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grassangelI read these two books shortly after each other and now I am dead from it.
Ink Exchange, along with Wicked Lovely, are the two stand alones in the series. Meaning you can read those independent of each other and still get what’s going on. The other three, you need to have read those two books to understand.
With that in mind, yes you can read Ink Exchange first but then you don’t get a superior feeling of knowing what happened with Aislinn and an ‘oh!’ when you realise who was in the tattoo shop that time.
I didn’t find much to comment on with this one. Perhaps it's because they've all started picking up only half the way through. (Yes, it's getting really irritating. I like the characterisation and actual story but the execution and pacing are excruciating.)
Ink Exchange almost felt useless, so I found even less things of note. Except for the entire ending. And we get an extra look at the gang from Wicked Lovely. So it’s mostly that.
Keenan’s manipulation of Niall made me very uneasy. Even though it did kind of lead to Niall leaving the Summer Court and becoming a solitary fey and thus becoming eligible for the crown of Dark King. Just… yes. Keenan being all manipulative like that makes me uneasy.
And when Seth was explaining what Aislinn was to Leslie, I felt so sorry for him, knowing that he’s trying his best to ignore his worries, fears, anger and jealousy. Which I suppose is why Fragile Eternity is ‘his’ book. Yes, Seth is one of my favourite characters.
My unexpected ship of the book is Niall/Irial. Or Irial/Niall, whichever you prefer. I was kind of shipping it before of that scene in the epilogue where Irial transfers leadership of the Dark court to Niall, but that pretty much cemented that pair for me.
Although it is pretty much a close bond but no touchy kind of relationship in which there is sexual tension between them and they have sex but not with each other. It’s vaguely kind of similar to Felix and Mildmay. Kind of. Both have their roots in sex/sexual tension but have changed to be about something totally different and both parties have a kind of respect for each other.
Aside from those bits though, I didn’t find Ink Exchange that fun.
Now, Fragile Eternity. This was… interesting and made me yo-yo between being angry at Seth and squeeing at him. It also made me really dislike Keenan as well. Not that I ever liked Keenan in the first place, but it drives home the fact he’s a manipulating bastard, which we only got to see a little bit of in Ink Exchange. (And not at all in Wicked Lovely, which makes sense as Aislinn is completely blind to that side of him and that book is hers.)
I found more to comment about in this book. I’m not sure whether it’s because it’s Seth’s book or because it’s the first book that is actually part of the series rather than a stand-alone. Because on one hand it’s SETH and I usually find something to say about my favourite characters but on the other there’s PLOT and threads of war and betrayal. Or perhaps it’s got characters becoming a bit more human as well as becoming a bit more inhuman.
So, as I mentioned above, Seth was my favourite character and this book made him swing rather violently in and out of my good graces.
First he got all moody over Aislinn and then desperate over finding a way to be with her forever and then forgetting the most important question when dealing with faerie: “what’s the time conversion?”
But then Sorcha kind of redeemed him as well as his actions RIGHT at the end of the book. (These books aren’t as bad as Mercedes Lackey’s but they still take a while to warm up and all the action does take place in the last third. They at least don’t have overt info dumps.) Sorcha also earned herself a place tied with Donia in my favourites.
Wished there was more about Seth’s real parents though. Sorcha becoming a little bit more human was fun, especially when Seth told her off when she was about to give too much information but there’s only a vague picture of why Seth had anger problems and is living in a train on his own. (Or I may just have forgotten any real clues that were present in Wicked Lovely, if there were any.)
Donia gets bumped up my favourite characters list (to tie with Sorcha for third) with how she addresses Keenan, especially the line: “Hope that some of us are kinder to you than you’ve been to us.”
Niall still stays second favourite, partly because he does seem to be handling the Dark Court well and because he’s also rather brusque with Keenan.
*colours* The reunion in Faerie between Seth and Niall was cute, although I think I like their friendship better when Seth was human. But eh, we hardly see anything out of Faerie between them, so that may just be me.
Oh my… I’m doing that secondary character thing, aren’t I? Except it isn’t really secondary because each book has a different character/court focus. But still, I’m disliking Aislinn, mostly for her UTTER DENIAL over Keenan’s manipulations and really disliking Keenan because he’s being a manipulating bastard.
By the way, the fourth book is about Ani. The usefulness of following authors on Twitter. (And Diane Duane wrote Stark Trek novelisations? (But now must try to track down the adult novels in the Young Wizards series. °д°))
Also, the back cover for Fragile Eternity says the series title is ‘Tales of Faerie’ which I think is a lame series title and should be the ‘FaerieMafia Courts books' instead. (It was in Ink Exchange that I realised that the courts are very much like gangs. This mental categorisation has not been erased and probably won’t be.)
I actually like this book, as opposed to it being the ‘meh’ of the previous two. This is good and I just hope it isn’t going to be a one off thing. *gives thumbs up*
Very tempted to recommend on it’s own, but you do need to at least read Wicked Lovely and not just my comments on it either. (Except all that I said about Seth and Aislinn, Keenan and Donia is now NULL AND VOID.) You do need to get an idea of what everything was like before everything got overturned.
I’d also say read the epilogue of Ink Exchange, either in the bookstore or from the library, just not the whole book.
Ink Exchange, along with Wicked Lovely, are the two stand alones in the series. Meaning you can read those independent of each other and still get what’s going on. The other three, you need to have read those two books to understand.
With that in mind, yes you can read Ink Exchange first but then you don’t get a superior feeling of knowing what happened with Aislinn and an ‘oh!’ when you realise who was in the tattoo shop that time.
I didn’t find much to comment on with this one. Perhaps it's because they've all started picking up only half the way through. (Yes, it's getting really irritating. I like the characterisation and actual story but the execution and pacing are excruciating.)
Ink Exchange almost felt useless, so I found even less things of note. Except for the entire ending. And we get an extra look at the gang from Wicked Lovely. So it’s mostly that.
Keenan’s manipulation of Niall made me very uneasy. Even though it did kind of lead to Niall leaving the Summer Court and becoming a solitary fey and thus becoming eligible for the crown of Dark King. Just… yes. Keenan being all manipulative like that makes me uneasy.
And when Seth was explaining what Aislinn was to Leslie, I felt so sorry for him, knowing that he’s trying his best to ignore his worries, fears, anger and jealousy. Which I suppose is why Fragile Eternity is ‘his’ book. Yes, Seth is one of my favourite characters.
My unexpected ship of the book is Niall/Irial. Or Irial/Niall, whichever you prefer. I was kind of shipping it before of that scene in the epilogue where Irial transfers leadership of the Dark court to Niall, but that pretty much cemented that pair for me.
Although it is pretty much a close bond but no touchy kind of relationship in which there is sexual tension between them and they have sex but not with each other. It’s vaguely kind of similar to Felix and Mildmay. Kind of. Both have their roots in sex/sexual tension but have changed to be about something totally different and both parties have a kind of respect for each other.
Aside from those bits though, I didn’t find Ink Exchange that fun.
Now, Fragile Eternity. This was… interesting and made me yo-yo between being angry at Seth and squeeing at him. It also made me really dislike Keenan as well. Not that I ever liked Keenan in the first place, but it drives home the fact he’s a manipulating bastard, which we only got to see a little bit of in Ink Exchange. (And not at all in Wicked Lovely, which makes sense as Aislinn is completely blind to that side of him and that book is hers.)
I found more to comment about in this book. I’m not sure whether it’s because it’s Seth’s book or because it’s the first book that is actually part of the series rather than a stand-alone. Because on one hand it’s SETH and I usually find something to say about my favourite characters but on the other there’s PLOT and threads of war and betrayal. Or perhaps it’s got characters becoming a bit more human as well as becoming a bit more inhuman.
So, as I mentioned above, Seth was my favourite character and this book made him swing rather violently in and out of my good graces.
First he got all moody over Aislinn and then desperate over finding a way to be with her forever and then forgetting the most important question when dealing with faerie: “what’s the time conversion?”
But then Sorcha kind of redeemed him as well as his actions RIGHT at the end of the book. (These books aren’t as bad as Mercedes Lackey’s but they still take a while to warm up and all the action does take place in the last third. They at least don’t have overt info dumps.) Sorcha also earned herself a place tied with Donia in my favourites.
Wished there was more about Seth’s real parents though. Sorcha becoming a little bit more human was fun, especially when Seth told her off when she was about to give too much information but there’s only a vague picture of why Seth had anger problems and is living in a train on his own. (Or I may just have forgotten any real clues that were present in Wicked Lovely, if there were any.)
Donia gets bumped up my favourite characters list (to tie with Sorcha for third) with how she addresses Keenan, especially the line: “Hope that some of us are kinder to you than you’ve been to us.”
Niall still stays second favourite, partly because he does seem to be handling the Dark Court well and because he’s also rather brusque with Keenan.
*colours* The reunion in Faerie between Seth and Niall was cute, although I think I like their friendship better when Seth was human. But eh, we hardly see anything out of Faerie between them, so that may just be me.
Oh my… I’m doing that secondary character thing, aren’t I? Except it isn’t really secondary because each book has a different character/court focus. But still, I’m disliking Aislinn, mostly for her UTTER DENIAL over Keenan’s manipulations and really disliking Keenan because he’s being a manipulating bastard.
By the way, the fourth book is about Ani. The usefulness of following authors on Twitter. (And Diane Duane wrote Stark Trek novelisations? (But now must try to track down the adult novels in the Young Wizards series. °д°))
Also, the back cover for Fragile Eternity says the series title is ‘Tales of Faerie’ which I think is a lame series title and should be the ‘Faerie
I actually like this book, as opposed to it being the ‘meh’ of the previous two. This is good and I just hope it isn’t going to be a one off thing. *gives thumbs up*
Very tempted to recommend on it’s own, but you do need to at least read Wicked Lovely and not just my comments on it either. (Except all that I said about Seth and Aislinn, Keenan and Donia is now NULL AND VOID.) You do need to get an idea of what everything was like before everything got overturned.
I’d also say read the epilogue of Ink Exchange, either in the bookstore or from the library, just not the whole book.
