Darklight (Wondrous Strange, book 2)

Kelley Winslow has just started to get a grip on the idea that she is not a typical mortal, as she’s always assumed, but that she is actually a Faerie princess, daughter of two powerful monarchs of the Faerie realm. She saved herself, the mortal realm, and the Janus guard she loves, Sonny, by making a deal with King Auberon. But that meant that Sonny had to leave the mortal realm — and Kelley — and go back to Faerie to comply with Auberon’s wishes.

At the start of Darklight, Kelley has been without Sonny for six months and misses him fiercely. She is trying to figure out how to get him back. In the meantime, she has gone on with her acting career and is now playing the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at her beloved theater. She might just go on longer missing Sonny, waiting for a sign from him, waiting for him to have completed the assignment Auberon gave him, but then her mother keeps bugging her, and she keeps getting attacked in Central Park. After one attack, she manages to find her own way into the Faerie realm, right into Sonny’s arms — but, of course, nothing turns out as she expected, and she ends up with a bigger battle on her hands than she could have ever anticipated.

Darklight not only continues the story begun in Wondrous Strange, but ratchets up the action and mystery (fairly typical for the second book in a trilogy). Even though faeries don’t lie but are just as well known for their pranks and twisting of truths, the real culprit behind the dangerous Wild Hunt let loose in the first book — and the dark deeds set into play in this second book — is still unknown, and it’s hard for Kelley — and the reader — to know whom to trust. Lesley Livingston has done a fine job weaving classic elements of faerie lore into a new story of her own, and made it even more entertaining by intertwining great bits of classic Shakespeare. Those who love the Bard and/or faerie lore will thoroughly appreciate this novel.

Rated: Mild, for mild and some moderate language, and some mild violence. There is also a reference to a very minor character being scantily clad.