Salute Your Shorts: Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr–the Wicked Lovely Edition

Salute Your Shorts is a weekly (ish) feature here at Bunbury in the Stacks highlighting and reviewing short stories and novellas. Everyone is welcome to join at any time, just grab the pic above and shoot me a link in the comments so that I can include your post in a roundup.

Title: Faery Tales and Nightmares [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Melissa Marr [Website|Twitter]
Standing: This week I’m talking the Wicked Lovely stories.
Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
Published: February 21st, 2012 by HarperCollins
Format:  Hardcover; 418 pages 
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Challenge: YA/MG Fantasy Challenge
Spoilers!: This review contains all sorts of spoilers for the Wicked Lovely series, which I’ve reviewed as a whole here.  Half of the stories take place after that series ends.  So seriously.  Go read that first.  But remember, you can read half of this anthology spoiler free, and I’ve reviewed those stories here.

Dangerous promises and beguiling threats swirl together in a dozen stories of enchantments dark and light by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr. Uncanny and unexpected creatures appear from behind bushes, rise from beneath the seas, or manifest from seasonal storms to pursue the objects of their attention—with amorous or sinister intent—relentlessly.

From the gentle tones of a storyteller’s cadences to the terror of a blood sacrifice, tales of favorite characters from Marr’s Wicked Lovely novels mix with accounts of new characters for readers to fall in love with...or to fear.

Lush, seductive, and chilling, Melissa Marr’s stories revel in the unseen magic that infuses the world as we know it.

Welcome to the Wicked Lovely edition of Salute Your Shorts for Faery Tales and Nightmares!  Today I’ll be talking the other six stories in the anthology, the ones that are either in, or somehow related to the Wicked Lovely universe.  What can you read?  First off, The Sleeping Girl and the Summer King is not technically Wicked Lovely, so go to town.  Old Habbits and Stopping Time take place after Ink Exchange, so you are free to read those if you’ve only read up to that point in the series.  Cotton Candy Skies shouldn’t be read until after Darkest Mercy, Unexpected Family and Merely Mortal should not be touched until you’ve finished the series.

The Sleeping girl and the summer king

I knew that this story was described as Wicked Lovely-ish, but before reading it I didn’t really understand why.  This was the short story that Melissa Marr wrote that later turned into the series, however, The Sleeping Girl and the Summer King is quite different than the series itself.  You can see that the structure is there (and a character named Aisling!), but it is still very much its own story.

Each winter, a girl falls asleep, and spring only returns when she dreams of it.  Throughout the summer, she spends her days basking in the sun with the summer king, until finally she comes of age where she is too old to sleep again.  At this time, she is presented with a choice: stay young forever as one of the many girls of summer, or age as winter.  Only if she chooses winter will its previous barer be free, but the allure of both sides is strong.

---

Cotton Candy Skies

This was the WL story I was most excited to read when I picked up Faery Tales and Nightmares.  I probably would have been more excited about Old Habits and Stopping Time, but I’d already read them, and I knew Cotton Candy Skies featured my other WL favorite—The Shadow Court.  I love Devlin and Ani, and was super excited at the chance to see them again, so I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t a little disappointed that they were barely in this story.  However, when I thought about it, it made sense.  They’d already had their happy ending, and there were others that still needed some tying up.  That’s where this story, and Rabbit came in.

Cotton Candy Skies features Rabbit, Ani and Tish’s older brother and father figure, who has found himself sealed in Faerie.  He feels at a loss, unsure of what to do with himself that will make him feel worthwhile in the same way that he felt needed and worthwhile in the outside world.  It was fun to have a story about Rabbit, a minor character that I always liked, but we never heard much from.  It was the perfect choice for a Shadow Court tale, and in the end it may not be my favorite in the collection, but I was happy nonetheless.

---

Unexpected Family

Unexpected Family takes place about a week after the events of Darkest Mercy conclude, and it’s a Seth story (yay!).  Seth receives a letter from his mortal parents insisting that he visit them, indicating some urgency.  He hasn’t seen his parents in several years, and while they have an amicable relationship, he’s certainly not in the mood to leave Huntsdale after all of the upheaval.  For his family, however, he will.  Seth bids goodbye to Aisling, and requests that Niall accompany him to California, knowing that he and Niall have to work out their differences.  Seth doesn’t want to lose Niall as a brother, but he knows there will be friction as his opposite.

I enjoyed this story a fair amount, particularly because Seth is one of the most interesting characters in the Wicked Lovely series.  With three courts heavily invested in his welfare as son, lover, and brother, is it any surprise that he’s generally a good guy?  Unexpected Family was probably my favorite WL story in this collection, though it would honestly be behind Old Habbits and Stopping Time which I read previously.

---

Merely Mortal

Unfortunately, Merely Mortal ended up placing as my least favorite story in this anthology.  It’s a shame, being as it was also that last story in this collection, and therefore left me feeling a little down on it (even though the bulk of stories were wonderful). 

Merely Mortal is a story of Keenan and Donia, attempting to cope as a real couple for the first time in over a century.  They have loved each other for a very long time, but have never been able to surmount the obstacles standing in their way.  Now, finally, Keenan has given up his regency and is free to love Donia, however, he has also given up his immortality.  After 900 years, Keenan is mortal, delicate, and easily broken.  He wants to attempt to become fae again, but Donia is so afraid of him being hurt.  Merely Mortal tells a light tale of this couple vacationing—something rare and unusual for any fae reagents.

---

Old Habits and Stopping Time

I’m honestly going to kind of gloss over these two stories because I read them as e-book singles while I was reading the Wicked Lovely series last year, and chose not to reread them when they were published in this collection.  They are the two longest stories in the book, each more a novella than a short story, they make up about 1/3 of the text in Faery Tales and Nightmares. 

Let’s just suffice it to say that if you love Niall, Irial, and Leslie (and if you don’t, I really think you’re missing out), you must check out Old Habbits and Stopping Time.  Stopping Time focuses largely on Niall and Leslie, while Old Habbits focuses largely on the relationship between Niall and Irial.  To me, these three characters are the most compelling of the entire series, and getting these extra novellas to explore the relationships between my favorite characters was time well spent!

Review: The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron Daughter [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Julie Kagawa [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: Book two in The Iron Fey series.
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: July 27th, 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Format: Kindle edition; 361 pages
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Spoilers!: This review contains spoilers for the first book in the series, The Iron King (reviewed here), so go read that first!

Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron Fey, iron-bound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.

Worse, Meghan’s own fey powers have been cut off. She’'s alone in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can’t help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.

So remember every nice thing I said about Meghan Chase when I reviewed The Iron King?  Well, I take it back.  Somehow that savvy girl with the potential to turn into someone brave and strong instead turned into a simpering, pining, annoyingly naive character I just couldn’t bring myself to care about this time around.  I really think this was a case of the straw that broke the camel’s back.  This was it; the book that made me realize that I really just cannot take one more of these YA romances.  I can’t do it!  It’s not just that it’s a love triangle (but yeah, that’s a big part of it), it’s also that it’s deep intense love with someone you barely know, have spent barely any time with, and yet are willing to give up everything for.  For eternity.  Yeah.  That kind of love.  I can’t do it anymore.  

Maybe I’ve matured a lot in my views of relationships over the past few years.  I’ve been living with the man I want to spend the rest of my life with now for over three years, and I’ve come to understand that love and relationships take work...and they have to be based on something more than some surface attraction and something in common.  I’m not saying that the types of relationships I’m getting sick of in YA couldn’t potentially end up as lasting, but honestly?  Most of them aren’t healthy, and it’s gotten to where it annoys me beyond belief that we’re supposed to swoon over this stuff and think ‘oh how sweet they’ll be together forever’ when they don’t even really know (or care about) what that entails.

I just wanted to slap Meghan so many times in this book.  At the beginning, Ash literally tells her that he’s going to have to treat her a certain way in the Unseelie court.  Then, when he proceeds to do exactly as he said he would, Meghan cries and moans about how he’s betrayed her and lied to her and how could he be so cruel.  She continually doubts his feelings for her, doubts her own feelings for him, and yet--it’s true love people!  Right.  At the end of The Iron King I had also come to believe that Meghan had grown and matured as a person.  That she was no longer worried about things like an embarrassing day in high school that had bothered her at the beginning of her journey.  But then in The Iron Daughter she freaks out about just those types of things proving that she hasn’t really grown at all.

Some other nitpicky things while I’m on a roll: for the love of all that is good stop talking about heartbeats.  I swear, if I had a dollar for everytime Meghan hears/feels Ash’s heartbeat, or Puck’s heartbeat, or her own freakin’ heartbeat, I could pay off a decent amount of my student loans.  Also, I hate hate recapping.  A little I get, it’s fine, it’s usually been a while between books, but excessive recapping is Kagawa’s thing.  I didn’t enjoy Winter’s Passage much because of it, and it had me wanting to put The Iron Daughter down after only 25 pages.  And get this?  She put a huge chuck of Winter’s Passage into The Iron Daughter.  Seriously?!  I get that not everyone had access to the short story, but that’s why you make it something you don’t need to put in the books.  Not something you just put in the book anyway.

If I had read The Iron Daughter two years ago when it came out, I most likely would have loved it.  I wish I did read it then, because Julie Kagawa’s built a really cool world creating an interplay between some classic mythology and her own creations that are unique and quite frankly pretty dang cool.  I do think that aside from my inability to stomach the relationships, The Iron Daughter suffered a bit from second-book syndrome.  It was an okay story, but really seemed a filler plot leading to where we all know the story is going.  Nothing about it was surprising to me as it was in The Iron King, and in the end I was just incredibly disappointed with the whole read.

In the words of Craig Ferguson, I look forward to your comments.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more:  I was really looking forward to this series, but after this I think I’m done.  I just don’t think I can care anymore about The Iron Fey.  I do still want to read The Immortal Rules, but I’m hesitant enough not to have requested the ARC.  I’ll wait to see more reviews, thank you.

Recommended for:  I would still recommend this series to fantasy readers, particularly younger ones, who don’t read so much as me and therefore haven’t become incredibly jaded.

Get a second opinion:
Book Labyrinth
Good Books and Good Wine
Hobbitsies

Salute Your Shorts: Winter's Passage: An Iron Fey Novella by Julie Kagawa

Salute Your Shorts is a weekly (ish) feature here at Bunbury in the Stacks highlighting and reviewing short stories and novellas. Everyone is welcome to join at any time, just grab the pic above and shoot me a link in the comments so that I can include your post in a roundup.

Title: Winter’s Passage [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Julie Kagawa [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: The Iron Fey #1.5
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: May 20th, 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Format: Kindle edition; 59 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.
Spoilers!: This review contains spoilers for The Iron King, reviewed here, so go read that first!

My name is Meghan Chase.  If there are three thing I’ve learned in my time among the fey, they are this: don’t eat anything you’re offered in Faeryland, don’t go swimming in quiet little ponds and never, ever, make a bargain with anyone.

Winter’s Passage picks up right where The Iron King left off, with Meghan leaving with Ash to head to the Unseelie Court.  Meghan successfully pleads with Ash to first visit Puck, who is still recovering and comatose in a tree in New Orleans, and he agrees.  There they meet Grimalken, and are warned of a dangerous pursuer, which continues to hunt them on their journey.

This was a nice little short, but I also found it somewhat annoying.  It’s written as a bridge story between the first and second books for The Iron Fey series, but instead of being written for fans of the series, it is clearly aimed at those who want to do a test-run before reading the full-length novels.  This meant there was a lot of recapping.  I hate recapping.  If I needed that many details about a book I’ve read, I obviously wasn’t paying attention, so why would I then be reading this book?  Seriously, this is one of the reasons I quit reading the Wheel of Time series.

Anyway, this is a quick short, and like most shorts, completely optional and I’m sure it will have little to no bearing on the overall plot of The Iron Fey.  I enjoyed it, but also felt like maybe Julie Kagawa tried to shove too epic of a plot into too short of a page length.  Also, I have to say, I’m a little confused by the Meghan/Ash relationship.  And by confused I mean I don’t like it.  I get the attraction on Ash’s part, Meghan is pretty, clever, brave, and likely the first completely unique chick he’s met in centuries.  He’s warring with his feelings, and that’s fair given she’s all taboo and what not.  I don’t get Meghan’s feelings.  Sure, she acknowledges that Ash is hot, but considering he tried to murder her the first time they met, threatened to murder her the second, tried to murder her best friend and force her into captivity the third, and is clearly ashamed of the way he feels about her, I just don’t get it!  It’s not exactly insta-love, but it does happen way too fast for there to be any depth, and I’m more or less ambivalent about the whole thing (that and I like/pity Puck).

I realize this totally became my platform for discussing romance in The Iron Fey, but what’re you gonna do?  I’m just gonna say, Winter’s Passage was a nice quick read, but I could really take it or leave it as far as the series goes.  Cheers!

Roundup: 
Check out Alyssa’s review of Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr at Books Take You Places
AND Anna's review of The Lepidoctor by Mick Jackson at Pocketful of Books!

Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Iron King [Amazon|GoodReads]
Author: Julie Kagawa [Website|Twitter|Facebook]
Standing: The Iron Fey #1
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: February 1st, 2010 by Harlequin Teen
Format: Kindle edition; 363 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Meghan has never really fit in--she’s the poor country girl at school, and her only real friend is Robbie, her poor country neighbor.  However, she realizes as she nears her 16th birthday, that there is more to it than not having the right clothes or money.  Her 4-year-old brother, Ethan, is constantly claiming to see monsters, and now Meghan thinks it might be more than childhood fear.  She’s seeing things too, and when Ethan is replaced with a changeling she gets Robbie to reveal some truths about the world of the fey.  He agrees to take her there and to assist her in retrieving her brother, but navigating Fairyland proves to be much more dangerous and full of truths than Meghan might be ready for.

It was inevitable when I picked up The Iron Fey, that I was going to compare it to Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely.  So please indulge me while I do so for a paragraph (you can skip it, you don’t have to tell me).  Going in, I have to admit I was worried that the series would be too similar, or that I just wouldn’t like this one as much.  Luckily, they were different enough I don’t feel as if I’ll be constantly comparing them (you know, other than this paragraph), and I did really like this first novel in The Iron Fey.  Where Wicked Lovely is written as more urban fantasy, I would categorize The Iron Fey as strait up fantasy with a contemporary setting.  The Iron Fey is less dark, but still presents the fey as creepy, mischievous, potentially scary, and was slightly more traditional in its lore.  It kind of felt like it was written for a slightly younger audience than Wicked Lovely, and followed a few more YA tropes, but I found The Iron Fey to be original, well written, and completely engrossing.  What sucked me in?  This paragraph here:

I hadn’t even touched the keys when the computer screen blipped on.  When I paused, my fingers hovering over the board, words began to scroll across the blue screen.  Meghan Chase.  We see you.  We’re coming for you.  I froze.  The words continued, those three sentences, over and over.  Meghan Chase.  We see you.  We’re coming for you.  Megan Chase we see you we’re coming for you.  Meghan Chase we see you we’re coming for you...over and over until it completely filled the screen.

Thereafter, the series has almost an Alice in Wonderland meets Labyrinth sort of feel, but you know, in a good way (I despise Alice in Wonderland, sorry world--but I love me some Labyrinth).  There’s even a dopey Ludo-like character at one point!  When Meghan’s brother is stolen (unfortunately, not by David Bowie) and replaced with a changeling, she’s determined to get him back.  Now, usually, when our innocent heroine encounters Fairyland and it’s rules, I groan.  Because most young ladies upon contact with fairies don’t listen to any of the rules and end up in trouble.  Not Meghan!!  Meghan, dear friends, is smart.  She may not know everything, or get everything 100% (because that would be boring and unrealistic), but she does listen.  She’s clever enough to not repeatedly make mistakes with the fey, and even to bargain with them intelligently.  This made me love her.  She was vulnerable and naive, but that doesn’t mean she’s stupid.  She doesn’t start out tough, but we are able to see her grow and strengthen throughout the course of her journey.
Now, there wasn’t an in-your-face love triangle in The Iron King, but you can see it coming like a mack truck.  I like that I honestly can’t predict which way the romance will go, and that makes reading yet another series with this trope doable.  Of course, I know what way I want it to go, but that’s besides the point...Additionally, I really enjoyed the entire cast.  Every character and creature was excellently described and well-written, and my favorite, by far, was the cat Grimalken.  For anyone who loves the Cheshire Cat in Alice and Wonderland, or enjoys the superiority complex of cats in general, Grimalken is the cat for you.
Finally, I loved the lore presented in this series.  It’s fairly traditional with Mab, Oberon, Titania, faery rules, etc, but there were twists that made the story both current and original.  I don’t want to say too much and give anything away (I can spoil this one in future reviews, right?), but I will say that when everything clicked into place I was enthusiastically surprised.  
Likelihood that I'll be back for more: Already checked out Winter’s Passage and The Iron Daughter!  
Recommended for:  Fans of Alice in Wonderland, Labyrinth, and Wicked Lovely, or anyone who enjoys fantasy and is looking for an interesting twist on Celtic mythology.
Real life repercussions of reading this book: Totes watching Labyrinth.  You’re welcome readers!

Get a second opinion:

Hobbitsies

Paranormal Indulgence

Chachic's Book Nook
Book Labyrinth
Good Books and Good Wine
Chicks Love Lit

Review: A Flight of Angels conceived and illustrated by Rebecca Guay

Title: A Flight of Angels  [Amazon|GoodReads]
Authors: Holly Black, Louise Hawes, Todd Mitchell, Alisa Kwitney, Bill Willingham
Illustrator: Rebecca Guay
Standing: Stand alone novel.
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy
Published: November 8th, 2011 by DC Comics
Format: Hardcover; 128 pages.  
Source: Borrowed from my local library.

Occasionally, there are battles in the sky.  One likes to imagine angels as always triumphant.  One does not like to think of the ancient and terrible scales balancing the infernal and divine as a wobbling back and forth.  Tilting freely to and fro.  

One does not like to think that sometimes it is the angel that falls.

An angel falls to ground, grievously injured and unconscious in the land of the fairies.  A lord, a maid, a hag, and a trickster sit tribunal over his fate, with a boy as judge.  Their goal is to determine what to do with the angel--to help him, to kill him, or to let him be.  Each member of the group tells a tale they know of angels, a tale they feel reveals the creature’s nature and will influence the tribunal’s outcome.

A Flight of Angels, conceived and illustrated by Rebecca Guay, is one of the most hauntingly beautiful graphic novels I have encountered to date.  Perfect for readers looking to enter or ease into the genre, the story is captured in one compact volume composed using the work of well-known young adult and graphic authors.  Holly Black has written the frame story of the fae creatures determining the angels fate, and each author tells a tale of angels therein.  In one short and breathtaking novel, questions of incredible depth and complexity are asked such as what it means to live, the value of a soul, and how do humans balance their animal instincts and angelic natures?  Heartbreaking at times, and very fist-pumpy girl power at others, A Flight of Angels is a graphic novel for any fantasy fan.  The illustrations were astoundingly gorgeous, Rebecca Guay (who’s illustrated for authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin) has a style not often seen in the graphic universe, and I for one could not get enough of it.

Likelihood that I'll be back for more: YES PLEASE do more of this collaboration goodness!

Recommended for:  Fans of fantasy graphic novels, and fantasy fans who’d be willing to try a graphic novel--this is a total gateway book!

Real life repercussions of reading this book: Um...so...I know that Laini Taylor’s totally awesome husband does amazeballs illustrations, and I love them, but Raziel from the first story of this book has totally taken over as my mental image of Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  Can you say sexy angel crush?

Series Review: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

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! 

Waiting on Wednesday: Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Dangerous promises and beguiling threats swirl together in a dozen stories of enchantments, dark and light, by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr. Uncanny and unexpected creatures appear from behind bushes, rise from under the seas, or manifest from seasonal storms to pursue the objects of their attention—with amorous or sinister intent—relentlessly.

From the gentle tones of a story-teller’s cadences to the terror of a blood sacrifice, tales of favorite characters from Marr’s Wicked Lovely novels mix with accounts of new characters for readers to fall in love with . . . or to fear.

Lush, seductive, and chilling, Melissa Marr’s stories revel in the unseen magic that infuses the world as we know it.

Faery Tales and Nightmares, one of my most anticipated reads of 2012 is coming out in just three weeks and I am so excited for some more Melissa Marr!   She got me all ramped up for it last week with this post wherein she stated:

Notes in reply to questions: Yes, there is a story about Seth after the end of DARKEST MERCY. Yes, there is a Keenan/Donia story. Yes, "Stopping Time" & "Old Habits" (Dark Court stories) & "Cotton Candy Skies" (Shadow Court story) are all in there. So are the story that started the series "The Sleeping Girl & The Summer King," a vampire story, a selchie story, and a handful of others. 

So not only do we get more of our Wicked Lovely favorites (I'm particularly excited for "Cotton Candy Skies"), we get sechies?!  Omg want now.  What are you waiting on?