Book Review: Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

I have finally finished Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr.  I was a little distracted while reading this one, but got there in the end.  You will have to excuse my review, this is my first book review blog.  PLEASE NOTE:  this review does have spoilers, so if you haven't read the book yet, you may want to brace yourself towards the end of my review.




When I started this book I had great expectations and it did deliver. As I found with Wicked Lovely, this one also was a little confusing and hard to follow in the first couple of chapters.  Once Leslie's story started to get more detailed things started to get exciting.

Leslie is a teenager with a best friend whom is the Summer Queen, but of course Leslie has no idea.  Leslie's had a hard life and it was only going to get harder.  She had family issues that had made her isolate herself from Aislinn and her other friends.  Leslie was embarrassed about what had happened, which is common in reality. 

The attention to detail of the tattoo, the equipment and process was amazing.  I myself have a tattoo and it was wonderful to see the perspective of the artist themselves.  Leslie's tattoo was awesome and really became apart of the story.  Leslie was hoping once she finished getting her ink, it would change her confidence and help her life become more stable.  Of course, this was only the beginning and she didn't realise what was going to happen once it was completed.  I was really happy when at the end of the book, an actual picture of the tattoo was shown.  Of course you have the picture in your mind when reading the book, but to actually see the Author's vision was a lot better.

The story skipped a little ahead towards the end when Leslie decided she didn't want to continue in the Dark Court.  I was a little surprised that all of a sudden she was saying yes to Niall and wanting out.  I felt like there was a step missing, but that could just be me.

I was surprised to see what happens after she leaves the Dark Court.  I thought there would be a happy ever after for her and Niall.  But I guess it could happen in the next book, Radiant Shadows.  It was also a surprise to see Irial give up his crown.  I did love these surprises and was happy that Leslie made her own decisions to make herself happy in the end.

This book was fantastic overall and I would recommend it to everyone.  I can't wait to read the next one to see which Court is being written about and if Aislinn and/or Leslie will be in them.  I gave this book 4stars, excellent, thank you Melissa Marr.