Wondrous Strange -- Lesley Livingston

WondrousStrange17-year-old Kelley Winslow is living the dream (or trying to) -- she recently moved to New York City, where she's attempting to break into the world of theater.  Due to a broken ankle on the part of the leading lady, she's just been moved up from gopher/understudy to the star of the show:  she'll be playing Titania in an off-off-off-off-off-off-off Broadway production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

18-year-old-(ish)* Sonny is a Janus guard.  He and twelve others, at the Winter King Auberon's command, guard the Samhain Gate in NYC's Central Park, the only place where everyday, run-of-the-mill fae can cross over to our world.  Eight years out of nine, it only opens for one night a year.  The last year of the cycle, the Gate is open for nine nights -- and the Janus guard is kept extremely busy trying to keep the fae in their own realm and out of ours.

This year, of course, is a nine-night year.  When Sonny meets Kelley, he knows that there's something different about her -- and it isn't only his immediate instinct to protect a lovely girl.  Though she's not yet ready to admit it to herself, Kelley knows that there's something about Sonny, too -- she shouldn't trust someone who's basically acting like, well, a stalker, but she does.  She knows, deep down, that there's something odd going on in general -- something bigger than the horse who's suddenly decided to take up residence in her bathtub -- and that it's going to be life-changing.

Theater, faeries, the inimitable Robin Goodfellow, Shakespeare, sparring royalty, action, romance, magic and mystery in NYC:  Wondrous Strange.

I'm a sucker for stories about mostly unseen magic in familiar places, as well as stories about the stage**, and obviously I like the action and romance and mystery.  So this one was a no-brainer of a pick for me.  I especially enjoyed the scenes at the theater, as well as the interactions between Sonny and the fae living in our world.  I enjoyed discovering the mostly unknown version of NYC with Kelley.  And while I saw most of the big twists coming***, there were still a lot of minor surprises that made me happy.

I did think that some of the dialogue didn't work -- occasionally it pulled me right out of the story because I just couldn't bring myself believe that someone would actually say those things aloud****.  The prose was occasionally a bit flowery for my personal taste*****, but as I said, that's very much a personal issue.  And in a book that deals with Shakespeare, I think it's quite understandable that the author'd be feeling a little flowery.

So, overall, fun.  I enjoyed it.  I think it'll certainly be popular with the urban fantasy/romance/subset:theaterlover crowd.  (That's a crowd, right?)  And I always approve of YA novels that bring attention to the classics.  Unless it's providing a positive portrayal of Wuthering Heights.  Yecch.

____________________________________________________________________

*SEMI-SPOILER:  I never quite got a handle on how aging works in this book.  Maybe it was explained and I just missed it.  Does it have to do with the realm or the genetics?  I assume that the Faerie royals can majick people to retard the aging process, but I did wonder if Kelley took longer to grow up or what.  Because I thought Sonny'd been around much longer than her, but if they were about the same age when they were kids... I DON'T KNOW!  It didn't bother me while I was reading, but now it's making me a bit crazy.  END SEMI-SPOILER

**I actually wished there'd been more of that -- got any good theatre/theater book recommendations?

***BIG SPOILER:  For someone raised among the fairies, Sonny's mistake was a pretty bone-headed one.  I mean, jebus.  If it makes me say, "NO, YOU ASS!  NOOOOO!" OUT LOUD, I know that it's especially bad.  END BIG SPOILER

****SPOILER:  Like:  "To loose that insatiable, death-mad Faerie war band on an unsuspecting mortal populace here--the carnage would be unspeakable, the death toll catastrophic!"  I just... the characters in the conversation are well aware of the Wild Hunt and what it is, so it wasn't a necessary line in the scene -- it felt like the line was the author's way of imparting information to the reader.  Which pulled me right out.  Not a major issue, but stuff like that gets to me.  END SPOILER

*****The line on the back of the book is a good example of this:  "She felt his arms tighten around her as they spiraled up, borne aloft on wings that were dark as the night, bright as a new star."  Not my thing.  But, then, the Roys are known for their tendency to get all squicked out by flowery romance-y stuff.  We're all kind of like 9-year-old boys in that respect.