taken from Goodreads:
"Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.
Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life.
The tattoo does bring changes; not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils. . . ."
I'll be honest, I wasn't too crazy about Marr's first book, Wicked Lovely, and I'm afraid that many of the issues that I thought plagued the first novel are evident here, too. But there are *some* improvements. While the protagonist of the first book just sort of faded away into nothing by the end, showing no character development, no backbone, no *anything*, that doesn't happen here -- well, not quite as badly, anyway. Leslie is a stronger and more interesting character -- although she's much more damaged, as well, and that provides much of the momentum for the story -- but by the end, she's still not the character I wanted her to be, nor the character she showed promise of becoming.
I wouldn't really call this novel a sequel; it's more like a companion book. While it does follow after the events of the first novel, it tackles the Faery Courts from a different perspective. The writing is fine, and the book shows similarities to many other YA dark-fantasy novels that I've enjoyed, but in the end, the characters just didn't have what it takes to hold my attention.
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