Wicked Lovely Paperback – April 29, 2008

The first time I read WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr I did not like it. It was too dark. I was too young to catch the deeper connotations that Marr was communicating. If it hadn't been published in that weird in between time when I was pretty current on all the interesting series in my preferred genres (and therefore desperate for reading material), I probably never would've read the second book.

But it was, and I did . . . And it remains my favorite YA series about Fae.

Aislinn, like all of her female ancestors, has the Sight. She can see through faery glamour, magic used to either make the Fae invisible to humans entirely or to make them appear to be human themselves.

There are many rules her grandmother taught her to ensure her safety, but they're all extensions of a single concept: keep the secret.

Faeries don't want to be seen, and if they discover a human who <i>can</i> see them, that human will be lucky to simply have their eyes gouged out.

Like I said. Dark.

But that by itself isn't unusual . . . and I love Fae, sooooo . . . what was my problem?

This time around, I finally figured it out. B/c despite improving with the reread, I enjoyed it for the authenticity, for the underlying message I had previously overlooked, for the anticipation of what I know will come next . . . not for <i>this</i> story. Not for <i>these</i> characters.

Aislinn and Keenan . . . Not a huge fan of either of them at this point. Donia, yes. Niall, also yes, but not nearly as much as I will in INK EXCHANGE. Seth . . . meh. For now, at least.

Part of my dislike of the main characters (Aislinn and Keenan) is superficial---I don't like their names. #sorrynotsorry Maybe you can completely overlook MEH to blergh names, but I can't. A rose by any other name and all that.

By itself that would never be enough to make turn my nose up at a book, but when I have other issues with those same characters . . . it compounds.

And with Keenan, especially . . . He embodies the capriciousness that categorizes the Fae, but he lacks the whimsicality, the charisma, that endears the "good" version of Fae to me. Instead of liking him for his Faeness, I was irritated by his narcissism.

There wasn't anything specific about Aislinn that I that disliked, but there wasn't anything I <i>did</i> particularly like either.

As for Seth . . . I'm not even remotely attracted to this incarnation. I got over my fascination with über pierced Bad Boys who may or may not have a pet snake (*rolls eyes*) when I was in high school.

BUT.

Marr is a true scholar when it comes to fairy folklore, and the aforementioned authenticity is fantastic. It's not limited to the physical descriptions of various types of Fae, she weaves the rules for dealing with Fae, the practices, the consequences, the temperaments (Keenan excluded), ultimately creating a captivating Fae world overlapping our own.
This setting, the WICKED LOVELY world, is so well established in this first installment that, in hindsight, it's not at all surprising given new main characters, I loved the next book.

Beyond that, Marr gives us a heroine who despite being backed into a corner, despite escaping the Fae free and clear being an impossibility, grabs the reins of <i>her</i> power, making the best of a situation she wants no part of, but can't escape.

Aislinn accepts the world as it is and makes it work for her.

I may not have connected with her, but I respected her.

SO. While I consider this first installment to be significantly weaker than those that follow, it isn't terrible, and I still highly recommend it to anyone who loves the Fae.

I’ll be the first to admit that this book has its problems. It can be cheesy, cliché, and reminiscent of other less impressive paranormal romances. And yet none of that bothered me. The world of fae that Melissa Marr creates is dark, elegant, and very engaging and while I can easily see why others might dislike this novel, none of its short comings bothered me. I enjoyed the plot of Aislinn having to face her biggest fears, Keenan learning to grow and mature, and Donia taking control of her life. The elements in the book all balance nicely together and I found myself hooked into the story and enjoying every moment of it.

I also loved the characters. I loved the strength and endurance of the female leads, Aislinn and Donia, and I enjoyed the dynamics between the male characters, Keenan and Seth. I found the relationships were interesting, realistic, and emotional. I also loved the evil Winter Queen. As much as I love a villain with a good backstory, I also love a villain who is just hateful and malicious for the sake of it! The cast brings a lot to the table and I’m eager to see where the series takes them.

The writing is one of my favorite things about this book. Marr has a way of writing about this dark, magical world of faeries that really captures the essence and brings it to life on the pages. While Marr does write in a way that seems a bit melodramatic at times, I still loved the story. The plot, the characters, the faery lore, the writing; I found all of it to be enjoyable. This book is a delightful guilty pleasure you can dive into and enjoy without investing too much. I’m excited to read future novels in the series and I hope they’re as entertaining as Wicked Lovely.

I love tales of the fey, light and dark courts. They beauty and brutality. This tale came with a fairy tale. The Summer King has his power bound as a youth when his cruel mother, the Winter Queen murders his father. This leaves the Summer King bound and weak. He is forced to seduce mortal girls by his fey beauty to risk all for his love. If they win they become the Summer Queen. Thus far, all have failed. They either refuse to try to hold the Hawthorne (a scepter of sorts), and become a Summer girl, endlessly frolicking as a fae in the Summer courts harem, or they take the Hawthorne and become a cold girl. Forever frozen inside, forced to warn all future mortal girls of the error of attempting to be Keenan's true Summer Queen. Keenan suffers for centuries until he finds Ashlinn. She has been raised to hate and fear all fairies because she has the sight and knows they are cruel. She is also has a crush on her best friend Seth. Which of course, causes terrible obstacles for poor Keenan to break free from his psychotic mother and save humanity. I was really hoping for a hea for Keenan since he suffered so much and was willing to concede anything to have Ashlinn as his Queen. I won't spoil the ending other than to say it wasn't what I had hoped for for any of the characters. The story also alludes to future books in which the characters will be torn between the love of one person over another. Maybe Sean needed more character development to bring him into the story so that I would want to be on his team. I did enjoy the friends that Keenan had in his corner. Donia was very interesting as the Winter girl. Some things didn't mesh for me. Why would the Summer King marry a psychotic Winter Queen? And why could Ashlinn walk off into a snow storm when all other Summer fae including the Summer King could not?