So yesterday at the bookstore I read Melissa Marr's new book Ink Exchange. It's really good, so I bought it.
Here's the summary:

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 own them both Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange, I actually just picked up Ink Exchange the other day. The same day as I picked up The Host, and well I'd been itching to read that book so it came first. But this one will more than likely be the next one I pick up

Once I'm done I'll let you know what I think - and then we can have long silly discussions about it!! If you haven't noticed I LOVE to talk about books

Yay! Somebody else bought it!

I started Wicked Lovely yesterday. I'm only about 130 pages in, but it's really good. But I'm going to have to put it down for a bit while I finish the last two books in the Blue Is For Nightmares series.

Ooh I'm reading Wicked Lovely at the moment!
I will have to buy Ink exchange when I'm done!
Without giving anything away, which do you think is better of the two

I don't know about Ink Exchange. I dunno. It just sounds like pure bullshit after reading Wicked Lovely.

But damn, did I ever love Wicked Lovely!! It was SO SO good!

Dont read on cause I might and will spoil it for you. So yeah. Proceed with caution if you haven't read it yet. I was a tad bit dissapointed but there really was no other way around it. I totally wanted Aislinn to pick Keenan over Seth. But if she had picked Keenan than he could not have been with Donia. So.... I am dissapointed but there was no way around it. And as much as I wanted Keenan and Aislinn to be together, I wanted Keenan and Donia to be together more. Abd don't get me wrong, I love Seth. I think he is amazing. Him and his peircings. But I would pick a gorgeous fearie king over a mortal any day. XD

The story was good. And I loved it. It was tricky and and new. And because you see the book through Keenans, Aislinns, and Donia's eyes, you grow some sympothy and love for them all. You fully understand each of their positions and it really is lovely. I loved this book so much.

So if you love fearies, you would love this. If you don't know fearies, than you might love this. If you hate fearies, you might fall in love with them through this book. Case closed, just read it if you haven't already. XD

I loved these books! I like Wicked Lovely more, but Ink Exchange was good too.

I don't know. I couldn't stand the thought of Keenan/Aislinn, because Aislinn was just so repulsed, and he was just so desperate. And Seth was so very sweet. Plus, I thought Donia/Keenan was just beautiful and tragic, so I was already holding out on desperate hopes.

Ink Exchange was entertaining, not quite as much as Wicked Lovely, but I was really a fan of... whatshisname... Niall. Despite his very obvious flaws, I liked him over Irial hands down.

Honestly - I started to read this - I think I made it through like two chapters before I set it down and still haven't picked it back up again. I mean I'm sure I probably will in the near future, it just wasn't reaching out, grabbing my attention at the current time - so no I still haven't finished this book.

I did read the first one - and I really liked it, read it in one sitting in less than 3 hours, good book. I'm still not so sure how much I'm going to like this second one yet *shrugs* when I actually finish it I'll be back with a full report

Are the books a series or you can read either one separately? Ugh like I need to buy more books, I already have a stack that I still need to get through.

Jules

I've read both Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange but liked Ink Exchange better. There was something about it's dark, melangholic, tragic tone that draw me into it. Plus, I could relate to Leslie more than I could relate to Aislinn, I'm guessing that's because Leslie's problems were more mundane and everyday problems the girl next door might have.

I'm seriously in love with Seth, seriously!! I think I might need therapy!! I keep going back and re-reading all his scenes and then daydream and dream about him very naughty dreams!!! He is PERFECT!! He is smart, sweet, smooth, funny, understanding, patient, devoted, gorgeous, sexy, badass….what more can you ask? I love him, I want a Seth for myself, where do you get such a guy?

I'm a hardcore Seth/Aislinn, Keenan/Donia and Irial/Leslie shipper.

Keenan is for most of the book a jackass except from when he is with Donia. He is in love with her, he's always been, and she is the only one who makes him feel and express strong deep and true emotions.

Niall is great and sexy and truly cared for Leslie way before the Ink Exchange and all its consequences while Irial is dark and a bit twisted and never took a real interest in Leslie before he slipped under her skin and felt her mortal existence filling him up but he is so much more than just the king of the Dark Court. He proved himself capable of great feelings, he changed his whole existence, his very nature for Leslie's sake and at the end it was indirectly suggested that Leslie picked Irial over Niall.

If you liked these books you should check out wickedlovely.com/forum1 they have some really good discussions going on over there.


Anyways. I really enjoyed this book and WickedLovely. Infact they are some of my favorite books. It was actually the first fairy book ive ever read. Actually BECAUSE of these books i ended up getting introduced to Cassandras books because over at wickedlovely.com ppl were talking about how good her MI series was. So i was all like..hmmm. i should check these books out and i did.

I liked Wicked Lovely...right up to the ending. I didn't like the ending for some reason and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it was undetailed or simple. I like really complicated books that take a ton of thinking with really detailed endings :]

There is a spoilers in my post. Just so you knooowww.

I read Ink Exchange. And I could not help but scream "WTF? WHAT KIND OF ENDING IS THAT??" at the end of it. But seriously. Atrocious ending. Horrible. I hated it. Niall's like "Leslie. I loveeee you." And then she goes "That's great, but no thanks." And then she goes off with humans. GAHHH. And THEN Irials like "K, I'm getting kinda tired. Oh, brilliant idea. Here Niall, you're a good guy, take the crown to my thrown." "Wait what?" "Haha! No take backsies!!!!" "Sunovabitch!!!!"

And I felt it got bad at the end. I mean, it felt like Malissa was like "K. This book is gonna have no more then 300 pages. [or else I'll have to do three mundred laps around Konoha on my hands.][.....][Right. Nobody got that Naruto refference at a TMI forum... >.>] -typity type type- Oh yeah, this book is getting good. This is great. Oh shit. 200 pages. FML. Uhhhh..... Shit I'm running out of space. K you know what? 'then she was all like, hibby hoojoo at Irials.' shit I have to finish this. ''Irial, I don't like you. I'm gonna leave you.' 'okay.' 'what what? seriosuly?' 'yeah. The author is running out of space.' 'seriosuly? SWEET.' 'here I'll even tell you how to do it' 'Awesomeness. Thanks man. I really appr--' 'Running out of space!!1' 'right. catch ya later Irial.' 'oh don't worry about that. ;D' [he spies on her later on] BOOM. Done. Oh this is great. Best ending EVR"

Thats how it went down. Not even kidding. Its like she had this epic book, and then she went 'Fuckit' and cut it in half. >.< And it was just soo good all the way through and just like the last 70 pages were rushed.

Another thing that super pissed me off, is, there weren't any flashbacks. Or at least, there wasn't a flaskback. Of Niall. I didn't quite realize how much I love Dramatic Irony till I didn't have it any more. I wanted a freaking flasjback of Niall and how he got his scars. But noooo. I was so sonffused as to what happened to him. "It was something bad. That happened a long time ago" "That's horrible." Garhhh. There was teasing too. I really wanted to know what ahppened Via flashback. But I never got it. And then a super question;

There was a part in the book where Leslie and Nial are talking [and it is past the half way mark] and they're talking about their pasts. And Leslies like "I don't know. I didn't see their faces. They drugged me. When they...."
Niall : "Raped. Yes, I know."
"Do you?"
"It was a long time ago."

.....WTFFFF. It's just..... I'm so conffused. I talked to my sister about it and she's like, "Maybbe he's just and understanding guy"

But I'm just wondering if he was making reference to the fact that he had raped a lot of women back in his day, or as my sister says, 'He's just an understanding guy,' or as I got it, was he himself raped????

See, flashback would have been great.


But other then that, I liked it. Ending sucked balls but I liked the reszt of it. I loveed Niall. He's like, one of my new fave characters. <333

Dude, not reading a Faerie book where the chick does NOT end up with the faery. That is dumb. Who could choose a sweating, stinking, mortal with their... mortal-ness over a swoonworthy, gorgeous, brooding immortal???? Ugh. It's like when Buffy blew off Spike for Riley! "WTF?" I said. "What is the matter with you? Has the bleach destroyed your brain???"

Alaska,
I kind of agree with you. I think Niall's innuendo suggests that he was mutilated and raped.

Gross for both, and sad.

Ink Exchange was a better book than Wicked Lovely. Better character development, and more likable characters because they were mixtures of both good and bad-- Irial and Niall are the two best characters in all three novels, Irial being my favorite because for all his "badness" and his joy in the twisted and evil, he had this incredibly self-sacrificing and caring side to him regarding the care of his court and of his friend Niall and Leslie.

I've read the last book Fragile Eternity and for anyone reading this there are SPOILERS to my next comment:

How many of you really liked Aishlinn or Seth at the end of the last book? I honestly couldn't stand either of them at the end of Fragile Eternity. In the end both of their actions seemed disgustingly self centered/self-absorbed.

I thought Seth seeking eternal life as an immortal and the faerie queen giving it to him just because he asked and because she sensed he was "speeeccciiiiialllll" was really just too convenient and not believable. I think that if the Faierie Queen stayed true to character as a rational and all powerful being and some mortal off the street asked her to make him or her immortal out of the goodness of her heart--- she would just laugh at that person, snap her fingers, and turn him into fairy dust.

Plus, at the end Melissa Marr demonizes Keenan by making him the bad guy for keeping the big secret that Seth is in Faerie and not on Earth (by the way, Keenan wasn't the only one to keep that secret, Donia, Irial and Niall were in on the secret and didn't tell Aislinn because they knew she would flip out and irrationally start a war). Why did keeping that information from a volatile Aislinn make Keenan a bad person? I just didn't GET THAT! She couldn't do anything with that information and would only have put the summer court in danger of being extinguished by the Faerie Queen Sorcha.

It seems to me that Keenan is the only character who remains true to his responsibilities to his court, by trying to make it work out with a woman he doesn't but COULD love. The rest of the characters are only concerned about their own pleasures-- Donia wanting Keenan and manipulating him to forsake anyone but her, Niall wanting Leslie and wreaking revenge on everyone who wouldn't let him have her, Aislinn with all her self pity and pathetic dependence on Seth causing her chosen court to suffer and weaken because she needs to sleep with Seth (and by the way, when her summer court weakens, so does the warmth and wonder of the whole world, so she's making personal choices at the expense of a whole planet's well being), and Seth "makes friends" with all the faerie rulers because they're all Aislinn's new friends and he doesn't want to be left out of her world (by the way, COME ON, why are ALL the faerie rulers so enthralled by Seth, he's a normal HUMAN and his only saving grace is that he is Aislinn's consort) -- Seth even goes so far as to seek immortality even though should he achieve his goal, it would create a permanent and eternal four way triangle amongst Donia, Keeenan, Seth and Aislinn that will never end and someday cause a war to end all wars.....OR he could have been obliterated by Sorcha (which would have made a far more entertaining story) and really cause Aislinn to lose it as well as cause a true struggle between winter and summer (Donia versus Aislinn in a cat fight).

Seriously, almost NO CHARACTER in these novels seemed to have any redeeming quality that wasn't negated by each character's self-centered needs. Even Keenan, who I think didn't deserve Aislinn's distrust or her blame, isn't a perfect character. He's self centered as well, flipping to Donia at the drop of a hat, when Aislinn's too busy with Seth to give Keenan the time of day.

Fortunately, there are the rare characters that had some dimension: Irial and Leslie were the exceptions and Niall came close.

Compare Aislinn/Seth or Donia/Keenan to Jace and Clary who also want to jump into the sack every minute of every day from book 1 to book 3 (and throughout the books you feel sooooo baaaad for them) but they don't succumb because they realize that the impact on those around them may be irreparable. All the kisses between Jace and Clary are perfect and complicated because of their inner struggles between what they want and what is right.

I wish other authors would give their characters as much depth.