Book Review- Fairy Bad Day by Amanda Ashby

Title: Fairy Bad Day

 Author: Amanda Ashby

Series:  N/A

Published:  9 June 2011 by Speak

Length: 336 pages

Source: Giveaway by Lesley @ My Keeper Shelf

Other info: Amanda Ashby’s other books are You Had Me at Halo and Zombie Queen of Newbury High. There are more coming up.

Summary : While most students at Burtonwood Academy get to kill demons and goblins, fifteen-year-old Emma gets to rid the world of little annoying fairies with glittery wings and a hipster fashion sense. She was destined to be a dragon slayer, but cute and charming Curtis stole her spot. Then she sees a giant killer fairy - and it's invisible to everyone but her! If Emma has any chance of stopping this evil fairy, she's going to need help. Unfortunately, the only person who can help is Curtis. And now, not only has he stolen her dragon-slayer spot, but maybe her heart as well! Why does she think it's going to be a fairy bad day

Review: Emma is not having a good day. She expects to be assigned to kill dragons-especially as her mother was also one, before she died. But then her school decides she'd be better off slaying fairies instead. So she's stuck with that. And the person who DID get designated Dragon-slayer is Curtis Green. By Emma's standards he's cute, but she still hates him. And then a giant fairy thing turns up. It's called a darkhel and it plans to open the gates sealing off the majority of evil creatures from Earth. And only Curtis and Emma can see it. And kill it.

The premise sounds fun. Fairy slayers are never seen in young adult books, at least not what I've read. And I love the idea of a school churning out slayers of elementals. It seems fun.

It was a little bit of a shock having it in third person, despite the blurb being written in first. I loved the attitude on the back cover, and I'd have loved to get to know Emma and her personality throughout the book.

That's not to say we didn't get a good idea of her personality from her actions and dialogue. We did, and it showed her as being inventive and not afraid to talk back. But I'd have liked this in first person, as the back hinted at such a great personality.

The supporting characters were very good. Love interest Curtis I don't have much of an opinion on, as half the time we see him and Emma together they're either fighting eachother, fighting creatures, or forced together for schoolwork. Also his big secret I could kind of see coming. I didn't know exactly how it would work out, but his initial explanation for the glasses didn't seem right. Loni is the kind of girl who you can be great friends with,  despite the fact she will constantly get on your nerves with her spouting about horoscopes and being made for eachother and so on. And the fairies...despite hating them to start with, they seemed to become more likeable and they really grew on me.

I'm not sure why, but I never got a good mental image of the darkhel, which made the majority of the important scenes hard to imagine.

The romance was nicely done, following the plot formula before the love triangle: they'd be perfect for eachother, but grudges/initial dislike get in the way. The lack of love triangle is very nice and more my kind of romance.

Overall:  Strength 4  tea to a fairy quick, easy and fun book.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |