Ink Exchange

By: Melissa Marr

Narrated by: Nick Landrum

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.

©2008 Melissa Marr (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Another highly addictive read....Compulsive enough to give the Twilight series a run for its money, and dizzyingly more sinister." ( Publishers Weekly)
"This dark fantasy about survival and transformation is as mesmerizing as its urban faery subjects." ( Booklist)
"Readers will be drawn in by Marr's darkly poetic imagery and language, her vivid portrayal of the art of tattooing, and her shadowy love triangle. This is indeed a delicious, smoky delight." ( Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books)

well its about time

I am hard to please! I loved this book, and went on to read the series. Well worth the money, even the narrator was awesome! If you dont like this one something might be wrong with you, see a doctor.

Found myself zoning out

The narrator has a nice voice but also struggled to make different voices for each character, i had trouble realizing who was who.
Also the story dragged in some places and for so long that I zoned out pretty often and would miss a lot of background info or beginning dialogue but the plot also didnt hold my interest as much as it could have.
it has potential, this story is nice for background noise while cleaning or driving.

A Good Read (Book 2 of 5)

What did you love best about Ink Exchange?

I loved the darkness to the story. It makes for an interesting read.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Ink Exchange?

The entire book was equally interesting to me.

Have you listened to any of Nick Landrum’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. He did a good job but I'm giving only 4 out of 5 starts because they switched the narrator from book 1.

I hate when they do this. Luckily this 2nd narrator is kept for the other 3 books following this one.

He reads well and is not boring.

But I enjoyed the narrator from book 1 more.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I laughed at times.

Any additional comments?

This book was written and read well.

This series of books each have their own stories. Meaning all the 5 books share the same characters and world, but each book focuses on a different main character.

I thought this was interesting and different.

This style of a book series leaves the majority of the reader up in rage because they learned to love the first main character.

However I rather enjoyed it.

wonderful

I loved it, it was beautifully written with full characters that you have a chance to love and hate! The story was haunting and held my interest to the end. There are 4 in this series, this is the second one. Very good.

I expected more

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

no I would not recommend it. The story was too slow for my taste and I lost track numbers of time because the narrators voice was so hypnotic, really :) Would be great on Relaxing tape.

Has Ink Exchange turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes

love

I adore this story line and LOVE the Author.... I would most definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes gritty mythological characters that are seeded in the true legends of these creatures. . not the fluffy sparkle fairytale's of the present

3/5

this book wasn't quite as interesting as the 1st book. I'm not sorry that I read it though

Unexpected

I entered into this book dying for the next chapter Aislinn's story but walked into Leslie's, the pick up was slow and muddled but once thing caught up, I ended up really apprciating Leslie's chatacter and her strength and the lessons learned in this book. We get to see behind the veil of the shadow fae, and the struggle amongst the courts. Getting to know different characters that are pivotal to what lays ahead, I can just feel it.

Best book in the series

I was recently introduced to the fairy-focused Wicked Lovely series and have now listened to the first four books. I can honestly say that Ink Exchange, which is the second book in the Wicked Lovely series, is the best book in this series. Ink Exchange delves into the inner working of the dark fairy court. Melissa Marr creates a rich background for both Niall and Irial while highlighting the dark court. In the process of creating a background for Niall and Irial, Marr creates the two strongest characters in this series. Niall and Irial are fantastic because they have lived life but are not broken by it (hopefully). Ink Exchange, and the Wicked Lovely series as a whole, does deal with more mature topics than the age group recommended for this book. I AM NOT suggesting that preteens and teens stay away from the books in this series. I AM suggesting that parents might enjoy reading these books with their kids and discussing the characters and the choices they make.

Not my favorite of the series.

Before I even bother to say anything else about the actual book I think this needs to come first: the absolute worst part of these audiobooks is that the narrator can't effing pronounce the (arguably) *main* character of the series' name correctly. It's pronounced ASH-LIN you absolute knob. The G is effing silent. FFS, the way its spelled in these books doesn't even *have* a G, so how in tf are you even getting that confused? I sincerely hope the author doesn't legit think Aislinn is pronounced with a G at the end. It may be spelled Aisling sometimes but even that spelling it is a silent G. So. Anyway. That made my ears bleed every single time he mentioned her name - and the narrator of the previous one did it wrong as well. With all of the other names he got right i just don't understand how he messed this one up so egregiously.

On to this actual book:
This one was OK. I really liked the concept of the magic at play, but I didn't like how it was framed. I didn't like the very sudden change of main cast and perspective without a whole lot of reasoning why. I didn't like following Leslie around as she makes stupid decision after stupid decision. I didn't like the way she portrayed her being "emotionless" because I don't feel it was particularly compelling. The whole book just felt both too slow and rushed at the same time - Irial is a huge jerk and yet she keeps going on about how much she loves him which I hate. Not a fan of how they say her pact was "her choice" yet they didn't explain jack about what would happen so very obviously it wasn't. Yes, I know these are faeries, but the main cast of faeries behaves remarkably like mortals and mortal values are pushed onto them at every turn by the author, so I felt sort of like "pick a lane" either have evil faeries who don't give a #$_& or have faeries that are basically just pretty magic humans.
Also, I think the personality change for Niall was extremely sudden and confusing. I get that Keenan betrayed him and sure he's angry, but by the next book he's basically just a Discount Irial™ with no real personality traits of his own, nothing interesting going on in his head, and everything I liked about him from the first book and beginning of this one (being respectful etc) is 100% erased in favor of his new smoking habit and Edgy Anger©. Maybe she turned him into a fake Irial on purpose to make a point, but she's taking her damn time making the point of there is one.
Finally, I felt it was weird how little Aislinn was in the book, and I felt we should've learned more about the dark court instead of just listening to them drone on and on about how Leslie and Irial are feeling and never getting to the point..