Wicked Lovely

Wicked Lovely
by Melissa Marr

pub: 2007

328 pages

Rule #3:
Don't stare at invisible faeries.

Rule #2:

Don't speak to invisible faeries.

Rule #1:

Don't ever attract their attention.

Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. When the rules that have kept Aislinn safe from them stop working, everything is suddenly on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning twenty-first century faery tale.

After so many books that had me slapping myself in order to stay awake and concentrate on the plot, Wicked Lovely was, well, wickedly lovely. Ha ha...tired so the pun is lame.

Alright... here's the scoop. Aislinn makes a few mistakes here and there, but she's smart, not an airhead. I was psyched to have an intelligent and independent female protagonist.

Faeries have never appealed to me like vamps and weres have for whatever reason. But Melissa Marr had me enthralled by their world she created.

This is primarily a romance, not my cup of tea normally, but once I got over that, I was set. Mortal Seth is dreamy. The Summer King melted my heart. Sadness washed over me for Donia's situation, and Aislinn's cunning had me smirking. Guess the characterization worked because I was invested in all of them. That doesn't happen to me often.

My only compliant is that since we flip between the faeries' points of view and the mortals' points of view, I, the reader, knew what was going on pretty much the entire time. That's not a bad thing except I then had to read through the mortals trying to figure out what's going on... and I already knew. Yawn.

That said, I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for an enjoyable romance that doesn't have an airhead for a protagonist. I'm just finishing the sequel Fragile Eternity and will have a review up soon. In the mean time if you haven't started this series, I say go for it. This is a keeper.

The Cover: Dare I say...wicked! Love the colors, I like only seeing a hint of the girl's face, the flowers are beautiful and the font with the vines works well. I'm sold!

By the way, is there a right way to spell fairy, faery, or faerie...or the bazillion other ways I've seen it written? I'm mean seriously folks. Can't anyone agree on how to spell a word?

And on a side note... We decided to add Mr. Linky to all of our book reviews so that if you have a review of the same book (old or new review) we invite you to add your link. It's fun to have other insights and opinions! So you're welcome to add a link to your own review of Wicked Lovely. We're excited to see what you have to say and are sure others will be too!

Also, in regards to Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr, it is a 'companion novel' to Wicked Lovely but is not the sequel. Fragile Eternity is the sequel. Marr commented about Ink Exchange on her site saying

"Ink Exchange is more of a 'companion novel' than a sequel. It features the courts and is set in Huntsdale, but Ash & co. are not the main focus, as the Dark Court is at the center of the book. A Wicked Lovely sequel will be released in a third book titled Fragile Eternity, on April 21, 2009."

I actually started Ink Exchange but companion novels aren't usually my thing and this one didn't hold my interest. I didn't finish it and instead just read the Fragile Eternity. If anyone wants to link to Ink Exchange too, I'd love to hear what you thought!