Review: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

So here is the deal with Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr:

In post-industrial Pennsylvania the forces of Summer and Winter are at war (wait, what are they doing there!? moving on…). Two faery courts have been searching for the Summer Queen for more than nine centuries--one to restore the power of Summer and the other to banish it. Summer Prince Keenan needs to find a queen to vanquish Winter, his  nasty mother. He has picked the wrong girl before and watched them fall to the wrong-girl-curse (See Donia, who is trapped as a ward of winter until Keenan finds true love. Talk about bitter).  Keenan sets his sights on Aislinn, who is able to see the faeries that hide all around unknowing mortals—faeries who are often ugly, violent, and promiscuous. She has spent her life pretending to NOT see faeries and does NOT want to get involved. The story follows Keenan’s attempts to woo Aislinn and a showdown with Winter. It is more complicated than this, but you get the gist.

Wicked Lovely was not my favorite read. So why did I finish this book, you ask? Because of the love interest, the tattooed and pierced Seth. Now you might not first recognize the hunky-ness of this goth-emo guy, but let me tell YOU. This response is crazy if you know me. "“She stood in his kitchen, watching him toy with the ring in his lip." SERIOUSLY!?! But I can't deny it. Seth is certainly swoon worthy. (And he is a good friend. WINNING). I am going to go hunt down more YA with tattooed men.

• Originality: 4. There are a number of interpretations of the Winter versus Summer court out there in YA land, and I find it confusing when the myths are so muddled from book to book (Maybe I should stop with the faeries).  On the positive side I liked the alternating points of view and Donia was an interesting character. She was a literal warning against falling for the wrong fairy prince. We could use more of that, no?
• Absurdity: 75. Everyone knows not to drink Faery wine by now. Let’s be real.
• Level of Paranormal Romance: I give a 4 to the Para part- since Keenan feels a bit boilerplate, but a FULL 9 goes to Seth. He isn’t paranormal, but did I mention he is out of high school? Points for adult characters.
• Level of Harry-Potter-ness:  4. This is straight middle of the road YA fiction. I might get around to finishing the series one day if the book is in at the library. But I will not throw elbows to get it. And I am taking a trial separation from all things Fairy.