Customer Reviews

Wicked Lovely

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(116)
3 star:		(58)
2 star:		(39)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This book is a quick, easy, enjoyable read. In the "Twilightesque" fashion, it is about a high school girl, with an uncommon ability (in this case to see the invisible world of faeries) and someone of the supernatural realm finds her desirable. I am a voracious reader, which means I read alot of books that I don't always care for and across all genres. This book kept me interested from beginning to end. Could the author have developed the characters more, better transitions? Sure, but it was still a good, light, entertaining read...AND, here is the important part, it was free for my kindle--the hook worked, I would (will) purchase the other books in this series and would actually search out more by the author--which means that it was a success. As for the bonus materials--it didn't make a difference to me, but I am one of those people who doesn't watch the deleted scenes on DVDs, so it wasn't really a BONUS for me. If you like the fantasy genre, and need something to keep you interested for a long trip or weekend at the beach--this is a good choice!

Aislinn has always followed the rules. Her Grandmother has drilled them into her since she was a young child. Don't stare at invisible faeries. Don't speak to invisible faeries. Don't ever attract the faeries' attention. Aislinn has developed the skill to ignore them. She walks past them without flinching, even when the faeries are pinching or touching others around her like they love to do.

Faeries come in many shapes and sizes and Aislinn has seen them all. She's seen them in the glamours they wear in order to pass as humans and can pick one out of a crowd even when they are trying to blend in. Aislinn has never been surprised by what she has seen them do - that is, until they start breaking the rules.

Faeries don't like steel. It causes them pain and weakens them. Because of that, Aislinn's "safe" place has always been Seth's house. Seth is a long-time friend who happens to live in a converted steel train car. Aislinn always knew that if she could make it there she'd have peace, because the faeries could never follow her into the train yard. But, something has changed. They are creeping closer and closer and paying more attention to her. They are even gathering outside Seth's place.

Aislinn really begins to worry when two faeries, Keenan and Donia, approach her and speak directly to her. She gets away from them as quickly as possible, now hyper-aware of the growing number of faeries surrounding and following her. She hears them say things like, "Do you think she's the one?" Aislinn realizes that in order to figure out what they want from her she is going to have to break the rules she's grown up with all of her life.

Keenan is the Summer King. His mother, the Winter Queen, has limited his powers and is slowly taking over the elements. Days are colder and eventually everything will be covered in ice, unless Keenan finds the girl who is meant to be his Summer Queen. Together they would have the power to overcome the Winter Queen's chill. Keenan thinks Aislinn is the one and she is in danger because of it. The Winter Queen will do everything she can to prevent her son from getting the power he needs to overthrow her. Another problem, of course, is that Aislinn doesn't want to be Summer Queen. She has avoided faeries all of her life and she sure doesn't want to become one now. Especially when her feelings for Seth have developed into more than friendship - and becoming the Summer Queen would mean spending an eternity with Keenan.

Melissa Marr has written a wonderfully inventive story that incorporates actual quotes from books written on the subject of faeries dating back to the 1800's. Her ability to keep a complicated story with several important characters clear to the reader is phenomenal. The relationship she creates between Aislinn and Seth is heartwarming, leading the reader to fall in love right along with them. If you aren't usually a fan of faerie stories, you might want to give this one a try. The blending of the realistic world and the world of the fey is masterfully done. You'll almost believe faeries are all around you.

Reviewed by: Karin Perry

Aislinn is used to following three rules: don't stare at invisible faeries, don't speak to invisible faeries, and don't ever attract their attention. But suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore. Everything now is on the line: her freedom; her best friend Seth; her life; everything.

Keenan, the Summer King, has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her summer will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become his Summer Queen at any cost--regardless of her plans or desires.

Similar to Holly Black's TITHE and VALIANT, this urban fantasy follows Aislinn as she fights against a persistent Keenan and the idea of turning into the very thing she'd fought against for so long.

Melissa Marr has done a great job of weaving into her tale the world of faery. One of my favorite scenes is the faery-run carnival that only Aislinn can see. I doubt I'll ever look at a carnival in the same way again without wondering if a faery lurks close by! The author has painted a very vivid world of 1800's style faeries colliding with our modern world.

The problem I had with this story is I couldn't connect with the main character. I wanted to see why Keenan had such an attraction to Aislinn and not someone else. Aislinn's tough girl character was believable but she just seemed to be going through the motions without any real emotion to what was happening around her. Seth, her best friend, also was hard to connect with. There is some chemistry later on between the two but the real tension and conflict is between both Keenan and Donia.

The strength of this novel comes from Donia, one mortal who pays a terrible price for her love of Keenan. I loved this character and felt her pain and anguish as she watched the one she loved go after another. I found myself turning the pages, following both Donia and Keenan. I almost felt this was their story and not Aislinn's.

WICKED LOVELY is for those that like urban fantasies and want an escape into the land of faery.

Maybe it's because I went in to reading this with low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It's flawed - but not impossibly so. A good read, some interesting concepts, some decent characterization.

As a heroine, Aislinn isn't bad. I didn't hardcore connect with her, but I didn't dislike her either. I found some of the interchanges she was forced to have with people who couldn't see the fairies she was seeing pretty interesting, and as the book went on and she was forced to make some decisions and find some courage, I warmed to her a little.

Her lovetoy Seth is hard not to like because the author hasn't given him a single negative trait, and his perfection makes him hard to believe. He's not so much a character as the author's picture of The Perfect Boyfriend, and the fact that his cardboard cutout self is walking around in this story is a definite flaw. He's as much of a caricature as the villianess, the Winter Queen (who's too much of a cartoon to be scared of).

I found myself turning the pages primarily for the plight of Donia, the Winter Girl, and Keenan, the Summer King. All of the heartache and betrayal and love and loss behind the Winter Girls, past and present, was intriguing and probably the strongest part of the narrative. I confess I was routing for Donia more than Aislinn, and I'm glad we got to see some of her story. I'd be fascinated to read all of it and those of the other Winter Girls. I would argue with the author that THAT was her real story. As for Keenan, at first he seemed to be very shallow, but there was a lot of development along his front - desperation, single-mindedness, arrogance, and at the same time courage, longing, sorrow and, his most redeeming aspect, a keen desire and determination to do right by his people. He could've been developed even more, in my opinion, and sometimes was too obviously just a pretty prop in a love triangle that I already knew the answer to.

There's good writing in this, a decent plot with some clever ideas and some I've already read but didn't mind reading again. However, I'm pretty sure this book could've been 100 pages or so shorter. It was a little too slow-moving, and for a long time, there didn't seem to be anything going on except Aislinn being afraid, deciding that she really needed to do something about all of this, running off to Seth's to talk about how she really needed to do something about all of this, and then falling asleep instead (usually in Seth's arms, tucked under his chin to emphasize how little she is).

I'll be interested to see the author's next installment. I might not buy it, but I think I want to read it. At the moment, I find Holly Black's "Tithe" to be a better version of a similar girl-versus-urban-faeries sort of story, but this book may be more accessible to those who find Black's grittier world off-putting.

This book is something I would recommend for people who love Holly Black's stuff and are in withdrawal waiting for her next book to come out. The tone, the style, the setting, even some of the characters would not be out of place in one of Black's delicious novels.

This book is a light read and relatively fast-paced. The middle drags a bit and the secondary romance is clunky at best. The villainess is your basic cardboard caricature of Evil (she reminded me of nothing so much as one of the Evil Queens from the early Disney fairytales). The plot is predictable but it makes for good junk food, fluff reading for when you need something bright and easy.

As many other people have said, it seems like Seth would be the most appealing character of the lot, but for some reason Marr never chooses to give us his POV and I think that was a mistake as it means his character never feels fully fleshed out.

I think Marr's main problem, though, is that she constantly pulls her punches. Unlike Holly Black's gritty world and stark, hard truths, Marr skirts the line of pain and angst and never crosses it. This makes for rather bloodless characters and a general emotional disconnect from the plot as a whole. Like giving us Seth's POV I think the book would have been stronger if she had let her characters really feel some of what they were going through, if she had upped the stakes a little in her conflict.

Not a bad book, but not a great one either. Competant writing, satisfying romance, interesting idea. Probably won't make it onto my keeper shelf, though. If you finish this feeling unsatisfied and want some urban fantasy with wit, grit and a bit of bite check out Holly Black's stuff. You won't be disappointed.

(Totally off topic here but what were the cover designers thinking when they put the radioactive affids on the cover? Wtf?)

I was pretty excited when this book became free for the kindle. Aislinn is trying desperately to be a normal teen. Of course the fact that she can see fairies makes that impossible. I appreciate that it is supposed to be for a younger audience but some of the behaviors of the fairy population were disturbing for me. I think that the story line was more suited for an adult novel but was watered down for a teen audience. The relationship between the Summer King and Aislinn just didn't flow for me. He seemed way to mature and she was far too immature. With a little tweaking it could be a great teen book or even a great adult novel. As it is now, I don't think it really fits in either place. Overall, it was an ok read. I'm not sure if I am interested enough to read anymore in the series.

I believe there was a time in history when an author had to actually write a good book, meeting basic parameters of writing and story-telling ability before getting published. Apparently, that time is long past.

There are many things wrong with this book. Here are some of them:

1) Everyone is beautiful. When everyone is beautiful, we common folk who are apt to be less than stellar and generally not model-perfect tend to not relate. Not very realistic, sorry.

2) The thought that all teen girls under 18 are, "LOL omg r we geting laid 2nite lol a girl has needs u kno lolol." Nope, sorry. Some of us do practice a little foresight before picking a sexual partner, even when we are rather young for promiscuous sex. Maybe the author was trying to be "hip", but her cavalier attitude is better suited for women in their 20s, not children in their teens.

3) The main character is terribly, terribly boring. She is simply annoying. She's constantly leaning on her perfect hardcore boyfriend in woe and female vapors. Not only that, but it is incredibly illogical that she walks among fairy folk, "observing" them, and not once was she startled by a random fairy outburst, which would alert the fairies of her "sight." No, I'm afraid that is simply not logical.

4) Suddenly, after years of witnessing fairy murders and cannibalism, as soon as the main character is turned fairy, everything is hunky dory? AND, Aislinn, the "heroine", is ok with being a fairy forever? For eternity? Ok? And Seth is ok with that, even though he's going to die and leave Aislinn there? The author doesn't even go into that. Seth is just like, "Oh, cool. You're immortal now, sweet. Let's make out. After I get my AIDS test voluntarily. I mean, I haven't slept with forty women since seven months ago." No.

5) The fairies were ridiculous. I was confused as to whether or not the author liked them. For a while they were crazy cannibals, and then they were techno lovers dancing at a club. What? What? No.

6) I don't know what else to say, the whole book sucked. I think Don was the only redeeming character, and even she was pathetic for still thinking the Summer King was a cool guy after he has a million other girlfriends and cavorts with the Summer Girls left and right AND lied to her about ruining her life. For eternity. Lame.


So does anyone else see the incredible similiarities between this and Stephenie Meyer's absolutely horrible books? I do. Weak-willed heroine, people who look like models, girls throwing themselves at guys, girls having no ambitions besides the guys they're throwing themselves at, etc? Yeah, this is like the non-Mormon version of Twilight. Barf.

Somebody save young adult literature.

When looking for a new fantasy book online, Wicked Lovely struck me as the perfect "urban fantasy" novel. After reading the excerpt from the book I immediately wanted to read more. Now that I have finished reading the book I'm left completely parched. While reading this book I felt like I had to keep going to get to the good part but the good part never really came. There were no real physical descriptions of the main characters and their personalities were either too cliche or they were just shallow. Many parts in the story seemed like they were taken from Holly Black (author of Tithe, Valiant and Ironside). Too many things in this story should have been described and too many questions remained unanswered. Very dissapointing. Pretty cover though.

I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit to enjoying this book. Readers who enjoy Stephenie Meyer, Libba Bray, Holly Black and the many other authors out there right now writing fiction with female protagonists, enticing male romantic heroes and a supernatural backdrop will spend several happy hours in this story. So why only 3 stars? Because it's good, but there are other authors out there who do "it" better. Holly Black in particular comes to mind as an author setting modern "Faerie Tales" in gritty, urban settings. But Holly Black's stories are more unpredictable, her characters more feral, and ultimately, her novels just stand out more (for this reader, at least.) Melissa Marr has given us a protagonist who we know is special, because Ms. Marr tells us she is. We have one romantic hero who is too perfect and too obviously devoted to our heroine to create much tension, and another who is never more than a propped up competitor, since again, hero number 1 is so over the top perfect/devoted.

This is a fun read, and ultimately a "good" book and worth spending some time with if you are a fan of the genre.

Aislinn has a secret: she can see faeries. They're everywhere, torturing and tormenting people without their knowledge. But Aislinn has to ignore all of it and pretend they don't exist. She has to follow the three rules instigated by her grandmother. She cannot stare at the faeries, for she's not supposed to know they're there. She can't speak to them, for the same reason. But, more important, she mustn't attract their attention. Once they discover a human being knows about them, all hell could break loose. So the seventeen-year-old Aislinn sets out to live a normal life with Seth, her best friend and long-time crush, and his tattoo, body-piercing buddies. But Keenan, faerie and Summer King, has singled Aislinn out to be his queen. He has tried to find a queen before, but they failed the test. One of these is Donia, who is still in love with him and, now a faerie, follows him around and tries to keep Aislinn from falling in his trap. He is determined to get Aislinn, so he uses glamour to pass as human, wooing just about every girl, except for the one he wants. He's got some obstacles of his own. His mother, the Winter Queen, will do everything to try to stop him from dethroning her.

I like faeries. I love fantasy novels. And I enjoy Young Adult books. (I have read my fair share of YA, but I have a newfound respect for them and will follow them more closely.) The opening chapter of Wicked Lovely was interesting, so I bought it and gave it a whirl. What went wrong? The cliché plot did it for me. Gifted girl can see faeries, attractive and charismatic faerie king wants her to be his queen. The current queen, the embodiment of your typical one-dimensional evil faerie queen, will stop her son from taking over. Same old, same old. Yeah, I knew this was the plot from the very beginning, but I expected a little more originality. This is like Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, except for teens and sans the heavy sex. It didn't grab me. That's too bad, because it showed potential. If you're in the bargain for an intelligent, well-written YA fantasy, pick up Libby Bray's Order series. I also recommend Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. I have become addicted to her unique vampire world. But just because this isn't my cup of tea, it doesn't mean you won't enjoy it. You be the judge.