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The Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr [Website|Twitter|Facebook] includes Wicked Lovely (2007), Ink Exchange (2008), Fragile Eternity (2009), Radiant Shadows (2010), and Darkest Mercy (2011).
One of my favorite things about reading is picking up a series after it's already complete and simply devouring it. I did this with Wicked Lovely, reading these 5 books over 3 months (which is incredibly fast for me, I don't read series back to back), usually each in a day. Instead of providing individual reviews, I thought I would talk a bit about the series as a whole in a spoiler free kinda way! I discovered Melissa Marr last summer when my friend Alyssa read and recommended Graveminder. Since that time, I've become a huge fan girl--not only does she write fantastic books, she's a huge library supporter, makes fantastic book recommendations, and is absolutely lovely to her fans. Seriously. Authors like Melissa Marr become my favorite when in this day and age of social media and constant exposure they are able to garner my utmost respect as a person and professional beyond what they put on the page.
The Wicked Lovely books were my first faery books. I know a lot of people balk at fairies (or even more at faeries), but I was immediately engrossed at the dark, manipulative, dangerous world of the fae in this series. Wicked Lovely tells the story of the faery courts, High, Dark, Summer and Winter, focusing on a time of political and personal upheaval. We're provided a window to understand this world through human characters set against the backdrop of a grimy and cold Huntsdale, and I personally found many of the turns happily unexpected. Each book focuses on different characters, but the stories all intertwine and rely on one another, culminating in Darkest Mercy where all of the threads collide. By far, my favorite of the series was Radiant Shadows, followed by Ink Exchange. These were the two darkest in the series, and I loved that Melissa Marr used them to feature characters that I had previously not cared about or actively disliked and made me love them. I love finding myself rooting for those I used to root against (Jamie Lannister, anyone?), and the style of this series turned every story around for you to see it in a new way.
I highly recommend this series, it contains powerful and unexpected relationships, the struggle between one's duty and one's heart, and some sweet tattoos and piercings. If you've read the series, I'd love to hear which book was your favorite!
The Wicked Lovely books were my first faery books. I know a lot of people balk at fairies (or even more at faeries), but I was immediately engrossed at the dark, manipulative, dangerous world of the fae in this series. Wicked Lovely tells the story of the faery courts, High, Dark, Summer and Winter, focusing on a time of political and personal upheaval. We're provided a window to understand this world through human characters set against the backdrop of a grimy and cold Huntsdale, and I personally found many of the turns happily unexpected. Each book focuses on different characters, but the stories all intertwine and rely on one another, culminating in Darkest Mercy where all of the threads collide. By far, my favorite of the series was Radiant Shadows, followed by Ink Exchange. These were the two darkest in the series, and I loved that Melissa Marr used them to feature characters that I had previously not cared about or actively disliked and made me love them. I love finding myself rooting for those I used to root against (Jamie Lannister, anyone?), and the style of this series turned every story around for you to see it in a new way.
I highly recommend this series, it contains powerful and unexpected relationships, the struggle between one's duty and one's heart, and some sweet tattoos and piercings. If you've read the series, I'd love to hear which book was your favorite!
Honored to be mentioned! :] I don't know why I haven't picked these up yet, I LOVED Graveminder. Have you heard of Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series? I haven't read them yet but I have heard good reviews, they are definitely more "adult" than Melissa Marr's books though!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of it! I looked it up at the library, and it's kind of annoying--the library has everything after the first 3 books. What's the point of that?
DeleteI think you'd like Wicked Lovely, it's definitely more YA than Graveminder, but not in a bad way. It's less creepy, but still dark.
I have been wanting to read this series for a while. I think I'll pick them up sometime this year. But I have 50+ books right now on my TBR pile, so I may have to wait to get these for the second half of the year.
ReplyDelete