Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr

Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1)

By Melissa Marr
12th June 2007
HarperTeen

Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty - especially if they learn of her Sight - and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

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, who 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 — regardless of her plans or desires.

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

I have mixed reviews about this book, I really enjoyed reading it and being in Aislinns world but when it ended I couldn’t shake the feeling of disappointment and it wasn’t with the story, I felt that it came to a natural end and Marr has definitely given faeries a new identity but something is missing. I feel as if the relationships weren’t developed enough for the story as a whole to be truly believable or they weren’t explored any further and I was expected to already understand the previous relationships.

I really loved Seth as a character and loved that he was so open and honest throughout the whole book, it was refreshing to have at least one character that wasn’t hiding something and I also loved that he wasn’t described as a typical ‘preppy’ boy. He’s a goth/emo (It’s not quite clear) and he has piercings and tattoos and still he’s described as beautiful. I love that Marr broke the mould with this character and I think he fits in well with today’s society and he’s more ‘real’ than any other character I’ve come across even if he does live in a train.

Aislinn on the other hand is a character that I can’t quite relate to. I really loved her in the beginning because her reactions to the situations she manages to find herself in are real and believable but once the faeries start interfering more in her life, her whole personality seems to change and she forgets every rule that she’s been brought up with. She goes from being a wary teenage girl to a gullible one. It makes the story less believable and confusing.

I couldn’t stand Keenan in the beginning because although he is meant to be this old, wise king, he acts like a typical teenage boy and when things don’t go his way he begins to act like a spoiled brat. His feelings for Donia were completely predictable and I could see that coupling a mile away even if he seemed to be clueless. I felt her appearances in the story didn’t add to it as a whole and weren’t necessary or they could have been, if they were longer and more relevant to the situation instead it just seems that she is a whiny, jealous ex.

And Beira? She’s supposed to be this scary intimidating villain but I wasn’t convinced. She’s portrayed as almost too cruel if that’s even possible? And there wasn’t much of a backstory involving her, except that she killed Keenan’s father and bound him using the Dark Court. I haven’t found an explanation as to why. She is just a power driven woman with no personality.

I enjoyed this book as a whole and I really love the concept of the courts and the invisible faeries, Marr made it all believable but I feel that the characters should have been revised because they lacked a certain…something. They didn’t feel real to me and I didn’t believe that their actions are typical of who they are. I am excited to see where the characters go from here and I hope that Marr manages to give them more depth, I feel that this was more of a starting point for a story than a story as a whole and I am looking forward to being thrown back into it.

Check out Melissa Marr’s website here

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- Stephanie