Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken. . . .

Seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow always thought faeries were just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery. He's a changeling—a mortal taken as an infant and raised among Faerie—and within short order he's turned Kelley's heart inside out and her life upside down.

For Kelley's beloved Central Park isn't just a park—it's a gateway between her ordinary city and the Faerie's dangerous, bewitching Otherworld. Now Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her, but to the heritage that awaits her . . . a destiny both wondrous and strange (Barnesandnoble.com).

First off, I want to say that the title of this book rocks and I really like the cover. I enjoyed reading this book but it wasn't earth-shattering (it wasn't the page-turner I thought it might be). I did like how it is a little different than what I have been reading. What I really liked about it is the main character, Kelley, is a struggling actress. The author is an actress too, so maybe that's where the inspiration came from. I also really like the Shakespeare theme. There are a few series that have the Shakespeare theme and I do like it.

One other thing that I really liked was the frequent use of the word "cacophony". I think I counted its use at least three times and I hardly hear that word very often.

What I didn't like about it was some parts of the story were a little lame. For instance, when Kelley finds out that she's a faerie (which would be super freaky in my opinion!) she has hardly the reaction I would think. She's just kind of okay with it. Then, when she calls her aunt, who stole her out of the faerie land, her aunt just kind of acts like, "yeah you caught me, no biggie". When Kelley started getting exposed to the faerie world, I would also expect her to ask more questions but she just kind of expects it. It felt a little off to me.

I thought some character development was a little lacking too. I would have liked to know more about the characters. I felt this aspect was a little grazed over.

This was a debut novel for the author and there is more to come because this is number one in Livingston's series. I am excited to read the next book, Darklight. I want to see if some of the things that I didn't like about the book improve.

All-in-all this was an enjoyable read and I hope the rest of the series is fun to read too.

Overall: 3/5