problem with this story is that everything was all too inevitable, obvious.

This was pretty much my first foray into fairy/faerie fiction and I am not going to write faeries off just yet. I am also not going to say that I do not recommend Wicked Lovely as I do think that it does hold appeal and definitely has an audience out there. I think this may be a case of "to each his own".

Wicked Lovely is expected to be a five part series. Ink Exchange and Fragile Eternity are already available. The fourth book, Radiant Shadows, is expected to be released in April 2010. There is also a manga available, Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales.

Terra