Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Publisher's 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. . . .

My Take: I had a hard time deciding how I would rate Ink Exchange. It is definitely not as good as Wicked Lovely and it is a darker book as well. I found the whole thing about marking Ash’s friend Leslie by tattoos that essentially links her to the Dark Court strange. It also kept bothering me that she wasn’t talking to anyone about what was happening to her. Ash is so caught up in the life she is not caught up in; she doesn’t even recognize that her friend is getting mixed up in it as well.

The dynamics of the Dark Court is also really strange. There is a part in the book that was really evil and I was wondering how the heck this Leslie chick is able to handle it. One major confliction I have is, after my ill feelings toward the Dark Court I still was a little disappointed in the decision Leslie makes in the end.

This book is still very different so I think that it deserves 4 stars even though I didn’t fall in love with it as much as I did with Wicked Lovely.