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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
This book left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. It just felt so anticlimatic in all the big moments, especially since the plot seemed to drag and drag and drag unneccesarily. We get it, Ash is scared of faeries. But seriously, why was she afraid of these particular faeries? Because they pulled her hair? We hear from her and her Grams that they killed or blinded those with the Sight, but then they turn around and actually GIVE it to people, like Keenan and Donia were willing to do for Seth? Uhhh...yeah. They seemed to be more violent with each other than with humans. And...I don't know. The chapters seemed abrupt and choppy. It felt as if she didn't really know her characters, so the reader couldn't connect to them. But, I guess since its a series, we'll learn more about them later on. I mean, is Keenan a tragic hero or manipulative monarch or callous playboy??? His personality wavered so much. When I thought I should hate him, I ended up liking him and being angry at Donia and Seth for "interfering". I get the feeling we shouldn't trust Seth anyway; no one is that perfect; he also seemed to be hiding stuff from Ash about what he knew about what was happening to her...And talk about leaving a huge plot thread hanging with him not even realizing that he left the info on the computer for Donia to find or facing any consequences for it. There also could've been more backstory in the prologue, at least to show that Donia's feelings weren't actually one-sided...I'm still confused on how she became Winter Queen or even the process for mortals to become fae anyway... And just b/c the characters are teens, doesn't make this a book for teenagers. The F word and allusions to oral sex are a bit much for very young teens.
All that said, its a series and I'll finish reading it (when the price comes down on the Nookbook), but I hope it gets better.
All that said, its a series and I'll finish reading it (when the price comes down on the Nookbook), but I hope it gets better.
One of my earlier young adult series, this book was ahead of its time for the popularity of the Fae fantasy genre.
Aislinn is fun and likeable and Seth is to die for so you route for the two of them throughout the book. Beira is suitably terrifying, always reminding me of the white witch from Narnia. Her cruelty and her abuse of Donia makes her an awesome villain, but i think the descriptions of her as a 1950s housewife are a bit misplaced.
Keenan to me is the other villain of this book, so I kind of hate that he pretty much gets everything he wants at the end of it. He is insufferable, and arrogant, and threatening towards Aislinn, and drugs her at the carnival so he can make her stay with him and dance. I remember the first time I read this book feeling very panicked every time Keenan appeared, which to me is a good villain.
I loved the story and the politics of the courts, but think a bit more could have been done to explore the courts in this book, as the Dark and High courts are only mentioned briefly in passing.
Aislinn is fun and likeable and Seth is to die for so you route for the two of them throughout the book. Beira is suitably terrifying, always reminding me of the white witch from Narnia. Her cruelty and her abuse of Donia makes her an awesome villain, but i think the descriptions of her as a 1950s housewife are a bit misplaced.
Keenan to me is the other villain of this book, so I kind of hate that he pretty much gets everything he wants at the end of it. He is insufferable, and arrogant, and threatening towards Aislinn, and drugs her at the carnival so he can make her stay with him and dance. I remember the first time I read this book feeling very panicked every time Keenan appeared, which to me is a good villain.
I loved the story and the politics of the courts, but think a bit more could have been done to explore the courts in this book, as the Dark and High courts are only mentioned briefly in passing.
I'm not usually a YA reader-- but Marr's voice got me. This was fully in a stack of books I was going through because I expected not to like them. However, about a week later, happy to say I did enjoy Wicked Lovely :) I particularly enjoyed the aesthetic descriptions of both the faerie and different environments. Now, personally, I would squash Keenan under a giant mallet. Not a big fan of the "you were born to belong to me," monologue (amongst other things). With that in mind though, this book had so many explicitly said and important messages that I was really thrilled to see in a YA. "If someone gets you drunk and makes a move on you that makes them a bad person," "get tested before new partners," and "you're leading, we're only going to do what's comfortable with you in this relationship," were all SO exciting to see in a male love interest. Really brought me to tears once when I thought about it. For not only the story to be readable, the characters to be interesting, and to get good morals on top of it all ?! Pretty winning combo. Not sure if I'll wind my way through the rest of the series, but we'll see how things shake out :)
I probably would have given this 3 stars but the existence of a character like Seth is enough to bump my rating to 4 stars. I enjoyed the story, loved the characters and am anxious to see where their story leads them.
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I’ll reread this 100 times it’s my comfort book. Read it for the first time 15 years ago and I still have great taste
Rlly not for me this. Like 1: what was that storyline? 2: What were those ‘relationships’? I mean 3: what was even the point?
Rlly not for me ngl.
Rlly not for me ngl.
Typical faery story but with a strong female character and a less than typical outcome. Fun read.
Wicked Lovely has an engaging cover and an intriguing premise but beneath the surface I found this book to be lacking and uninteresting. The reader jumps in media res and there is never enough background information supplied to help the reader understand what is going on in the beginning of the book. Aislinn is born with Faery sight. Something she has tried to conceal most of her life. The Faeries come across as sleazy, disreputable lotharios. She lives with her grandmothers who is a very underdeveloped character in the novel despite her wealth of experience in dealing with the faeries. Seems she would rather pretend they aren't there. Don't ask, Don't tell. Aislinn notices that she is suddenly caught the attention of a group of faeries and she is determined to find out why, even though it will break all the rules of privacy and disengagement that her grams has taught her. The chapter headings should give the reader a clue as to what will happen in the chapter, but they do not give any additional information about why our protagonist finds herself in the situation she is in. I am guessing the author was purposefully ambiguous to keep the "secret" as suspenseful as possible, but the ploy falls short for me. I continued dutifully turning pages but I did not care about Ash or her plight of fairy sight. Somewhere around the 20th chapter the pace picked up and I became invested in knowing the outcome. I am skeptical that many teen readers will give it that much time to develop. There is sex (implied and otherwise) but it seems pretty tame and nothing I would consider terribly offensive. The main characters (Ash and Seth) have a frank discussion about waiting and STDs, etc. The King of the Faeries, Keenan, and his lackeys have no such concerns. Seth was the most interesting character but he is not fully fleshed out. As much as I wanted to like this, I can't really heartily recommend it.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No