More Wicked than Lovely

Ink Exchange:  Wicked Lovely #2 by Melissa Marr

Fantasy

This is the second book in the Wicked Lovely series but there are new main characters and everything is so different that it probably wouldn't matter if you read this one first.  Which, is a problem for me since I liked the first one so much.  This one, not so much.

For those who are reading these in order, Summer King and Winter Queen are still around, but only as secondary characters.  Winter Queen's best friend is the main character in this installment (Leslie).  Leslie is a much more tragic character than Aislynn was.  Leslie's home life is full of alcoholism, abuse and even a rape by her brother who sold her for drugs.  She is on a spiral and sees getting inked as a way to salvage her sanity and control her own life.  A fey of the court, Irial, falls for her her and she can't escape his evil clutches, especially since her new ink ties to his emotional psyche.

I liked this one, just not as much as the first in the series.  It's darker and, well, a bit weird.  Kind of like an inked acid trip (I'm guessing this as I have never been inked nor on acid.) The book is very sensual and seductive but not really in a good way.  While the first in the series was more 'Lovely', this one was more 'Wicked'.