Another tale from the Wicked Lovely universe, exploring offshoot characters. Not bad, but not as engrossing as the full length stories are. ( )

It felt good to revisit the Wicked Lovely world through this companion book. I spent a good time reading it. ( )

This book was a great addition for fans of Wicked Lovely, like myself.

I mean, it was extremely cheesy, the romance was just... eh, but it was fun and it reminded me of how much I love Wicked Lovely. It was also really cool to have a story about this character that I remember hearing about all the time in the series, but never met.

Also, I totally ship Rika and Sionnach. :) ( )

I did really enjoy this companion novel. Perhaps not as much as the books that were within the original series, but it was a very cool side story to find out what happened to one of the other girls who attempted Keenan's test and failed. And while I really enjoyed Rika and Jayce together, I was happy with how the story turned out as well. Not what you might have expected, but a good ending for all. I do recommend this book for anyone who enjoyed the Wicked Lovely series. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: With cute romance, great drama, and an intriguing plot this is sure to be a hit for both fans of the Wicked Lovely series and those that are new to the series like me.

Opening Sentence: Trusting Keenan had been the mistake that informed Rika’s entire life, a mistake that had cost her both her humanity and her happiness.

The Review:

Rika was a lovely, sweet mortal girl that fell in love with the wrong person and it cost her everything. The Summer King tricked her and made her believe that he loved her, but in all reality he was just looking to break a terrible curse that was laid upon him by the winter queen. Rika took a test to see if she was the mortal girl that could break the curse, but she failed and was left as the snow queen for years until someone else took her burden. Eventually she was released from being the snow queen, but she was still a fey. To get away from all the politics of the two courts and finally feel warmth again she takes off to live a solitary life in the desert.

The desert fae mostly stick to themselves and Rika has had no problem staying away from most of her kind. The only fae she would consider to be a friend is the sly fox faerie named Sionnach, He is currently the Alpha of the desert faeries and one of the only faeries Rika has learned to trust. For years Rika has been content with her life, but she has recently taken an interest in a mortal boy named Jayce. He is an artist and Rika finds herself falling in love with him, even though she has never even talked to him. Then she gets a visit from the dreaded Summer King demanding she swear fealty to him and to get all of the desert faeries to do so as well. Soon Rika is thrown into a world she thought she left behind. But if she wants to protect the mortal boy she has come to care for she will have to come out of her shell and fight to protect not only him but the desert faeries as well.

Rika is a very interesting character and her story was pretty heart breaking. She has spent years trying to recover from the life she lived, and the heart break she felt when the Summer King rejected her. She is a shy, reserved person, and opening herself up to others is really hard for her. For the most part she has completely avoided all relationships because she is so afraid of getting hurt again. It was interesting to watch her story unfold and to see her finally become the person she was always meant to be. I loved watching her grow as a character and learn that there is a lot more to life then she originally thought. She was a very easy character to connect with and I enjoyed reading her story.

Jayce is a cute guy that was a little too easy going for my tastes. He is the artistry type and when I imagine him in my head he kind of looks like a hippy. He loves to draw, rock climb, and spend time with his friends. Upon meeting Rika he fell for her way faster then I liked, but their relationship was still sweet. He treats Rika well and in many ways he forces her to break out of her shell, but I just didn’t really feel the chemistry between them. Jayce was a nice enough guy, I just thought he was a little boring.

Sionnach was a much more interesting character. He is a fox faerie so being sly is a big part of his nature. Like most faeries he is very good looking and at first you think he is kind of a jerk, but as the story developed I completely fell in love with him. He has spent years caring about Rika, but he knew she was in no way ready to be with someone like him. So in many ways he tricked her into starting a relationship with Jayce because he knew that would make her happy. The fact that he was willing to let her be with someone else even though he cared about her was very swoon worthy to me. Of course he isn’t perfect and the way he does things isn’t always the best. But deep down he is a good guy and I loved him!

Desert Tales was a cute, quick story with romance, faerie politics and adventure. This is a companion novel to the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr and I personally have not read that series yet. But I in no way felt lost or confused while reading Desert Tales, it stood on its own perfectly fine. Since I haven’t read the series I can’t really tell you if it spoils anything from the previous books, but nothing stood out to me as a spoiler. I can tell you that after reading this I am very interested in reading the Wicked Lovely series, but it is five books so we will see if I ever get a chance to read it since my TBR pile is huge. I thought that the world Marr created was very captivating and the whole political drama between the faeries was fascinating. The romance was sweet, but certain relationships felt a little rushed to me. The plot was very intriguing and there were a few twists that I wasn’t expecting. Overall, I found this book to be really enjoyable, and I would highly recommend it to both fans of the series and those that are new to the series like me.

Notable Scene:

Jayce reached out and traced her cheek with his fingertips. “I’m alone with the girl I like who happens to be even cooler than I already thought. It’s very okay.” He leaned closer and kissed her. He’d known she was different, but he couldn’t have guessed she was this unusual. He was kissing a faery. The thought made him pull back and grin at her. “This is awesome.”

FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Desert Tales. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )