7
Jun282010
‘YA-10′ BOOK REVIEW: Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
by Carolyn • Posted in 10 Fun Days of Young Adult Fiction, 4 Star Reviews, Book Reviews, Fantasy, Melissa Marr, Young Adult
Title: Radiant Shadows
Author: Melissa Marr
Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s Books (US)
Publication Date: 29 April 2010
Hardback: 352 pages
Genre: Fantasy/Faery
Young Adult
RATING: 8/10
BACK COVER SUMMARY:
Melissa Marr’s New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series continues with the fourth – and penultimate – instalment in the darkly seductive story about the collision of the mortal and faery worlds…The events of FRAGILE ETERNITY have left the faery world off-balance, its key players fighting to maintain control over their world – and its secrets…
Devlin lives in a world where everything is beautiful, ordered… and cruel. As a prominent member of the High Court and half-brother to Sorcha, the High Queen, he’s one of the most powerful faeries of the old guard. Ani lives in a world where every line is blurred. Half human, half faery, half in the dedadence of the Dark Court and half out of it, her life of dive bars, tattoos and street fights couldn’t be farther from the clean lines of the High Court.
But you can’t choose where your heart will take you, and when Devlin and Ani meet, two extremes of the faery world collide – with passion, violence and heat; for better – and for worse…
REVIEW:
Radiant Shadows is the fourth book in Melissa Marr’s ‘Wicked Lovely’ series. It begins where ‘Fragile Eternity’ left off. However, while Seth features as quite a main character, the story is no longer about Aishlin and the summer court.
The book is about Ani and Devlin, we’ve met them in previous books but as relatively minor characters.
Ani is Rabbit the tattooist’s half sister, and daughter of Gabriel, leader of the hunt. She is a member of the dark court and halfling: half human and half hound.
By contrast, Devlin is half brother-son to the High Queen Sorcha and Queen of War Bananach, created jointly by them and not born. He is a powerful member of the High Court. Known as the Queen’s Bloodied Hands. He is ordered, disciplined and importantly, Sorcha’s obedient servant.
Devlin first met Ani when she was just a child. When he was ordered to kill her. And for the first time in centuries of obedience he disobeyed a direct order and spared Ani’s life. Hiding her survival from his Queen.
Since the events of the last book Sorcha is no longer herself and her imbalance begins to seriously impact the world of faery. Reason appears to have departed from the Queen of Reason and Bananach glorifies in this advantage and her dark malevolence spreads. This book has some important developments for the faery world as all courts struggle to avoid the sinister plottings of the Queen of War, which has some far reaching affects. But primarily it is a love story between Ani and Devlin.
As the book begins, Devlin has not seen Ani in the years since he spared her life. But, sent on a mission to protect Seth by his unbalanced Queen he encounters her in a club. The chemistry between them is tangible, and while Ani has no idea who Devlin is, he’s never really understood why he saved Ani and is inexplicably drawn to her.
In my opinion, this is by far the best book in the series. I sat down one evening to make a start and before I knew it I’d read 175 pages. Melissa Marr has a beautiful and captivating writing style. She draws the vision of her characters and worlds which sucks you in brilliantly.
On the surface of things the love story between Ani and Devlin could easily have not worked. It’s not largely mentioned, but Ani is very much a young adult at 16, while Devlin’s significantly older than her. Yet as the story progresses they both go on what I would class as a ‘young adult’ journey.
Being a halfling, Ani is frustrated with being pushed to the outskirts of the faery. Yet having the power to feed on the emotions & touch of both mortals and faery, her power is unheard of and it becomes quite clear she is no mere halfling. Because of this Ani is confined and protected by her father and the dark court and she chafes at the restrictions. She is desperate to prove to them all that she is a woman and no longer a child and can look after herself. While Devlin is struggling to escape the controlling influence of his sisters. Learning that he can have his own sense of identity and his own relationships while remaining true to himself.
I really like Ani and Devlin as a couple as they were so different. Fate obviously plays an important part in their lives, it is clear as all the threads begin to close that from the very beginning they were meant to be together.
As the book reaches its climax there is a big twist. However, for me it wasn’t entirely unexpected, and I wondered from about a third of a way in if something similar would happen. But it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of it at all.
This book really was superb and I could barely put it down, but I do have a couple of criticisms.
I would of liked to have seen a flashback to the time that Devlin spared Ani’s life to fully understand the reason for that decision and what he was feeling at the time, it felt to me liked it lacked some explanation.
Additionally, having read the previous three books, I found it a touch frustrating that while Seth was an important character in the book, and some events happen that will change his life at least for the moment, irrevocably, there was virtually no mention of the love triangle that had me so hooked in previously.
VERDICT:
This is a fantastic fourth instalment to the ‘Wicked Lovey’ series, and the best so far. Marr has cleverly interwoven the plots of the each of the books as the series builds to its sinister conclusion.
Technically if you haven’t read the first three books in this series you could read this as a stand alone novel, but my recommendation would be to read them first in order to fully enjoy the depth of the story.
I am very much looking forward to discovering what happens next, but I do hope that Seth and Aislin take the helm once more.
SOURCE: Thank you to Harper Collins US & MM Publicity for sending this book for review.
••••••••••••••••••••••
You can find out more about the author here:
7 Comments
great review as always….i havent read any from the wickd lovely series but thinking i should start now
The Blog
Reply
Still haven't tried the series, although they're on my tbr list for some time now! Thanks for the review!
Reply
It did flashback to Devlin sparing Ani's life. It was the little halfling that he was ordered to kill by Sorcha in the beginning but he hid them instead.
Reply
@Ayesha thank you, it is a good series I'd recommend it.
@Aleksandra you're welcome. Worth a read when you get some time.
@Somany books thanks for your comment. If I remember correctly there are two flashback scenes at the beginning of the book. 1) when Rae comes into faery and 2)when Sorcha orders Devlin to kill Ani. There is an explanation later in the story as to how he hid them instead, but I don't believe there is an actual flashback where the reader lives the experience with him. Please do correct me if I'm wrong, maybe my brain is addled, happy to eat my words
Reply
This sounds like a fun, faery book – I'm not usually interested in reading books a bout faery's, much prefer vamps, werewolves and demons, but this does sound like a good series. Maybe I will give it a go, starting at the beginning of course – I'm glad you liked the book Laura, thanks for the review, fab as always!
Reply
I have Wicked Lovely and haven't delved into it yet. Glad to hear that the series is engaging and gets better with every book
~Felicia @ Geeky Bloggers Book Blog
Reply
@BookChickCity thanks Carolyn
yes this is a good series. The second book is my least favourite but the author really cleverly pulls the threads together between the different books.
@Felicia yes the series definitely gets better. Enjoy
Reply