Product Description

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!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5640 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From the Back Cover
Images cluttered the page, but one tattoo set her nerves on edge: inky-black eyes surrounded by wings like shadows coalescing.

Mine. The need was overpowering. Leslie looked up. "This one," she said. "I need this one."

But the image is more than just tempting art and it draws Leslie into a world of shadow and desire - into the world of Faerie.

About the Author
Melissa Marr was voted in high school the "most likely to end up in jail". Instead, she went to graduate school, worked in a bar, became a teacher and did a lot of writing. Wicked Lovely is her first novel.

Customer Reviews

Dire.
Well - I was very disappointed in this book. I liked the idea of something a little more 'dangerous' than your standard supernatural thriller. But frankly it was slow, slow reading. The central character is going through a deep personal trauma, but somehow all the characters surrounding her are paper thin, and impossible to sympathise with. Also, bits and pieces of traditional 'faery lore' are dropped in here and there, but only to give the impression the author is doing it for the sake of it, an 'ooh look I've read lots of books you know' with no respect for the traditions she's drawing upon. The central theme about drug abuse, rape and addiction is contradictory and confused - if the author has a message, it's completely lost in the white noise.

Dark faery tale
This is the sequel to Wicked Lovely. It's a dark faery tale; with the main character Leslie having been the victim of abuse that was instigated by her own brother. In an effort to hide her pain she decides to express herself by having a tattoo. She unwittingly chooses a design that incorporates the eyes of the Faery Lord of the Dark Realm. What follows is a tale that is darker than any other faery tale I've read. At times Marr seems to ramble and her writing is confusing, but this is a story that is well worth sticking with, as the suspense just builds and builds. I can't wait to see what Marr has in store for her readers next.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Torn up inside after her drug-dealer brother betrays her in the most horrible way, Leslie puts on a brave front with her friends, pretending her drunken dad isn't letting the bills pile up and hiding all her pain. Hoping to take back control over her body, she decides to get a tattoo, and picks out a special design at the tattoo parlor she often hangs out at. Unbeknownst to Leslie, that tattoo is the symbol of Irial, the king of the faerie Dark Court, designed to allow him to filter the unpleasant emotions that feed his court through her into him and his people.

As Leslie finds her vision changing and her feelings shifting in unpredictable ways, Niall, a faerie of the Summer Court who has always admired her, steps in, hoping to help her and keep Irial away. He has his own tangled feelings about Irial, whom he once counted as a friend. But as Leslie sinks further under Irial's thrall, enjoying the escape from the hurt and fear she'd been living with, only she can decide when to pull away--or whether she would rather stay with him, after all.

INK EXCHANGE is a darkly imaginative novel set in the same world as Marr's first novel, WICKED LOVELY. Readers will enjoy exploring the lives of some of that novel's minor characters and seeing more of the shadowy side of the faerie courts. They may find Leslie, Niall, and Irial less engaging than the spirited and perhaps more sympathetic narrators of WICKED LOVELY, but the trio still make for a fascinating "love" triangle as each deals with conflicting emotions and tries to decide what is right both for him or herself and for those who are counting on them.

The imagery is striking and evocative, and the politics of the different faerie courts is intriguing to explore. A great book for dark fantasy fans.

Reviewed by: Lynn Crow