A follow-up to Wicked Lovely, the focus shifts to Leslie and Irial, the King of the Dark Court. Ash, Keenan, and Seth play a role in the book. However, after the new truce between the Summer and Winter Court there is not enough chaos to sustain the Dark Court. Irial tries an experiment based on ink used in a tattoo to get a gateway to human emotions to try to help feed the fey in his realm. Unfortunately for Leslie who is reeling and suffering from some personal tragedies in her life, she picks Irial's tattoo and gets dragged into this other world. There is also a love triangle with Niall and much more of his history is revealed. I'm interested enough in the series to look for the third installment to see what happens with these characters next. ( )

Ink Exchange is the companion novel to Wicked Lovely, which basically means that it is not the sequel to Wicked Lovely, but is still set in the same world and has many of the same characters as Wicked Lovely. Personally, I like Ink Exchange better than I did Wicked Lovely. To be fair, WL was one of the first fae novels that I’d read, along with the Holly Black series, so I was just getting to know about the glamours and the sight and all that fae lingo. Ink Exchange is definitely the darker novel of the too, this one is basically about addiction. It revolves around one of Ash’s friends Leslie, Irial, the king of the Dark Court, and Niall, Keenan's adviser. I love this world that Marr has created where faeries and mortals co-exist. She paints a beautiful world full of mayhem and chaos! And I love that she doesn’t give a happy fairy-tale ending, well the ending that I wanted to see anyway, and yet I find that it was very satisfying. The characters in this novel are fantastic. You have the Dark Court, which obviously is supposed to be bad, but are they really? Every character is flawed, they have these wonderful qualities and yet they also have these bad qualities. It’s refreshing to be unable to label who’s good and who’s evil. There was a lot more depth than I was expecting. My first impressions of Leslie from Wicked Lovely were extremely off. She is one of the most complex characters and it was totally unexpected. I really recommend this one for dark fantasy fans. ( )

synopsis

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. . . .

my review

I read this one before Wicked Lovely(oops), I loved the Dark king and Niall. I wished things would end differently but it was a good read. I wonder how Niall will rule as New Dark King. The story line was awesome. Leslie being tied to The dark king by a tattoo, really cool. It was a whole new side of fairies, the dark and creepy kind. I wonder how things will play out in the next book.... ( )

Reading the start of the book almost made me put it down due to the suffering the character (Leslie) had gone through. Once I got past that, I started to cheer for her, and her strength and determination. Great read! I am going to pick up the next book "Fragile Eternity." The first chapter is in the back of Ink Exchange has me quite interested! ( )

I thought that the themes the author wove into this book were very important for young adults to think about. The main themem I found was about choices and self value, here are some quotes from the book I found pertainant, "They were all choices. To not act was a choice too. . . It's still me I might not have many choices but I'm still choosing", "It wasn't the tattoo that had changed her, had given her repossesion of her body. It was her actions, her choices." That being said, I didn't like this book quite as much as I did Wicked Lovely. I found the characters were not as well defined or reachable to the reader. I felt a real connection to Ash, I thought Lelise was to far gone to touch. Also, I found it difficult to start Ink Exchange, I didn't really get into it until around page 96. I am still looking forward to Fragile Eternity, and all the other books that come along with this series. ( )