Review – Darklight (Wondrous Strange, Book 2) by Lesley Livingston (3/5 stars)

This is the second book in the Wondrous Strange series. There are supposed to be three books total in this series. I liked this book a bit better than the first one; but it still wasn’t anything extraordinary. You definitely need to read the first book, Wondrous Strange, to follow what happens in this book.

Kelley is trying to get on with her life as an actress in New York. Sonny is off in fairyland eliminating the Hunt one by one. They miss each other horribly. Kelley feels a need to take a walk through Central Park and is mugged by a man there. Ends up the man is a Leprechaun and he is after Kelley with a vengeance. In an attempt to save herself and Fennrys (one of the Janus guard) from a brutal attack, Kelley pulls them into fairyland. Once in Fairyland she faces a hoard of fairy politics and other fairy problems; one of which is Sonny himself.

There were some good things about this book. You get to learn more about the fairy world and meet a few more crazy fairy creatures. There is a lot of action and also a lot of romance between Kelley and Sonny. The story holds a couple interesting surprises for the readers and is relatively well put together. It is a quick read and an easy read.

There were also a lot of things that bothered me about the story. Sonny is kind of a jerk to Kelley, and she is kind of a jerk back. Still they are forever in love, and I still haven’t figured out why. The strongest character in this book was Fennrys, then halfway through the story he disappears, only to reappear at the end. Most of the side characters are a far sight more interesting than Kelley and Sonny, and it is kind of a bummer that the story focuses on them. There are a lot of fight scenes but, as in the first book, they are missing something. None of the fight scenes seem to have the sense of urgency or action to them that you would expect. In general the story itself doesn’t have much urgency. In fact I was hard-pressed to figure out why these evil Leprechauns were taking center stage in this story to begin with.

Overall, I got through the book and it was okay. It just left a lot to be desired in the areas of characterization, plot development, and action scenes. I was hoping this series would get better after the first book, but it hasn’t. So, I guess, if you liked the first book a lot then you will like this one because they are similar in style. I will probably read the last book in the trilogy for some closure, but after that I don’t think I will be picking up anymore of Livingston’s books. If you are interested in book with a similar subject but stellar character development I would check out Holly Black’s Modern Fairy Tale.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– The Young Adult Reading Challenge
– The 100+ Book Reading Challenge