Plot summary
The prologue of Ink Exchange recalls a scene from Wicked Lovely narrated by Irial, King of the Dark Court, in which he walks into a tattoo shop with Leslie, a 17-year-old human. The novel then follows Leslie as she prepares for a normal day of school. Leslie's alcoholic father and Ren, her drug-dealing brother, neglect her. Having once been drugged and raped by Ren's customers to cover a debt, Leslie fears her family, yet still pays the bills by working as a waitress. When Leslie reaches school she is suspicious of how well Aislinn, the protagonist from Wicked Lovely, has adjusted to her new life as a faery, a type of supernatural entity. Aislinn, formerly human, is the Summer Queen in the world of the fey, a world which she tries desperately to keep from Leslie.
The novel changes perspective to follow Irial. It is revealed that the Dark Court feeds off of emotions such as anger, hate, pain, and other negative emotions to stay strong. When another faery is killed by an ordinary bullet, Irial is desperate for a way to protect his kind. With the help of his "left hand" Gabriel and his pack of "Hounds," keep his own and other courts in check. When confronted with numerous rebellions, Irial decides to pursue an ink exchange with a mortal to provide a constant stream of emotion to feed his court. After Leslie, the chosen one, receives a tattoo, traditional tattoo ink is exchanged for Dark Court blood and tears to connect the two.
Leslie soon starts to feel and perceive her surroundings as Irial would, seeing past faeries' human disguises as an effect of the ink exchange. When she falls in love with Niall she avoids admitting her connection to his world. Her connection to the faeries deepens when she returns to the tattoo shop and begins to hear Irial's voice in her head. Irial has come to the conclusion that he loves her, and refuses to let any harm come to her. When Leslie goes to a club to celebrate her finished tattoo with Seth and Niall, Irial begins to speak through Leslie to deflect the advances of other faeries. In the club, Irial and Leslie finally unite, connected by a shadow vine that represents the ink exchange. Niall, still in love, soon tells Leslie that he can help her break the bond with Irial, should she ever want to.
Over the next few weeks, Leslie blurs in and out of consciousness, incapable of leaving Irial's side for more than a minute. When Leslie begins to understand that Irial is feeding on her negative emotions, leaving her incapable of feeling them, she realizes he has taken away her freedom to live. In an attempt to inflict more pain onto Leslie to feed his court, Irial and his faeries murder several human companions at once, committing the acts as in scenes from plays, much to Leslie's displeasure. When Leslie asks Niall to help free her, he uses sunlight and frost taken from the Winter and Summer Queens to burn and freeze the link and the tattoo off Leslie.
Before restoring her human life and leaving the faerie world behind, Leslie goes to Irial one last time, asking him never to use the ink exchange on another human again. He solemnly agrees. The novel ends with Irial making Niall the new king of the dark court and them both watching Leslie and her new human friends.
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The leannán sídhe is a figure from Irish Folklore. She is depicted as a beautiful woman of the Aos Sí who takes a human lover. Lovers of the leannán sídhe are said to live brief, though highly inspired, lives. The name comes from the Gaelic words for a sweetheart, lover, or concubine and the term for inhabitants of fairy mounds (fairy). While the leannán sídhe is most often depicted as a female fairy, there is at least one reference to a male leannán sídhe troubling a mortal woman.
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Mistral's Kiss is the fifth novel in the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton, and was released December 12, 2006.
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Wicked Lovely is a young adult/urban fantasy novel by author Melissa Marr. The story follows protagonist Aislinn, who has the Sight, and whose life begins to unravel when it seems the fey-folk develop a sudden interest in her. The novel intertwines the old rules of fairytales and folklore with the modern expectations of adolescent 21st-century life. It was published by HarperTeen, a division of HarperCollins, in June 2007 in the US. Wicked Lovely was originally written as a short story,, before the author decided to expand on her work in order to further develop the characters. She completed the novel over a period of four months, and submitted it to an agent in January, 2006. By early March of that year, it had been accepted for publication.
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Melissa Marr is an American author of young adult/urban fantasy novels.
Radiant Shadows is an Urban fantasy novel by Melissa Marr. It is set in the same universe as Marr's previous YA novels, but is not a sequel to Fragile Eternity; rather, it is a companion novel like Ink Exchange was, focusing on a different set of characters.
The Iron Fey is a book series written by Julie Kagawa, a New York Times bestselling author. This series follows Meghan Chase, a girl who finds herself forced into the world of the Fey, including characters from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The books series was published by Harlequin Teen from 2010 to 2012, including several short stories tying into the main four books in the series. There is a spin-off series, The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten Trilogy, as well as the Evenfall Trilogy.
Faery Rebels, also known as No Ordinary Fairy Tale, is a three-book fantasy series by Canadian author R. J. Anderson. Each book of the series centers around a faery who must venture out of their island to save the faery race.
