Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales, Volume 2: Challenge

I mentioned Sanctuary (volume 1) in my flow-chart post.  It was one of the graphic novels our panel considered for the Cybils award last year, and I was rooting for it. Since then, I've taken time to research exactly what the Desert Tales are.  Because, see, I picked up Wicked Lovely (the original novel) off the shelf a while back, and was confused by the fact that the main character's name was Aislinn.  In Sanctuary and Challenge, the main character is Rika.

So.  I popped over to the Wicked Lovely Wiki to figure it all out.  Here are the basics: there's a novel series by Marissa Marr that starts with Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange is next, then Fragile Eternity, and Radiant Shadows.  I have not read any of these, yet. Then, there is the Desert Tales manga series.  Scheduled to be three books, Sanctuary, Challenge, and a final volume as yet untitled.  The Desert Tales manga is NOT, as I originally thought, an adaptation of Wicked Lovely.  Here's a quote I stole from the wiki:

One of the interesting things to me in writing Wicked Lovely was the question of Winter Girls who'd become free of the curse. That topic was one I couldn't explore in the novel, so I started writing a story about Rika, one of the former Winter Girls. What would they do? What would life be like? What are the complications?"

So, for those of you who've read Wicked Lovely or Sanctuary you'll know what the curse is.

For those of you who haven't, suffice it to say that Rika is a totally awesome faery heroine who is dealing with everything from crushing on a mortal to avoiding faery politics (which seem to involve lots of nasty betrayals, and also sharp knives).  Of course it's difficult to avoid politics when you were almost the queen once.

Anyway, I liked Desert Tales volume 2 just as much as volume 1.  Pretty action packed.  Also with the cute romantic scenes.  It's fast paced storytelling with strong characters, and I'm looking forward to seeing how volume 3 ends the story.