Review: Wicked Lovely

Wicked Lovely

Melissa Marr

328 pages

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

All teenagers have problems, but few of them can match those of Aislinn, who has the power to see faeries. Quite understandably, she wishes that she could share her friends' obliviousness and tries hard to avoid these invisible intruders. But one faery in particular refuses to leave her alone. Keenan the Summer King is convinced beyond all reasoning that Aislinn is the queen he has been seeking for nine centuries. What's a 21st-century girl to do when she's stalked by a suitor nobody else can see? A debut fantasy romance for the ages; superlative summer read.

My Thoughts: 

First of all, lets take a moment to admire the beautiful cover of this book.  "Ah....."  Isn't is lovely?  My first attraction to this book was the awesome cover.  I'm excited that the sequels in this series have equally awesome covers.

While I am not new to the fantasy/paranormal genre, I have to admit that this was a first reading about faeries.  While I have read descriptions of books about the Fey people, I've never been tempted to pick up one until now.  And even after reading this novel, I have to say, eh, still not my favorite paranormal creature.  I don't know.  I just found them weird.  There were so many types in the novel that I couldn't really keep them straight, couldn't really imagine them, and I really only found fondness in my heart for two of the Fey people (Donia and Evan, her guard), but I'll get to that later.

I read this one review on goodreads that started with "I love Melissa Marr but I hate Keenan."  And I have to admit that by the end of the book I was screaming, "Ahem sister friend!"  I enjoyed this book.  I just think I would have enjoyed the book if Keenan was either not in it or a completely different character.  I hated him.  He was arrogant, selfish, and completely oblivious to others.  He just rubbed me wrong.

That being said, I loved Aislinn.  I loved Seth.  I loved them together, and I loved their story.  I thought Aislinn was a great main character.  She was strong, able to think for herself, willing to admit when she needed help, and ultimately honest.  She didn't lie to Seth or to Keenan for her own benefit.  I thought she handled the massive changes happening around her very well, and she even had character - she was funny and interesting.  And I think that Seth was a perfect opposing character for her.  He was calm, the ever-present best friend, and wonderfully loyal.  He did not jump to conclusions or call her crazy.  He listened and gave her the benefit of the doubt.  What I would give to have a guy like that!  Plus, the fact that he lived in railroad cars was incredible!  I just loved him as a character.

I thought Melissa Marr did an excellent job creating a fantasy story with complicated twists.  I enjoyed the story, though it was really the characters of Aislinn and Seth that sucked me into the book.  I thought Marr's word pictures of Donia were great, and I was truly surprised by the ending and how it affected Donia, Aislinn, and Seth (sorry, I could care less about Keenan).  Donia was an incredible character that I felt was necessary, but that Ms. Marr took to a whole new level.  Instead of making her simply there, she made her beautiful, sympathetic, and lovable.  Melissa Marr's writing was incredible, and I will definitely be reading the sequel to this book.

The major drawbacks I had to this story were a few:  A) Keenan (read the above rant), B) the Fey (again, read above),  C) the flow of the story:  Really I thought the beginning of the novel was a bit slow and the ending happened too fast.  It was like she took too long building up to a plot that she did not fully explore when she got there.  I was just wanting more from the ending.  Excuse me, but I really wanted the bad guys to suffered.  But then again, my version of the book ended "early" in that I was reading on my kindle and didn't realize that the bonus content made the actual book end at 81%.  Hello, people!   I was not ready for it to be finished.  I had 19% left!

Ultimately, I gave this book a 3.5 rating.  Though I don't really like 1/2 ratings, I felt this one deserved it because I really did enjoy it more than most "good" books.  It had the makings of a great book with a few flaws, so I thought it did deserve the 3.5 rating.   I will be getting the next book in the series to read; I just might wait until the library has it as I'm not sure I'll read it twice.  I would recommend it to any YA fantasy lovers.