Ink Exchange Review - Becca In A Book

Summary

In the second installment of the Wicked Lovely series, the world of the Fae are at a crossroads. With the Summer Court in balance because of their new queen, the Dark Court is suffering. Their king, Irial has found a way to feed his court again, but it comes at a cost and a broken mortal will have to pay the price.

My Thoughts:

This second book of the series was honestly just so sad and broke my heart. While the first book’s main character was Aislinn, this second book focuses on one of her close friends, Leslie. Leslie doesn’t know anything about fairies, but has noticed her friend has been a little distracted lately and has been keeping secrets from her.

Leslie has also been keeping secrets, but they are darker and much more sinister. She has changed and she doesn’t know how to deal with it. With her home life becoming something she can no longer cope with and her life at school changed, she doesn’t see a way out. She wants a change so she gets a tattoo, which I did almost a year ago. She also is trying to run away from a nightmarish situation arranged by her brother, a person that is supposed to protect and love her no matter what. She doesn’t want to feel any pain so she tries to run away from it and when the tattoo allows her to take her feelings away she jumps on it.

However, when she realizes that she needs her feelings, she wants them back no matter the cost. I felt as though this was an allegory to how people want to feel no pain instead of embracing it and getting through it. Pain is an important step to healing and Leslie learns that through her experiences with Irial in the book. I was in awe of Leslie’s strength and I was so angry when no one was truly there for her. They would all rather forget about her experience instead of process and deal with it.

I was extremely disappointed with Aislinn. I really liked her in the other book, but she pissed me off in this one. She should have told Leslie, especially if she still wanted to be friends with her and go to places where her secret would be so obvious. I felt that if Aislinn had told Leslie what was going on, she would’ve told Aislinn what had happened to her and they would have gotten through it together. However, since she kept things from her, she ran to Irial and went through it the hard way.

Irial was also such a depressing character. He was devilish and wicked in such a yummy way. However, throughout the book he develops into a much softer and thoughtful character because of his connection with Leslie. In the beginning he sees mortals as a thing to be used and disposed of and all that changes when he connects with Leslie. I think their relationship humbles him and changes what he wants out of life. These are the reasons why he believes he can no longer be leader of the Dark Court and transfers it to Niall.

Niall probably is my favorite character in this installment and he is the best thing for Leslie. He tries so hard to be good and to do the right thing by everyone and I just feel for him so much. Irial betrayed him long ago and then Keenan also betrays him in almost the same way so he just is always getting slapped in the face honestly. He also was the only person that was giving Leslie sound advice and actually helping her heal from her trauma because he too experienced something that was terrible and the reason he ran to the Summer Court. However, I think he finally understood that he couldn’t run from his feelings, like Leslie, and will have to embrace his position as King of the Dark Court.

KEENAN CAN EAT POOP, honestly. He is such a terrible creature and I want to hit him in the face. First of all, he is hiding things from Aislinn, who is his queen and is to rule by his side, he lets Leslie get the tattoo that HE KNEW ALL ABOUT, and he treats Niall like crap. He can go away now.

Lastly, I know this review is so long, I was obsessed with the idea of the power of the tattoo. It was just a beautiful idea and will probably get it on my body someday! I just loved how it represented each fae and it was a connection between a fae and a mortal, just SO COOL!

Overall, it was a great read and I can’t wait for the next installment!