Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr

Title: Wicked Lovely
Author: Melissa Marr
Publisher: Harper Teen, 2008 (Paperback)
Length: 328 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Fantasy
Started: October 26, 2009
Finished: October 29, 2009

Summary:
From the back cover:
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. 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. Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in this 21st century faery tale.

Review:
Yet another supernatural romance type I thought I'd try. This one actually has a very good story, it reads like a fairy tale (forgive the pun). Keenan is the Summer King who must find the right mortal girl to agree to take the test to be his Summer Queen so that he can regain the power taken away from him at birth by his mother, the Winter Queen. There's a catch though: if the girl Keenan picks isn't the right one, she'll turn into a barely living ice queen called the Winter Girl, doomed to try to persuade Keenan's future girls from taking the same test. Great stuff.

However, like traditional fairy tales, I thought the plot wasn't fleshed out enough. Some parts move quite slowly, while others whizz by without a lot of build-up; it just felt disjointed most of the time.

The characters are well-rounded. Aislinn (pronounced Ash-lynn) is a strong female lead, and I was glad she stood her ground. She didn't like the terms of the agreement with Keenan, so she made Keenan agree to her own terms. One part seemed a little out of character for her though, Aislinn should know that you never drink the fairy wine! Sheesh, even I know that.

Keenan's character seems a little flat- loves Aislinn, loves Donia, wants his power back etc. The Winter Queen seemed a little over the top to be disposed of so easily, I was expecting her actions to be slightly more ruthless given what the reader gleams of her personality.

I liked the ending, and though I wasn't happy with the plot flow (but liked the story), I kind of want to pick up the sequels to see where things are headed.

Recommendation:
If you're a fan of modern-day fairy tales, pick this up!

Thoughts on the cover:
Not sure whether the girl in the background is supposed to be Aislinn or Donia, but I'll assume its Donia. I love how they went with the cold and ice imagery of the Winter Queen/Winter Girl, since its so prevalent in this book. The dark background and the forest green font really makes the whole thing come together.