Book Review: Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Wondrous Strange by Canadian author Lesley Livingston is a wonderful debut novel. I could not put it down and those who know me, also know I read three or four novels at a time. Not this time. I picked it up and finished it and immediately wanted more.

This is a YA novel rated for ages 12 and up but I’m here to tell you it kept this adult absolutely enthralled. It’s a great story full of faeries, mortals and most importantly, magic, that also weaves pieces of A Midsummer Night’s Dream through it. The novel’s central characters are Kelley and Sonny and the author does a great job of drawing us into these two characters to the point where you truly want what’s best for both of them. Kelly is just your run of the mill ‘normal’, seventeen-year-old girl trying to make a go of it on the stage in the big city while Sonny, although mortal, also has powers that a normal mortal doesn’t have. As you read about him you’re thinking how sweet he seems-he makes a great male heart throb character. There are minor characters as well that the author manages to draw us into even though they have smaller parts in the book like Chloe who is a Siren and Maddox who is Sonny’s friend.

The novel starts with Kelley finding out that she’s going to be the lead in the play The Midsummer Night’s Dream where she will play Titania, Queen of Fairies. While practising her lines in Central Park she meets Sonny who is a Janus, who unknown to the mortal world, guards the Gate that stands between the ordinary world and the enchanted world keeping out beings that could cross over and throw New York city into chaos. He knows something is different about Kelley but he has no idea what it could be.

On her way home Kelley hears someone screaming near the Lake and runs to help. It turns out to be a horse who she attempts to save. She’s drawn deeper and deeper into the water until she passes out hearing faint music in her head. She wakes up soaked to the skin but alive. After this strange things start happening. She comes home and ends up having a horse in her apartment in her tub which turns out to be the horse she thought she had saved. She starts meeting many people who she never figured for faeries. You just never know what may be lurking in the background of our normal mortal world.

From there Kelley learns her true heritage which is that she is the daughter of the King of Fairies. For all of her life she has had protective charms and had not had any idea of the true power she possesses. Together with Sonny they fight a battle that puts them in grave danger just to survive. There is also a little romance in this story but definitely nothing that takes away from the plot. It’s really interesting to find out just how both Kelley and Sonny came to be in the worlds they inhabited.

I would absolutely recommend this book especially for those who love the magical stories. It is very well written and the language is beautifully descriptive and flows very nicely throughout the story. I was very happy to learn that this is the first book in a trilogy and I can’t wait for the next one to come out to find out more about what will happen to Kelley and Sonny.

This book was released by HarperCollins Canada in hardcover on December 12, 2008 and will be released in paperback on January 9, 2009. I did notice though that it is not being released until December 23, 2008 in the US. You can also visit Lesley Livingston’s website here.

I’m going to leave you with the Wondrous Strange Trailer that I found on Lesley’s website.