Ink Exchange Immediately

This is the book that follows Wicked Lovely, the first book in this series. While it does follow the next steps of Aislinn, Seth and Keenan, it has another girl, Leslie, school friend of Aislinn as the main protagonist. At first I was a little bit disappointed as I really fell in love with the characters from Wicked Lovely and wanted to follow them on, but as I continued reading I decided that I liked this new focus, as it explores the faerie world in greater scope, including the world of the Dark Court which would not have been possible if written from the perspective of those characters.

This is a much darker book than Wicked Lovely, exploring the Dark Court and the shadow elements of human life. I was impressed with the way the story didn't shy away from these aspects of life and a lot of them are covered in this story. Ranging from desire, lust, greed, deceit and manipulation for personal gain, all the way through to abandonment, neglect, abuse, drug addiction and rape. Like the first book, I would consider this to be suitable for more mature young adult readers, probably 15/16 years of age and up, or at least a book that I would recommend parents read and make a decision about whether it is suitable or not for the young adults in their family.

Once again, Melissa Marr has managed to bring the myths and legends of the fey into a modern context. They are ancient beings in a new world and they survive well, and like in all good faerie stories, woe-betide the humans that catch their attention! Again the faerie characters are written in such a way that despite all their evil and dangerous traps, their motivations are not just to cause damage and wreak havoc, they are trapped by the obligations of their own world and act for their survival. Like one of the characters mentions several times, they are neither as awful or as kind as you first think.

I really enjoyed following Leslie's story, although of course I didn't enjoy knowing about the violence and abuse and manipulation she suffered through. Ultimately I loved that she is a survivor, and loved following her journey through the shadows - those forced upon her and those of her own making - as she struggles to gain control over her own body and her life.

I powered through this story and am really looking forward to following on with the next book in the series.Get more detail about Ink Exchange.