Watermark's Cool Summer Reads #6:
Another great read for Twilight fans!
Watch News & Notes each week this summer for a featured book recommendation
for young readers ages 7 to 17. We'll help you find the smartest, funniest,
most exciting summer-blockbusters-on-the-page, books guaranteed to keep a
youngster reading.
"Wicked Lovely" and "Ink Exchange" by Melissa Marr (HarperTeen, ISBN
9780061214677 and ISBN 9780061214684, $8.99 and $16.99, for older teens &
adults)
Melissa Marr creates a world of faery magic and teen romance that
immediately appeals to fans of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight"
and Cassandra Clare's "City
of Bones." Each of her novels focuses on a strong young heroine who's
pulled into the battles and intrigues of dangerous faery courts that exist
right alongside our modern world of cell phones and skyscrapers.
In "Wicked Lovely," Ash is able to see the goblins, sprites, and small
everyday faeries that run invisibly through her hometown. It's a gift and a
curse that becomes almost unbearable when a new boy enters her school. Ash
can peer right through his illusion to see his true face: the face of a
Faery King. This newcomer, Keenan, is convinced that Ash is destined to rule
beside him as his Summer Queen, but Ash already has Seth, her best friend
and almost-boyfriend, and she knows that faery lords are fickle and not to
be trusted. But when Keenan's mother, the deadly Winter Queen, decides to
destroy Ash and Keenan both, her malice pushes everyone involved to make
difficult, irrevocable decisions that will change the faery world forever.
Marr's new novel, "Ink Exchange," goes deeper into faery struggles alongside
Leslie, a girl whose desire to ignore problems at home leads her to focus on
a mysterious new tattoo that gives her a curious link to Irial, the King of
the Dark Court faeries. While Irial claims to love Leslie, he also uses
their link to siphon negative emotions from the human world to feed his many
creepy minions. Caught between Irial and Niall, a faery who wants to protect
her and to thwart the Dark Court, Leslie must choose her own path and decide
for herself how best to face the darkness in her life.
These are gripping, delicate stories of hot emotion and cold steel that will
delight eager readers of dark urban fantasy. Both books include brief
mentions of underage alcohol use, and "Ink Exchange" depicts illegal drug
use as all, making them best suited to older teens and adults.
Review by
Mark David Bradshaw, June 12, 2008
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