Book Review: Wondrous Strange

Wondrous Strange (Wondrous Strange #1)

By: Lesley Livingston

Published By: HarperTeen

Publication Date: December 2008

Page Count: 328

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: Purchased by Reviewer

Audience: Young Adult - Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

I ADORED this book!  

An impressively written story about faeries and a teenage aspiring actress set in New York City, and revolving around Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream.  

Wondrous Strange was my first 'faerie' book.  I had to admit I might have rolled my eyes at first... thinking Tinkerbell.  I'm glad that I still gave it a try because it turned out to be all kinds of awesome and served to peak my interest into the whole faerie genre!

I adored the main character/heroine, Kelley Winslow. She's a feisty and passionate 17 year old girl playing an understudy and stagehand in an off-off Broadway production of A Midsummer's Night Dream.  Due to a mishap suffered by the star of the production, Kelley is about to experience the big break she's been looking for by being elevated to the lead role of Titania.  

Kelley is not a weak character at all. Through a strange and seemingly inexplicable series of events, she eventually learns that her life should have been quite different.  As the revelations come to pass, her reactions were understandable, and at times, quite comical.  This girl is not without a strong sense of humour.  

The journey we take with Kelley, as she learns and tries to accept what she really is, is full of wonderful adventure and great imagery.  The author paints her scenes amazingly well through her words.  

And Sonny... oh my dear Sonny... *sigh*  To say how wonderfully charming and fiercely protective he can be is an understatement.  And to say I have a big crush on him would also be an understatement!  Coming from a different realm, sort of makes him appear old-fashioned but it is in the most swoon-worthy way.  Sonny is totally enraptured by this firecracker of a girl practicing lines in a remote corner of Central Park, and that sets the stage for an incredibly sweet love story.  

Fate seems to have a lot in store for these two... and none of it seems to be coincidental. Their love story develops slowly, which works very well and makes it more believable. 

The complimentary cast of characters were all awesome. The ones that stood out for me were Bob, Herne, Tyff, Maddox, Jack and Lucky -- yes... Lucky is a horse -- who wouldn't want a horse comfortably living in their bathtub??!

And what a bittersweet ending! It left me dying to get to the next book, Darklight, and find out how Kelley & Sonny's future unfolds further.  Absolutely loved this debut book by Lesley Livingston, who has since turned out to be one of my favourite authors (and a fellow Canadian, I might add!)

Summary:

Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken. . . . 

For seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow, faeries are just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery, whose steel-gray eyes mask an equally steely determination to protect her. 

Sonny guards the Samhain Gate, which connects the mortal realm with the Faerie's enchanted, dangerous Otherworld. Usually kept shut by order of icy King Auberon, the Gate stands open but once a year. 

This year, as the time approaches when the Samhain Gate will swing wide and nightmarish Fae will fight their way into an unsuspecting human world, something different is happening . . . something wondrous and strange. And Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her but to the heritage that awaits her. 

Now Kelley must navigate deadly Faerie treachery—and her growing feelings for Sonny—in this dazzling page-turner filled with luminous romance. 

Wondrous Strange is a richly layered tale of love between faerie and mortal, betrayal between kings and queens, and magic . . . between author and reader.