Darklight - Lesley Livingston

Title: Darklight
Author: Lesley Livingston
Publisher: Harper Teen, 2010 (Hardcover)
Length: 310 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Fantasy
Started: May 20, 2010
Finished: May 30, 2010

Summary:
From the publisher's website:
Faerie can't lie . . . or can they?

Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt. Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the remaining Hunters and Queen Mabh herself.

When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring, and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom . . . or tear them apart.

Review:
Since I loved Wondrous Strange, picking this up was a no-brainer, plus it helps that I have a signed copy at home!

Anywhoo, Darklight picks up 6 months after the events of Samhain in Wondrous Strange, Sonny is off hunting down the remnants of the Wild Hunt, and Kelley is practicing for the Avalon Grande's production of Romeo and Juliet. Then come the leprechauns...but not the cute little Lucky Charms type of leprechauns. In this world, leprechauns are the equivalent of scary biker dudes, and these ones are out for revenge. So amidst escaping from psycho leprechauns, more faerie politics are unearthed, which leads to readers finding out more about Sonny's past. Darklight had a different feel from Wondrous Strange, simply because the first book ran on Kelley's relationship with Sonny and finding out who she really was. In Darklight, Kelley and Sonny are established, Kelley's set as far as being a faerie princess (though she still has mommy and daddy issues), so the book's only really got the plot to move itself forward, whereas Wondrous Strange had subplots other than the whole Samhain Gate thingie. There is a fair bit of emotional angst though, which leads me to the one pet peeve I have with this book....spoilers abound below so please skip to the bottom if you'd like to remain unaware.

This in no way retracts from the book itself, so I'll say that outright, the book is wonderful, this is just a purely personal thing of mine. I hate, hate, hate when romantically involved characters say they don't love each other even when they really do, just because they believe that doing so will safeguard the other person from some kind of harm (being with them is somehow dangerous to their health). It happens in anime series all the time, and I just want to chuck the book/anime/manga/tv series out the window when a character goes down that road. All it does is cause undue emotional angst, and the characters always reunite after some strained time apart, so I feel that in a way it's cheating out on some real character development. I can't even let it slide because of their age, it's just a stupid move across the board whether the character is young or not. You either love the person or you don't, if you really love them you wouldn't want to hurt them by your admission whether you're lying or not, so you tell the truth and work things out some other way.

Recommendation:
If you liked Wondrous Strange, read this!

Thoughts on the cover:
I love how the cover goes with the previous one, just using more pinks as opposed to the blues of Wondrous Strange's. Same model too, yay for continuity!