Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Rating : 4,5 / 5

Goodreads : 17 year-old Kelley Winslow doesn’t believe in Faeries. Not unless they’re the kind that you find in a theatre, spouting Shakespeare—the kind that Kelley so desperately wishes she could be: onstage, under lights, with a pair of sparkly wings strapped to her shoulders. But as the understudy in a two-bit, hopelessly off-off-Broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, wishing is probably the closest she’s going to get to becoming a Faerie Queen. At least, that’s what she thinks... In this fun, urban fantasy, Kelley's off-stage life suddenly becomes as complicated as one of Shakespeare’s plot twists when a nighttime trip to Central Park holds more than meets the mortal eye.

My review : I so love faeries :) and I love my reading theme of this month ! So I've finally read Lesley Livingston books and it was SO good. I loved the world of Wondrous Strange. From the first page I was pulled in. Kelley’s script for A Midsummer’s Nights Dream was the first thing I saw when I opened up the book and I already wanted to know more about the story. The book is filled with references of this play written Shakespeare. I just re-read it before reading Wondrous Strange so it was perfect !
I've read many faeries books now but this one has it's own originality. The storyline is very inventive.
I liked the idea of the Gates, the Janus, the Wild Hunt... It was just so great to learn more about all of those things in the book !
I also loved the character. As I said the book is filled with theater references because our main character Kelley is an actress playing Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream and she discovered this new world and her past linked to it. Kelley was a very refreshing character. She's such realistic and honest.
Her romance with Sonny is beautiful and poetic and also often linked with the script of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was so believable and real. I liked Sonny's character but I was a little dissapointed because I thought that I would like him more ! Sometimes he reminded me of Ash from Julie Kagawa books (and everyone know that I prefer Puck ^^) !
We also meet some well known faeries character such as King Auberon, Titania, Mabh and Puck called Bob in the book and I found that really cool.
I also really like Tyff her roomate and I'll confess I loved Lucky the kelpie :p.
I loved that the setting for the story and the faerie realm are in NYC's Central Park and I wanted to be there while reading the book... The descriptions are vivid, beautiful and it's a place I would definitely want to visit. I've never been there and I think if I already had been in Central Park once I would have loved this book even more !
It was Lesley Livingston debut novel but her writing is already really great in this one so I recommend this book to anyone who love great faeries story !