Parents and delicate readers should beware of the book’s mature themes and sexually-charged situations, playing out in a teen scene and a faerie world that has little by way of moral scruples. Teen girls should especially enjoy the way Marr depicts the conflicting emotions swirling inside Aislinn. In the Harper Teen edition’s “Extras,” Marr also provides a hard-rock play list to go with her tale. The author of this dark, gritty, romantic fantasy laces it with quotes from scholary authorities on faerie lore. Throw in the little detail that the Winter Queen is prepared to take lives to prevent Aislinn from becoming Summer Queen, and you’re set for the long buildup to a huge climax. Yet choose she must, or the Winter Queen will suck all the life out of the world, beginning with Huntsdale. The choice couldn’t come at a worse time, just as Seth and Aislinn are ready to accept their tender feelings toward each other. Irresistable as Keenan is, the boy Aislinn wants is the very mortal, down-to-earth Seth, who lives in a train and collects tattoos and piercings. Unless she is, after all, the true Summer Queen. Soon Aislinn must face a terrible choice between being one of Keenan’s immortal bimbos and the endless, bitter cold of becoming the Winter Girl. And there is so little she can do to resist, as her very mortality is slipping away. When he chooses Aislinn as his next candidate, he pursues her relentlessly.
Because of a magical binding placed on him by his evil mother, the Winter Queen, Keenan has spent most of the past millennium searching for Miss Right, the girl who can set him free. The gorgeous Keenan is, in fact, the King of the Summer Court. Besides these, and the fact that they are allergic to iron, Aislinn has nothing to protect her when, in spite of all her precautions, a couple of court faeries start paying particular attention to her. Don’t run from them (for they love the chase above all things). So can her strict and protective Gram, who has taught her the rules of dealing with these fair folk, so long of life and so short of pity. They treat each other savagely, and they play tricks on unsuspecting mortals, who can’t see them. They range from impossibly beautiful court faeries – members of either the Summer, Winter, Dark, or High Court – to bizarre and grotesque creatures combining features of man and beast. Yes, faeries: magical beings, most of them unseen by mortals, some wearing glamours that make them look human. Even the Catholic prep students are deep into the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll scene. Welcome to Huntsdale, an American industrial city in decline.
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