Okbo Lover

Although it helps if you read Wicked Lovely before you get into Ink Exchange, it’s not really that necessary – Ink Exchange is considered a ‘companion novel’. As the story centralizes on a particular character that played a very small part in Wicked Lovely, you can actually read this as a stand alone if you really want. Then you can read Wicked Lovely as a means to get the rest of the background information on the rest of the characters.

In Ink Exchange, Leslie, one of Aislinn’s friends, has caught the eye and attention of Irial, the Kind of the Dark Court. She decides to get a tattoo, a specifically designed tattoo that’s caught her eye and demands to have it in an instant. Once on her, Leslie goes through strange changes and realizes her tattoo is a direct link to Irial and she’s directly connected to him. Irial needs Leslie to feed his starving Court negative feelings – something the Court needs to survive. Now Leslie is incapable of feeling anything negative, and this takes a toll on her mental health.

I love Irial! what a perfect character. He just oozed sexiness and charm.  I really do like the idea of the Dark Court and it makes perfect sense how Irial can lead it – he absolutely fits the role like a well worn comfortable shirt. The characters that make up the Dark Court were fascinating and well done. Leslie was also well written. Living in a horrible home environment, an extremely horrible brother, and a father who’s hardly there, it’s no wonder she’s so filled with negative emotions and thoughts. I like her though. I think she’s a much better character than Aislinn (I still don’t like her don’t think I ever will unless she undergoes a complete personality makeover in the next books).

What bothered me a lot about Aislinn is her reluctance to tell Leslie (who happens to be a good friend) about the faerie world and she had a hunch on what was going on..so why the reluctance? it wasn’t just her though, it was Seth too. Why didn’t they at least warn her or tell her about the faerie world?. These two were just so frustrating to read. I never liked Aislinn in the first place, and I used to like Seth but now, I’m not so sure.

The plot was all right, although I found it a little dry. (Yet I also found Wicked Lovely rather dry too) I’m not sure why, perhaps it’s the writing style or perhaps I’m just not really that interested in faeries. I’m sure fans of this series would enjoy this book. The little twist in the end got me good and because of that I will probably read the rest of this series. Although it’s not the best I’ve read, it’s certainly not the worst.

Overall, it’s a great companion book to Wicked Lovely and the little twist at the end will have fans wanting more. In my opinion, you could either take it or leave it.

I give it a 6 out of 10.