Review - Darklight

Darklight (Wondrous Strange #2)
by Lesley Livingston
Date: 2009
Publisher: HarperTeen
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 310
Format: paperback
Source: Indigo

Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt.

Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the remaining Hunters and Queen Mabh herself.

When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring, and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom... or tear them apart.

With breathtakingly high stakes, the talented Lesley Livingston delivers soaring romance and vividly magical characters in Darklight, the second novel in the trilogy that began with Wondrous Strange.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I know I usually start off my reviews with a quick summary of the story, but this time I'm truly at a loss. And that's not a good thing.

I enjoyed Wondrous Strange enough to want to search out the sequel. Unfortunately, Darklight falls victim to the second-book curse. The writing is fairly good, but the plot is sorely lacking. I was more than halfway through the book when I realized that I had no idea what the plot was. After finishing the book, I'm still not sure. It seems to be a series of seemingly unrelated incidents that lead up to a major revelation about one of the characters and a cliffhanger ending.

Fans of the series will want to find out what happens next, of course. I'm going to be on the lookout for the next book so I can find out what happens to Kelley and Sonny. But I wasn't impressed with this part of the trilogy. I'm sure what happened in Darklight will turn out to be an important and integral part of the story... but at the moment it's left me unsatisfied and a little frustrated.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Originality: 3/5

Overall: 3 out of 5

In My Mailbox (9)

I actually went to the bookstore this week! It's been a while. I found two books: Darklight (it seemed everybody else was getting it, and I was feeling a little left out) and Ella Minnow Pea (because it was $2 for the hardcover, and I couldn't pass that up).

Darklight
by Lesley Livingston

Faerie can't lie . . . or can they?

Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was a Faerie princess, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved the mortal realm from the ravages of the Wild Hunt. Now Kelley is stuck in New York City, rehearsing Romeo and Juliet and missing Sonny more with every stage kiss, while Sonny has been forced back to the Otherworld and into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the remaining Hunters and Queen Mabh herself.

When a terrifying encounter sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful but destined to be cut short. An ancient, hidden magick is stirring, and a dangerous new enemy is willing to risk everything to claim that power. Caught in a web of Faerie deception and shifting allegiances, Kelley and Sonny must tread carefully, for each next step could topple a kingdom . . . or tear them apart.

With breathtakingly high stakes, the talented Lesley Livingston delivers soaring romance and vividly magical characters in darklight, the second novel in the trilogy that began with Wondrous Strange.


Ella Minnow Pea
by Mark Dunn

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.

*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet


What was in your "mailbox" this week?



In My Mailbox was started by Kristi of The Story Siren.

Monday's Question of the Day (12)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: What book cover stands out in your mind as the prettiest?

My Answer: I don't think I could choose the prettiest of them all; there are a lot of pretty covers out there. The covers for Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse are very pretty. So are the covers for Blue Moon and Shadowland by Alyson Noël. (If you truly could judge a book by its cover, I might've had a better opinion of what was between those pretty covers!)

Two covers that I think are very pretty are those for Wondrous Strange and Darklight:

"Waiting On" Wednesday (2)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Today I heard some exciting news. Amazon has finally decided to release the Kindle to international customers! So I went to the site to have a look. Then I saw this little box that looked kind of important:


So I entered my country, to see what the "important information" was. Here's what I got:


WTF?! You're telling me that, if I lived in Lesotho, I could order a Kindle and start reading books in 30 seconds, but because I live in Canada I still can't buy a Kindle? Oh, well. I guess I shouldn't feel too badly. People in Afghanistan, Guinea, and Lebanon can't get the Kindle, either.

I have a feeling this has something to do with the CRTC. Anyway... I guess this Wednesday I'm waiting on this:

I'm also waiting on this:


I'm enjoying Wondrous Strange right now. As long as the story doesn't completely tank in the second half of the book, I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to read this sequel.