Lost in a Good Book

Published:  July 1st 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 328
Format: Book
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
★   ★   ★   – 3 Stars

Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty – especially if they learn of her Sight – and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries.
Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention.
But it’s too late. Keenan is the Summer King, who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost — regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything

Having just finished the final book of this series I feel it unfair to expose you to the final book without giving you the history. You can certainly tell my reaction to a book by my reviews I have discovered: some are straight to the point, some are detailed and have more information. And then there are the poor ones that get a thrashing when they do something that displeases me. They are the fun ones, though praised books are also exciting to write. This one is one of the simpler ones. A version of this review is from goodreads on August 12 2012, so you can see how long it’s taken me to get through this series. Not through any real fault of their own, other books popped in in-between, or unfortunately some in the series just didn’t make me want to jump into reading the next one right away. But we will get to those ones later. This is book one.

The story focuses around Aislinn and her grandmother and the fact that Aislinn can see things no one else can: faeries. Aislinn has been brought up to fear faeries and to never let on that you can see them. This fear and constant control is tested when a faerie called Keenan takes an interest in Aislinn. I liked this book. It was different for its genre but very much the same as well. I have discovered as I read these faery books that there are rules and guidelines that are pretty much always followed. This makes them better I feel and adds that extra element of truth and consistence which is nice. Marr’s writing style is not one that offers up answers willingly. There are unanswered questions that get revealed to a point as needed and by the end you have it pretty figured out but without the long history explanation of who, what, when, where and why. Being the first of a series the answer may be coming in greater detail down the line, probably in a very similar manner.

What was good about this story was the characters. They were real and refreshing and after you get into the story Aislinn is a good main player, very strong and determined which makes this story a bit different than what I was expecting but exactly what I was hoping. Her history with the faeries and the life she lives turns the tables on this story and where it is supposed to go. You find yourself on Aislinn’s side for some time, but then Marr has a way of making you see all sides before making any conclusions. There is not a promise of complete understanding, but you do understand, even if you see the manipulation and torment.

There is no action action if you like in this book but there is mini suspense as you try and figure out every ones plan and position. Marr writes about the internal thought process well, and the fact she offers this to many characters makes the entire situation fuller. You get every one’s sides and almost every one’s intentions as her ability to share only goes as far as it must for the time being. Overall it was a good read and I am hoping the next one helps add that little extra on top and is just as entertaining because you can see this is going to develop throughout rather than in one go.