" 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. "
What I have to say about it:
I read the back of this book again after reading The Iron Fey series and had a little sit down with myself. I promised myself that I wouldn't let my love for The Iron Fey series interact at all with my reading of this book. I think I succeeded, actually, which is a good thing.
The cast of characters is strikingly similar to The Iron Fey. We have Oberon/Auberon, Mab/Mabh, Titania (less so in Wondrous Strange), and Puck! We also have the daughter of Oberon/Auberon, who is the main character in both series. But really, I feel like that's where the similarities end. I felt like Wondrous Strange was a little...dull? Predictable? Everything was so rote, so emotionless, that I couldn't really connect with the characters. I get that books love the whole "soul mate" thing, but the love story in this didn't move me at all. I like Kelley well enough, but her love interest is less interesting than I would like and the relationship is beyond sudden. "Hey you keep showing up wherever I am, creepy" to "I LOVE YOU!" There's a lot of room in this book for emotional exploration and character growth, but the author doesn't take advantage of it.
Final thoughts? If you're going to read a fey book, don't bother with this one. There are plently of good fey books, The Iron Fey and the Wicked Lovely series to name a few. But Wondrous Strange came off as dull and utterly flat to me.
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