Review: Wicked Lovely

by Melissa Marr
publisher: HarperCollins
date published: April 6, 2010
format: NOOK ebook, with bonus materials
pages: 286
source: purchased
Amazon / Goodreads
challenges: Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge; 2011 YA Reading Challenge; 2011 E-Book Reading Challenge

From Goodreads:

"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."

What I Thought

At first, I wasn't too sure about this book. There were several points of interest that caught my attention, but I found that the action at the very beginning was almost non-existent. Aislinn spends the first quarter of the book trying not to let the faeries know that she can see them and being followed by Keenan and Donia. I kept waiting and waiting for something else to happen. I wasn't disappointed. Once the sequence of events began to fall into place, the plot ramped up the action and the love story fully came into play. I knew I was drawn in when I was mentally berating Aislinn for drinking the faerie wine (if you read enough faerie lore, you know to never, under any circumstances, drink or eat what a faerie gives you).

I really enjoyed the characters. I found Aislinn and Seth to be very sweet and, as much as I was rooting for Seth, I also found Keenan compelling. The reasons for what he was trying to accomplish were very compelling, so it was much easier to empathize with him. Beira was a great villain. She was cruel and insidious enough that you will really want for her to be brought down. I think, however, that my favorite character was Donia. She had been through so much and had so much to gain or lose from the outcome of the events that I couldn't help but to pull for her.

Without giving anything away, I was very happy with how everything came together in the end. I just wish that the first part of the story had piqued my interest more. I'm really glad that I kept at it, however. With all of that in mind, I give Wicked Lovely 4 hoots.