SUMMER READING

Wicked Lovely
By Melissa Marr (HarperTeen, $16.99)

Since she was a tiny child, Aislinn has had one rule drilled into her: Never let the invisible faeries know you can see them. Ash has no wish to attract the attention of the bizarre, capricious creatures whose dimension intertwines with the mortal world; just watching the grotesque games they play with one another is bloodcurdling enough.

But now one faery in particular has set his own sights on Ash: Keenan, the Summer King, is convinced that she is his promised Queen, the woman who will finally release him from an ancient curse and restore the withering Summer Court to its former life and glory. Keenan has lost lover after lover to the curse, and he hopes Ash will finally be the one to set him and his people free -- but he never imagined she'd want nothing to do with him.

Ash's heart lies with the sensitive, artistic mortal Seth, but once a girl has been marked by the Summer King, her fate is entwined with his whether she chooses it or not.

The story sounds like a love triangle, but it isn't really. While Ash is attracted to Keenan, she never stops resisting the compulsion to give in to his arguments or seductions. Drawing on her modernity, she insists on an emotional connection to her lover -- a tie she shares only with Seth -- as well as an intellectual independence that the arrogant, aristocratic Keenan simply doesn't understand.

The strength of Ash's character, and of the story itself, is in her unwillingness to

back down from that important decision, a stance that elevates her from pawn to player in the faery "game" and gives her the fierce determination necessary to demand her own unique solution to her quandary.

Based on Celtic traditions with a few new twists, "Wicked Lovely" is a romantically gothic yet satisfyingly earthy take on young-adult urban fantasy. ¦ Books reviewed in this column are available online or at your local bookstore.

(c) 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.