Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, by Holly Black

Great story but needed a little tweaking here and there. Starts off slow but picks up speed almost going too fast and ends with a bang. Some of the conversation is hard to follow and seemed incomplete at times. There's a lot of bad messages in here that some young adults probably shouldn't be reading even though it's written for the YA audience. Including drinking, smoking, cutting school, having boys sleep in your room, staying out at night to all hours, cursing, etc. You get the idea.

Our main character is Kaye Fierch, a 16 yr old High School drop out. She's Asian but manages to be blessed a natural blond. Kaye's mom is a wannabe rock star playing in bars and getting so wasted that Kaye has to take care of her most of the time. They start out the story in Philly where her mothers boyfriend becomes possessed or something and tries to knife her. With no place to go the two wind up going back to New Jersey to live with Kaye's Grandmother.

Kaye remembers growing up there as a small child and thinks fondly of her old faerie friends. She's come to think of them as imaginary but soon discovers how real they were and are. Her Faerie friends contact her and Kaye discovers she is not the person she always thought she was.

Kaye happens upon a Faerie Knight that's gorgeous and badly wounded in the woods. He has shining silver-white hair that is very long and pointed ears. He needs her help. In exchange he says he will answer her 3 questions of her choosing. This strange encounter draws the unwanted attentions of the unseelie queen. The queen decides that Kaye will be their next human sacrifice called a "tithe"!

Very interesting reading. Like I mentioned earlier some of the dialogue is hard to follow but it's not very often so it's easy to overlook. The story is good so I didn't mind too much. I figure it's gotta be OK if there are 2 more books in this series. The next one is probably better written. Enjoy.

READ Chapter 1 and 2 of TITHE CLICK HERE

Book 2 Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Book 3 Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale

Wicked Lovely, by Melissa Marr

Aislinn was born into a family with a unique ability to see faeries. With this ability comes 3 rules to follow:

1) Don't ever attract their attention.

2) Don't speak to invisible faeries.

3) Don't stare at invisible faeries.

You see Aislinn has been taught that faeries are mean, nasty and evil. She's involved with a human named Seth but all that changes when Keenan, The Summer King of all faeries stakes a claim on Aislinn as his mate. He's been searching for his queen for NINE CENTURIES. The King needs his mate to complete his power and save the faeries from his evil mother the Winter Queen. Aislinn must pass the test to become the Summer Queen and if she doesn't she will have to endure the Winter Queens cold until the next chosen one takes the test. Aislinn doesn't want to have anything to do with faeries, she just wants to be with Seth but Keenen is not taking no for an answer. Once someone is chosen they cannot be unchosen.

This book is interesting but I rate it "G". There is no graphic or adult content, just good story. The book kept me reading greedily until the end. It was a really good read, but I was slightly disappointed in the ending. Marr ties up all her ends into a neat bow. I usually like that scenario, but I guess in this instance I was hoping for something more heart wrenching.

Book 2 Ink Exchange
Book 3 Fragile Eternity
Book 4 Radiant Shadows
Book 5 Darkest Mercy (Releases Feb 22, 2011)

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