Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely Trilogy, Book 2)

Books Completed: 56
Completion Date: February, 2009
Pages: 336
Publication Date: April, 2008

Reason for Reading: Next Book in the Series.

Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.

Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life.

The tattoo does bring changes—not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils. . . .

I read Wicked Lovely earlier this year and loved it. I haven't read a lot of books with Faeries as main paranormal characters, so I was happy to discover that Marr handles things so well. I was very excited to read the next book, but worried at the same time. Books can really suffer when they are the second book in the series. I still liked the first book better, but this book was pulled off very well. One way that authors have started to 'trick' the norm of trilogies is to change the narrator for each book. This is what Marr has done, and it worked for her.

Leslie is the main character of this novel. She was mentioned in the first book because she is friends with Aislinn, the main character from the first novel. We don't really get to know her, though, until this book. She is a really engaging character. She hasn't had the easiest of lives. Her father is an alcoholic and her brother is doing any drug he can get his hands on. Her father doesn't always come home at night, while her brother has been known to use her when he runs short on cash for more drugs. She has taken to locking herself in her room when she has to be at home at all. It is not a good scene. She is paying the bills that her father doesn't get around to, so when she isn't at school she is often at work. All she wants for herself is a tattoo, and that is the basics of this story.

In the first book in the trilogy, we are introduced to the Faery World. I think that is why I liked the first book better, because it had more mystery to it. With this book, we already know a lot of what is going to happen because we learned about it in the first book. What we are not aware of in the beginning, though, is that Leslie's tattoo is actually a dangerous thing to desire. It is not so much that she wants one; it is the tattoo that she chooses. It calls to her, but with dangerous consequences. If she hadn't got the tattoo, though, the story would not have been as page-turning as it was. With every turned page you learn more and more about Leslie's fate. It is not always a cheery read, but she is not all that she seems. She might just surprise people in the end.

The book also includes some of the characters from the previous book. I was happy that Aislinn made appearances. She is a good character, and I enjoyed seeing more from her. This also meant that her 'two men' made appearances. I was happy about that because I really liked Seth in the first book. Keenan, though, has largely turned back to the prickly character he was in the beginning of the first book. Characters that played small roles in the first book make larger ones in this one, so it was fun to learn more about them. I imagine they will be in the third book, too, provided that Leslie is included. There are also new characters presented, though, so there is lots to look forward to. The villian of the first book was an evil Queen, but now we get an evil King from a different royal house. He does evil well, but he is not all that he seems, either.

Overall, I really like this trilogy. The third book will be out in April and I am really looking forward to it! Like I said with the first book, I originally took these out from the library, but now I am thinking I wouldn't mind owning them. It's a good trilogy.