Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. When the rules that have kept Aislinn safe from them stop working everything is suddenly on the line: Her freedom; her best friend, set; her life; everything.
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.
If you have ever read of anything of the Faery type you would know of the summer court and his perusal of the Summer Queen. Most famous and entertaining of all the Faery lore is the Perusal of the Summer kings need and want for a queen, least his court diminish and winter ravage the land for eternity. This story, though quite modern, is very much the same. Written beautifully with the trickster faeries and the avoidance of iron, Wicked Lovely is sure to capture your attention and make you want to keep reading. Following the same lines of Twilight and Blue Girl I really enjoyed this book. And the sequels are no exception, taking in the point of view of different characters of the story: Ink Exchange with Leslie and Irial, and Fragile Eternity with Seth.
Excerpt from the Book
Aislinn walked a little faster, not running, but faster. Don’t run. If she ran, they’d chase: faeries always gave chase.
She ducked inside The Comix Connexion. She felt safer among the rows of unpainted wooden bins that lined the shop. My space.
Every night she’d slipped away from them, hiding until they passed, waiting until they were out of sight. Sometimes it took a few tries, but so far it had worked.
She waited inside Comix, hoping they hadn’t seen.
Then he walked in--wearing glamour, hiding that glow, passing for human and visible to everyone.
That’s new. And new wasn’t good, not where the fey were concerned. Faeries walked past her--past everyone--daily, invisible and impossible to hear unless they willed it. The really strong ones, those that could venture further into the city, could weave glamour--faery manipulation--to hide in plain sight as humans. They frightened her more than the others.
This faery was even worse: he had donned glamour between one step and the next, becoming suddenly visible, as if revealing himself didn’t matter at all.
He stopped at the counter and talked to Eddy--leaning close in order to be heard over the music that blared from the speakers in the corners.
Eddy glanced her way, and then back at the faery. He said her name. She saw it even though she couldn’t hear it.
No.
The faery started walking towards her, smiling, looking for all the world like one of her wealthier classmates.
She turned away and picked up an old issue of Nightmares and Fairy Tales. She clutched it, hoping her hands weren’t shaking.
“Aislinn, right?” Faery-boy was beside her, his arm against hers, far too close. He glanced down at the comic, smiling wryly. “Is that any good?”
She stepped back and slowly looked him over. If he was trying to pass for a human she’d want to talk to, he’d failed. From the hems of his faded jeans to his heavy wool coat, he was too up-town. He’d dulled his copper hair to sandy-blonde, hidden that strange rustle of summer, but even in his human glamour, he was too pretty to be real.
“Not interested.” She slid the comic back in place and walked down the next aisle, trying to keep the fear at bay, and failing.
He followed, steady and too close.
She didn’t think he’d hurt her, not here, not in public. For all their flaws, the fey seemed to be better behaved when they wore human faces. Maybe it was fear of the steel-bars in human jails. It didn’t really matter why: what mattered was that it was a rule they seemed to follow.
But when Aislinn glanced at him, she still wanted to run. He was like one of the big cats in the zoo--stalking its prey from across a ravine.
Deadgirl waited at the front of the shop, invisible, seated on her wolf’s back. She had a pensive look on her face, eyes shimmering like an oil slick--strange glints of color in a black puddle.
Don’t stare at invisible faeries, Rule #3. Aislinn glanced back down at the bin in front of her calmly, as if she’d been doing nothing more than gazing around the store.
“I’m meeting some people for coffee.” Faery-boy moved closer. “You want to come?”
“No.” She stepped sideways, putting more distance between them. She swallowed, but it didn’t help how dry her mouth was, how terrified and tempted she felt.
He followed. “Some other night.”
It wasn’t a question, not really. Aislinn shook her head. “Actually, no.”
“She already immune to your charms, Keenan?” Deadgirl called out. Her voice was lilting, but there was a harsh edge under the words. “Smart girl.”
Aislinn didn’t reply: Deadgirl wasn’t visible. Don’t answer invisible faeries, Rule #2.
He didn’t answer her either, didn’t even glance her way. “Can I text you? Email? Something?”
“No.” Her voice was rough. She swallowed. Her mouth was so dry that her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, making a soft clicking noise when she tried to speak. “I’m not interested at all.”
But she was.
She hated herself for it, but the closer he stood to her, the more she wanted to say yes, yes, please yes to whatever he wanted. She wouldn't, couldn’t.
He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and scrawled something on it. “Here’s mine. When you change your mind. . .”
“I won’t.” She took it--trying not to let her fingers too near his skin, afraid the contact would somehow make it worse-- and shoved it in her pocket. Passive resistance, that was what Grams would counsel. Just get through it and get away.
Eddy was watching her; Deadgirl was watching her.
Faery-boy leaned closer and whispered, “I’d really like to get to know you . . .” He sniffed her like he was some sort of animal, no different than the less-human-looking ones. “Really.”
And that would be the Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention. Aislinn almost tripped trying to get away--from him and from her own inexplicable urge to give in. She did stumble in the doorway when Deadgirl whispered, “Run while you can.”
Read more here:
http://www.childlit.info/index.php?title=Wicked_Lovely_Excerpt
Don’t forget to read the other books: Ink Exchange: "Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance between the Faerie Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly-vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.
17-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life.
The tattoo does bring changes; not the kind that Leslie had dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faerie world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils.
Fragile Eternity: Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal fairy queen.
Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her; but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.
In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos.
Also By Melissa Marr:
Manga Wicked Lovely Desert Tales Sanctuary series, co-release TokyoPop & HarperCollins, starting 2009.
This is connected to the world of the novels. It's slated to be a three book series.
One of the interesting things to me in writing Wicked Lovely was the question of Winter Girls who'd become free of the curse. That topic was one I couldn't explore in the novel, so I started writing a story about Rika, one of the former Winter Girls. What would they do? What would life be like? What are the complications?
Those who read these, will love Wicked Lovely:
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
The Blue Girl by Charles De Lint
The Hunters Moon by O. R. Melling
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