Darkest Mercy

Description: The Summer King is missing; the Dark Court is bleeding; and a stranger walks the streets of Huntsdale, his presence signifying the deaths of powerful fey. 

Aislinn tends to the Summer Court, searching for her absent king and yearning for Seth. Torn between his new queen and his old love, Keenan works from afar to strengthen his court against the coming war. Donia longs for fiery passion even as she coolly readies the Winter Court for battle. And Seth, sworn brother of the Dark King and heir to the High Queen, is about to make a mistake that could cost his life.

Love, despair, and betrayal ignite the Faery Courts, and in the final conflict, some will win . . . and some will lose "everything."

The thrilling conclusion to Melissa Marr's "New York Times" bestselling Wicked Lovely series will leave readers breathless.

My thoughts: I have been avoiding this book like the plague. This is my favorite series, so of course I didn’t want it to end. But I thought, it’ll be 2013 and I still wouldn’t have read this book. So, I begrudgingly started this book. And like I’d predicted, I couldn’t stop once I started. I wanted to savor reading this last book, but it was just so good that I'd finished it before I knew it I was over. My mother now thinks there is something wrong with me because I would be happy and then sad two seconds later for those two days it took to read it.

As far as what actually happened in the book, all of the loose ends were tied. The war came to a head, and some surprises were sprinkled all throughout the book. Besides wanting to know more about Ash and who she choose in the end (their future) and wanting to know how Devlin and Ani were doing (because I’m selfish like that), I was satisfied with just about everything that happened. I just wish this series could last forever. But there’s nothing wrong with going back over the series.

How I felt during this book:

Which means I was two parts sad, two parts happy/excited throughout the whole book.

Radiant Shadows review

Description:

Hunger for nourishment.
Hunger for touch.
Hunger to belong.
Half-human and half-faery, Ani is driven by her hungers.
Those same appetites also attract powerful enemies and uncertain allies, including Devlin. He was created as an assassin and is brother to the faeries' coolly logical High Queen and to her chaotic twin, the embodiment of War. Devlin wants to keep Ani safe from his sisters, knowing that if he fails, he will be the instrument of Ani's death.
Ani isn't one to be guarded while others fight battles for her, though. She has the courage to protect herself and the ability to alter Devlin's plans—and his life. The two are drawn together, each with reason to fear the other and to fear for one another. But as they grow closer, a larger threat imperils the whole of Faerie. Will saving the faery realm mean losing each other?
Alluring romance, heart-stopping danger, and sinister intrigue combine in the penultimate volume of Melissa Marr's New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series.

My Thoughts: First off, I figured I’d love this book because the Wicked Lovely series is one of my favorites. I can now say that besides the 1st book, Radiant Shadows is my favorite. I slipped back into Marr’s written world as soon as I started the first chapter. Despite me initially thinking that this was another side story, I became invested in Ani and Devlin’s story almost as much as Ash and Seth (not quite but almost). It also helped that the book was packed with multiple characters from the dark court like Niall (yum), Irial, and Gabriel. Out of all the courts, the Dark court is my favorite. Plus, Melissa Marr seems to flourish when writing about this court because, well, her writing seems most addictive when she’s dark.

I always love the full spectrum of emotions she writes about in every novel, but I especially like her description of balance and equality, or shadow and light (or radiance), and order and disorder. Thanks to the examples of balance, I have stopped calling this book and book 2 “side” stories. Each book has had its side and angle of one huge story.

This world was so fascinating; it drew my imagination in and left me with Radiant Shadows redraw. With no new book out for a while, I’m stuck wishing I had a steed and was a part of Niall’s hounds, riding across the earth like shadows. No wonder Wicked Lovely’s shadows shine so radiantly.

Book Teaser

Ani wasn't sure if his words were truth. Faeries couldn't lie, but belief was a tricky thing. If Irial believed the words, they were utterable , and he did believe that her blood was the solution they needed to save the Dark Court.

So Hard to Say Goodbye... to these Series

Although I am excited to read any book from these three sets of series, I’m also sad because it’ll be the end of most of my favorite books. Besides 1 or 2 other series that still have a few books left in them, these three are my favorite *tear*.

Hunger Games Trilogy:
I’m going to miss the excellent plotting, and strong characters that seemed to stand for something bigger than themselves.

Wicked Lovely:
Melissa seemed to know just how to make every single character enjoyable in their own right, especially Niall and Seth (excuse me as I shudder). Her writing made it that everything happened for a reason. Everything was intricately tied together.

Vampire Academy:

Aww. I’m going to miss Rose the most. The relationships were the best part of this series.

Mortal Instruments: OK. I don’t know for sure if this next one will be the last one but the first 3 felt like a series by itself, so I’m mourning for the end of the story in the first 3 books. I love Shadowhunters, I love Jace, and I love these books!

Wicked Lovely Review

From The Washington Post: Melissa Marr adds elegantly to the sub-genre of Urban Faery with this enticing, well-researched fantasy for teens. Wicked Lovely takes place in modern-day Huntsdale, a small city south of Pittsburgh whose name evokes the Wild Hunt of mythology. High school junior Aislinn and her grandmother have followed strict rules all their lives to hide their ability to see faeries because faeries don't like it when mortals can see them, and faeries can be very cruel. Only the strongest faeries can withstand iron, however, so Aislinn prefers the city with its steel girders and bridges. She takes refuge with Seth, her would-be lover, who lives in a set of old train carriages.
But now Aislinn is being stalked by two of the faeries who are able to take on human form and are not deterred by steel. What do they want from her?
One is Keenan, the Summer King, who has been looking for his Queen for nine centuries, bound by the rules and rituals that govern his quest. The other is Donia, a victim of those rules, consigned to the role of Winter Girl when she failed Keenan's test, yet still in love with him. Certain that Aislinn is the woman he must marry, Keenan shows up as a charismatic new student at her high school, unaware that she sees his true form. He's determined to court her and is puzzled by her rebuffs. Suddenly, none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe is working anymore, but things aren't going as Keenan expects either. Both will have to change, make startling compromises and enlist surprising allies if they want to break free from the wicked game that has ensnared them.
Their greatest challenge will be to avoid the fatal traps laid by Keenan's mother, the Winter Queen. She will lose her power if Keenan finds his mate, and she will do anything to stop this. Unfortunately, she's a little too over the top to be totally threatening, a campy version of Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen -- part Disney witch, part Endora in "Bewitched." But this didn't stop me from devouring the book.
Marr creates a fully realized world that conveys the details and the politics of faery life. The suspense remains taut, as the point of view shifts between Aislinn, Keenan and Donia, allowing the reader to develop sympathy for all of them. Marr's lyrical language and sensual imagery capture both the confused emotions and the physicality of adolescence.
The romantic scenes are delicious. The fantasy of being pursued by two young men is alluring in itself, but when one is a pierced and tattooed sexy outsider and the other is a blindingly beautiful King of Faery, how much better can it get? Halfway through the book, I knew which characters I wanted to end up together, and that made me read greedily on. Readers will beg for a sequel.

My thoughts: As far as couples go in this book, everybody ended up with exactly who I thought they would end up with. I'm excited about that because it so rarely happens. Most of the time where there is a love triangle, the person the main character chooses is almost never the guy I want her to end up with. This book gets extra brownie points for that lol. When there is a love triangle, there is normally a "good" guy and a "bad" guy. I loved that both of the men were kind of both good and bad (though if you had to choose you could definitely categorize one as bad and one as good). I also liked Aislinn because I felt she was more head strong then a lot of other main characters in other books (in a good way). Aislinn always knew what she wanted, she just didn't know how to get it until the end of the story. This was a very good read. I'll start reading the 2nd book as soon as the library tells me the book is in. I rate this an A