Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis: Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty - especially if they learn of her Sight - and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.
Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.
But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King, who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost — regardless of her plans or desires.

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.

Review: So I picked this book up this morning and by this afternoon I'd finished it. It's been so long since I've been able to just sit and read a book that I raced through this one! I did enjoy this book, although I didn't love it like I wanted to.

Aislinn seems to get a lot of criticism in other reviews but I did actually quite like her. She was stubborn and hard headed and she didn't let Keenan dictate to her. Yes, the constant reminder of the three rules was a little repetitive at times but, on the whole, I did actually like her. Seth was another character that I really liked. He protects Aislinn and works with her, listening to her plans and helping her sort through them. This is a practically unheard of characteristic in YA! A guy who lets the girl do what she needs to do without getting mad? Yay for Seth in my book! I also love the fact that he lives in a train. A train! I would love to see that place it sounds amazing (the boa constrictor he keeps as a pet, not so amazing, but nobody's perfect). I liked that Aislinn fought for him as well and she didn't get so caught up in Keenan and his faery charms that she forgot about Seth.

Keenan...confused me. In some ways, I did like him. I felt sorry for him when he was around the Winter Queen and, towards the end where he essentially had to choose between the girl he (supposedly) loves, and his Summer Queen; but when it comes to actually getting Aislinn to like him I really didn't like him. He knew that Aislinn didn't understand what was going on and yet he took it as fact that she was his Queen. He didn't know that for sure though and that really annoyed me. Yes, there's a chance that Aislinn is his Queen, but they don't know that for sure. His certainty of this meant that he did some really ridiculous things as he tried to get her to agree and I just wanted to hit him! Urgh! I hope that Keenan redeems himself in the next book - I hope so, because he is a good guy, he was just being fed misinformation and posturing in front of Aislinn but still. He has so much potential.

The plot itself was good but I found it a little...confusing with how it played out. I felt like the plot needed a little more explanation in the earlier stages of the book, rather than leaving it till later on in the book. One of the biggest things that confused me was the idea of the Winter Girl. To find out if you're the Summer Queen, you have to pick up a staff from the Winter Queen to prove that you can hold it without taking on the chill. Why? Why would the Summer Queen need to withstand the chill from Winter? That ability doesn't translate once you become Summer Queen - lets face it, no one likes to stand out in the cold for ages - so why does she have to hold it? It makes no sense to me. I'm hoping that this is maybe explained more in the next book - just more back story on how this 'game' came to be in the first place would be really interesting - because I really don't understand why that was a requirement. Also, why does the Winter Girl have to convince the next mortal girl that Keenan is no good? If they are no longer mortal anyway, they are technically bound to him either way, so why would it matter? These are all questions I want answering and they're questions that let this book down for me.

On the whole, I did enjoy this book. I thought most of the characters were quite interesting and the plot moved along nicely, although (possibly because it was a debut) there were a lot of things that I didn't like and a whole lot of questions left unanswered. I will read the next book, because apparently they get better and if I get through the next one as quickly as I did this one, then I'll be happy.

Image from Goodreads - no Copyright Intended

No Place Like Oz by Danielle Paige

No Place Like Oz (Dorothy Must Die prequel novella) by Danielle Paige

Rating: 3.5 stars

Synopsis: After returning to Kansas, Dorothy Gale has realized that the dreary fields of Kansas don’t compare to the vibrant landscapes of Oz. And although she’s happy to be reunited with Aunt Em, she misses her friends from the yellow brick road. But most of all, Dorothy misses the fame and the adventure. In Kansas she’s just another prairie girl, but in Oz she was a hero. So Dorothy is willing to do anything to get back, because there really is no place like Oz. But returning to the land she left comes at a price, and after Dorothy is through with it, Oz will never be the same.

Review: I recently finished reading Dorothy Must Die and I really loved it. I'm loving my fairy tale re-tellings at the moment and reading that book did nothing to stop the obsession and it left me wanting to learn more about this world that Danielle Paige has created. However, I'm not quite willing to part with X amount of hard earned cash for the sequels (not least because I'm desperately hoping that book number 2 won't follow the pattern of sequel books being not so great) so, while I wait for my local library to order them in I decided to have a little hunt on the internet to see if there were any other books/tales from this world I could find. Low and behold - there are a bunch! Now I only bought this one novella and you can do that OR you can buy the bind up editions of all the novellas available. No Place Like Oz interested me though because this is the story of how Dorothy ended up back in Oz after going home, and how the events in Dorothy Must Die came to be.

I liked that we got to see some of Dorothy's life back in Kansas, and that we got a better glimpse at the struggles she faced there. This novella was a really good length and so we spent plenty of time in both Kansas and Oz and learnt more about both of them.
 Bullies are something that both Dorothy and Amy have in common in this series and it was nice to see how they each deal with it. Dorothy is torn - she doesn't fit in at home anymore and actually regrets her decision to go back to Kansas, even more so once her bully makes an appearance. Seeing this makes you realise just why Dorothy likes the way magic feels and the power it gives her.

When we meet Dorothy in DMD, she's been crazed by power for a long time and it was really interesting to see that change take place in No Place Like Oz and to see how her thoughts on using magic change over the course of this novella. At one point, Dorothy makes the distinct statement that "It wasn't right. I do realise that. People aren't little marionettes to be pulled this way and that without their say-so in the matter. On the other hand, just because it wasn't right didn't mean it wasn't fun." This statement really struck me as marking the change from the Dorothy Gale from the movie and the Dorothy Gale we meet in DMD and I loved that she did make this statement in the novella - I think it shows you a lot about Dorothy and her struggle to fit in.

Despite knowing all of this about Dorothy - I never felt sorry for her. Yes she's being told conflicting stories from everyone she meets but she also jumps to her own conclusions and that leads her to doing what she does in the final few scenes. There was never really any reason to victimise her aunt and uncle and yet she does so without a second thought, yet they're only looking after her and trying to protect her. All of this means that you finish the book with the same perception of Dorothy as you get in DMD which I think is a mark of a really talented writer. It would have been so easy for Danielle to make Dorothy the victim and make the readers feel sorry for her but she doesn't do that. She explains why Dorothy became power crazed but that's all and I really liked that.

I loved that Ozma played such a big part in this novella because we see that she's actually a really strong person who wants to do right by her people and I really felt for her - all she wanted was a friend and Dorothy could have benefited from that as well, but she chose not to. All I wanted to do was give Ozma a hug, she just seems like she needs someone to tell her that she's doing a good job.

The one thing about this novella and about DMD actually is that, although they're really engaging when you're reading them, I found that once I put them down; I could leave them for a couple of days or even a couple of weeks before picking them back up again. The plot and the characters are amazing and well thought out and engaging when you're reading them but, I found that I wasn't in any hurry to find out what happened next (until the final fight in DMD - then I was hooked till the very end). This is the only thing that let it down for me but, it doesn't stop me from wanting to pick up the sequels in any way.

If you've read Dorothy Must Die and want to know more, I would definitely recommend reading this novella at least because it does explain how we get to DMD and the motives behind why Dorothy does what she does.

Image and synopsis from Goodreads. Quote is taken directly from the novella. No Copyright Intended.