Ink Exchange - Melissa Marr

Synopsis: After suffering a terrible trauma at the hands of her brother's dealer friends, Leslie becomes obsessed with the idea of getting a tattoo -- it's the one thing that will allow her to reclaim her body, renew her self-confidence. And when Rabbit, her local tattoo artist, shows her a secret book of his own designs, she finds one of them irresistible. Soon, her back is adorned with a pair of mysterious eyes, framed by black wings. Leslie feels good -- more than good. Nothing bad can touch her. But what she doesn't know is that her new tattoo binds her tightly to the faery whose symbol she chose: Irial, the exquisitely dangerous king of the Dark Court!


I had read many reviews for this book on the web and had high expectations of it, but unfortunately I personally didn't find it be all it was cracked up to be.  Leslie is a damaged, fractured girl who is portrayed as someone who wants to find something to heal her, who doesn't want to be under anyone's control.  The tattoo she gets puts her under Irial's control which makes her just as much a victim as her brother's friends did.

I really wanted to like this book, I really did, I liked the concept but I just didn't like the way it took a damaged character and made her even more damaged, took away her right to choose even more.  I wished the relationship between Leslie and Niall would have been explored a little more as she was attracted to him even before the tattoo and he was drawn to her even though he was hazardous to mortals.   Personally, I found Niall more alluring than Irial, Niall knew how dangerous he was or could be, how bad he once was and struggled as best he could to be good.

The one thing that I did absolutely love about this book was the cover art.  The purple tones reflect the colour of tattooing ink.  The girl with her back to us looking slightly over her shoulder with the tattoo across her shoulders and the feathered wings coming out of the tattoo and curling up.