Ink Exchange Review

Ink Exchange
By: Melissa Marr

Overall Rating: 3/5

Ink Exchange focuses on the minor characters previously mentioned in the first book, Wicked Lovely, such as Kennan's advisor; Niall, the king of the Dark Court; Irial, and Aislinn's mortal friend; Leslie. Leslie is living in a nightmare ever since her drug addict brother allowed his dealer to rape her as payment. She feels like her body belongs to someone else, not her own. In addition, Leslie has no one to talk to because her friendship with the Summer Queen, Aislinn is filled with half-truths and Leslie feels like she can't tell her anything. To reclaim her body, she decides to get a tattoo to reclaim her body, but the tattoo she has chosen may change her life forever. Meanwhile, the Dark Court is starving as a result of the peace between the Summer and Winter courts because they feed on emotions of pain, hatred, anger, and every other dark emotion. Leslie choses the symbol of the Dark King for her tattoo, which binds her to Irial, causing him to be able to feed himself and his court on human feelings. Niall and Irial both develops forbidden feelings for Leslie, and both make sacrifices because of this. 

I was stuck between giving Ink Exchange a three or a four. The concept of this novel was interesting in the beginning and makes the reader eager to continue on, however I was a little disappointed. The idea of switching characters and making minor ones major characters, and major characters minor is a good idea, but unfortunately this caused a lot of switches between point of views which made it confusing at some points. There was also a lot going on with such little detailed, if it was developed more, Ink Exchange would've been much better. Also, there are so many love triangles and squares going on in the series and I hope Marr doesn't mix Leslie's story and Aislinn's story together in the other books. However, a bit on the positive side, we learn that the Dark Court isn't as dark as the first book made it sound. Despite their craving for blood and wars, Irial is a person that truly cares for his fey and knows the difference between friend and foe. Although he eats up emotions and feelings of others, he surprisingly has feelings himself. He has never forgotten or forgiven Niall for refusing the throne long ago and even welcomed Niall back after the current circumstances. I like these slightly new characters even better than the old ones and I hope Marr expands on them even more in the next book. Overall, it started out intense and amazing, but it downgraded and became draggy as the story went on.