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Reviewed by:
  • Wicked Lovely
  • Cindy Welch
Marr, Melissa Wicked Lovely. HarperTeen, 2007 [336p] Library ed. ISBN 0-06-121466-3$17.89 Trade ed. ISBN 0-06-121465-5$16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12

In a realistic city where most people are blind to the fey as they work their small and medium-sized mischiefs, Aislinn can see them all, but she's been taught from a young age to give the impression she's as faery-blind as the rest of the human race. This gets more difficult when Keenan, faery's Summer King, attempts to get to know her, following her around and even temporarily enrolling in her high school. He is in search of a queen who will help him wrest the power of the seasons from his mother (the Winter Queen), but each earlier potential mate has failed the Winter Queen's trial, and the last girl who attempted and failed it is fated to warn off any future prospects. With Keenan's mind set on Aislinn, the deal is all but done and, rather than avoid her fate, she can only hope to make a deal that will help him defeat his mother while she gets to keep a budding relationship with mortal Seth. Literary quotes about fairies, from the likes of W. B. Yeats and Andrew Lang, open each chapter and hint at the action to come, but this is ultimately a modern-day fairy tale, wherein the girl saves herself and the dénouement involves a negotiated partnership rather than an exchange of wedding rings. There's a mature sensibility about the prose and the characters that speaks very effectively to older teens who can appreciate its restrained tone. This offers the human-faery interaction and urban fantasy feel of Holly Black's Tithe (BCCB 1/03) with a more benign view of its imagined world, and many fantasy readers will find themselves happily at home here.

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