Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries. 
 Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty--especially if they learn of her Sight--and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens. 
 Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries. 
 Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer. 
 Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention. 
 But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost--regardless of her plans or desires. 
 Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything. 
 Faerie intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning 21st century faery tale. 
 My first encounter with Melissa Marr has been an utterly delightful reading experience. Marr manages to securely create a world within the sub-genre of urban fairy fantasy, with her interesting depiction of the various fairy courts, their laws and the interactions between not only her fey characters, but her mortal ones too. While drawing on warmly familiar fairy myths that are known to most such as: do not eat fairy food and iron/steel is harmful to the fey, she also manages to develop her own unique sense of what the fairy world entails. Setting her story apart from the everyday by not just introducing the well known and thoroughly used Seelie (good/light) Court and the Unseelie (evil/dark) Court, but rather a more complex and interactive set of courts who all have their own laws, character traits and powers, which seemingly drive the narratives plot. Some of which are clearly darker than others but all showing the ability to have a mix of shadows and light underneath it all. While the fey in Marr's story can be absolutely and enchantingly beautiful that can with a flip of the coin also be uncannily wicked. 
 While the reader is predominantly drawn into politics between the Summer Court and the Winter Court in this first novel, Marr offers teasers of what the reader can expect from the other courts - the Dark Court, whose very name undoubtedly explains its nature, and the enigmatic High Court, who we are only introduced to in name within this first volume. 
 With the main female protagonist character Aislinn (aka Ash) being sighted (i.e. able to see fairies) her whole life, a gift that seemingly runs in her family, we first see the fey as group of creatures that are at times blindingly beautiful to look upon, but mischievous and cruel to their supremely unaware mortal victims. Thus when we encounter a real interaction between Ash and Keenan the Summer King and leading male character, we the reader find it easier to sympathies with Ash's instant dislike of the charming 'golden boy'. Even though his breathtakingly good looks, soft coppery gold locks and supernatural gifts should have made him the go-to guy of cliche YA fantasy crushes. I surprisingly felt myself more drawn to the character of Seth, a slightly emo, overly pierced, tattooed guy, who serves as a seemingly far superior love interest of Ash, despite his mortality. While Seth is a main character not given his own point of view within the story, somehow he became my absolute favourite character in this first volume.(view spoiler)[... (hide spoiler)] While I found it a little disconcerting that he seemed to completely (and right off the bat) trust that Ash wasn't a lunatic when she explained the fairies were all around, sometimes doing weird, rude things to him and others, and that only she could see them. This fault or dislike was easily overcome by the sheer fact Seth served as a kind of emotional balance for Ash, rooting her character to the mortal world that Keenan is so desperately trying to persuade her to walk away from. Seth's an artist who lives in an abandoned train.... because who wouldn't think that's cool... and his house is what I would want mine to be in another life - a totally cool place that could serve as a safe haven and chilaxed pad for any friend that wanted to drop by, no questions asked. 
 I did take issue with the validity of and the characterisation of Ash's high school friends. Their introduction into the story seemed to serve no point to me other than to prove that Ash's character wasn't the loner type. The depiction of Leslie and Rianne seemed to come across as slightly shallow and boy/sexed obsessed... with lets face it people, teenagers are more than just one dimensional personalities. As I already have the next book in the series 'Ink Exchange' waiting patiently on my 'to-read' shelf I know Leslie actually takes center stage as the main character. So maybe I will just have to continue with an open mind and hope my initial reaction to her was a premature and will be beautifully reversed in the pages of Marr's next book. 
 I feel the book opened with a strong beginning that drew you into both Ash's and Keenan's separate worlds that inextricably collide within the book, but I do think that the climatic event of Ash actually becoming the Summer Queen (because lets face it... it was an inevitable plot line) was a little overlooked actually. Keenan had been looking for 'the one' to rule by his side for nine centuries, dooming and breaking innumerable mortal girls hearts in his quest to do so - of which we experience the worst version in Donia - the dead winter girl, versus the not much better choice of becoming part of the gaggling vapid group of idiotically lustful summer girls. But when Keenan finds Ash, all she does is pick up a staff and poof its over - she's the summer Queen and now all the summer fey can rejoice in their new powers. I am glad though that in the course of the story Ash came to accept her seemingly inevitable fate more easily than some YA heroine's, rather than having the cliched drawn out version of trying to fight ones unwanted destiny. I believe this gave a faster paced, more enjoyable tone to the book. 
 I enjoyed the evilness that the character of Beira created, and the past histories and animosities her character managed to dreg up in the seemingly short time she was posed as the main villain. It was her cruelness of character and absolute unspoken attribute as the bringer of cold harsh death that left the reader cheering every time any other character gained the upper hand over her. 
 So while Melissa Marr's debut novel does not remain faultless - because books rarely ever do - her book is simply what the title implies.... it is WICKED LOVELY.