Review: Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Synopsis from Amazon:
After suffering a terrible trauma at the hands of her brother's dealer friends, Leslie becomes obsessed with the idea of getting a tattoo -- it's the one thing that will allow her to reclaim her body, renew her self-confidence. And when Rabbit, her local tattoo artist, shows her a secret book of his own designs, she finds one of them irresistible. Soon, her back is adorned with a pair of mysterious eyes, framed by black wings. Leslie feels good -- more than good. Nothing bad can touch her. But what she doesn't know is that her new tattoo binds her tightly to the faery whose symbol she chose: Irial, the exquisitely dangerous king of the Dark Court!




Review:
A 'sort-of' sequel to Wicked Lovely. I loved the use of one of the peripheral characters from Wicked Lovely becoming the protagonist in this story.

The story is slightly more frightening and darker than Wicked Lovely which is to be expected when dealing with not only the darker side of faeries but also the darker side of life.
Melissa Marr's descriptive writing literally jumps off the page and brings vivid pictures to your imagination (again this is not good when you have a phobia of snakes and there is an in-depth description of the pet boa constrictor!)

Wicked Lovely had well developed characters but Ink Exchange takes them a step further. Especially the two male protagonists, Keenan and Seth. However, I would have liked to have seen the same sort of development applied to the central female character from Wicked Lovely, Aislinn. I would have also liked information on the events surrounding Donia as she is only briefly mentioned in Ink Exchange, even though she is essential to the plot (I suppose there is only so much you can fit into a book and it leaves the reader wanting more).

Although I do not personally have a tattoo (I am too much of a wimp) I can truly admire the artistic talent involved and  this was well documented within the story.
The idea of wanting an emotional abyss was very thought provoking, who hasn't wanted an escape from reality when things are tough, the idea of not feeling hurt, anger, pain, only happiness sounds very appealing in principle.

The ending was a big surprise, but I loved it.

I adored the glossary of character names given at the back of the book, it really added an extra dimension to the plot. I wonder how long it will be before these names start showing up on the list of top ten baby names.
For those of you who dismiss reading a Faery Story try the Wicked Lovely series and be surprised, these are faeries like you have never seen before.

Highly Recommended.