Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange & Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

I finished reading Tithe by Holly Black this weekend and I said to myself: "This isn't the book that I should be reading!" I got a little bored and I feel the story is a little shallow for me. I realized also Valiant, which happens to be book 2 isn't quite the book 2 of Tithe. I think the sequel for Tithe is Ironside which is the 3rd book. I got discouraged and I decided to keep the books for my future reads if ever.

I searched for my stack of "books to read" and I decided to read Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr instead. Wicked Lovely is about faeries as well. So far, I am half-way already as I continuosly read and make my mind wander in a fantasy during the contemporary times, to my surprise I am enjoying it as much as I enjoy reading the Mortal Instruments Trilogy. I know this is not a bad idea of choosing Wicked Lovely in exchange for the books written by Holly Black.

To give you guys a brief plot summary of the novels written by Melissa Marr, I took the summary from http://www.wikipedia.org/

WICKED LOVELY (2007)

Wicked Lovely is the first novel in a series about a world where faeries and mortals intermingle. The story introduces Aislinn, a teen who can see the faeries around her, but who has been taught all her life to pretend not to see them. When Keenan, the faery Summer King, enters her life, he poses a threat to Aislinn's family, friends, and future.

INK EXCHANGE (2008)

The prologue begins by retelling a scene from Wicked Lovely where Leslie walks into a tattoo shop with Irial, King of the Dark Court, narrated from Irial's point of view. The first chapter then shows Leslie preparing for a normal day of school, and it is revealed that she is being neglected by her alcoholic father and that her brother, Ren, is a drug addict. When Leslie reaches school, Aislinn, the protagonist from Wicked Lovely, is shown to have adjusted well to her new life, and Leslie is suspicious of the changes.

Later, Leslie walks into a tattoo parlor and chooses eyes surrounded by wings—the symbol of Irial. Not knowing the significance of the tattoo and its connection to Irial, she feels an odd compulsion to get the tattoo. Rabbit, the owner of the parlor, tells Leslie to come back later, as the ink takes some time to prepare.

The book then cuts to Irial, and it is revealed that the Dark Court needs to feed off dark emotions such as anger, hate, and pain from both Fey and mortals to stay strong and that Irial's solution is to have an ink exchange with a mortal (Leslie) where the Dark Court's blood and tears are used as the ink for the tattoo. This joins them together and allows Irial to use Leslie as a conduit to absorb more emotion and thus be able to feed his court.

When Leslie starts to get her tattoo, Irial is curious about Leslie and approaches her, but Aislinn tries to keep them apart. Simultaneously, Niall is also developing an infatuation with Leslie, even though Aislinn has forbidden Niall to interact too much with Leslie as Aislinn wants Leslie to be kept out of the world of the fey.

It is also revealed that Niall had history with Irial, that he is a "Gancanagh", a faerie with a drug in his skin that mortals become addicted to, and that Irial wanted Niall to rule after him but Niall refused after seeing the horror that happened in the Dark Court bruig (the place where the Dark Court feed off humans, usually killing them or driving them insane in the process), causing Irial to order Gabriel (the leader of the Hounds, Gabriel is the name of the position, not an actual name, e.g. "Gabriel's Hounds") to give Niall the scar on his face. After this, Niall swore fealty to the summer court to escape the things he had done with Irial.

When Leslie's tattoo is complete, Irial takes her away while Niall leaves the Summer Court when he found out that Keenan has been using him and his connection with Irial and Leslie to find out more about the Dark Court. Niall and Leslie meet up and Niall tells Leslie that he has a way of breaking the bond between Irial and her, should she ever want to. When Leslie learns that Irial is killing other mortals to keep her alive, she takes Niall up on his offer. He uses sunlight and frost taken from the Winter and Summer Queens to burn and freeze the link and the tattoo off Leslie.

In the end, both Irial and Niall leave Leslie alone so she can pursue a normal, human life. Irial then hands over his throne to Niall, saying that he is the only Faerie he has found in all these centuries worthy to lead the Dark fey after him, and then Irial swears fealty to Niall. The book ends with Irial walking away thinking he has made a good choice.

FRAGILE ETERNITY (2009)

Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone—but that was before Aislinn.

She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.

Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her—but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.

In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos."