Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Ink Exchange

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. . . . from GoodReads.

Before I start the actual review, I want to say how much I LOVE this cover. The image is just amazing and I became obsessed with the tattoo as much as Leslie. Okay, now, onto the review.

I read Wicked Lovely a couple of years ago and loved it but I was reluctant to pick up Ink Exchange because my friend told me it wasn't as good. Finally, I decided to see for myself. You won't believe how surprised I was.

Ink Exchange is darker, more serious, and definitely more wicked than Wicked Lovely. I loved Ink Exchange, perhaps not as much as the first one, but definitely a lot. I loved how Leslie was a strong character who went through very dark moments in her life. I think that she is definitely some kind of role model. Her goal is to be strong and happy and I believe it. Niall is just plain gorgeous and their romance is more passionate and sensual than Aislinn and Seth's. I loved and believed it. It was beautiful to see the dangerous part of it, too.

In this book, is hard to hate any character. While we can say the 'bad guy' is Irial, I have to admit that I actually felt for him during this book. I cared about his intentions and emotions and I even grew to love him. This, in my opinion, is what makes a great book: characters that, even if they're portrayed as 'bad', still manage to take a piece of your heart and you can relate to them.

Apparently, I can't stop talking about how much I loved this book and I definitely recommend it.

In one sentence:
A dark and stunning sequel!
5/5 Stars

Awesome Contest

Writing sisters, Suzette and Bethany are having an awesome contest over at their blog here.

The Prizes?

2 Query Critiques*

+

2 First Five Page Critiques*

+

1 Inscribed/Autographed The Dark Divine*

 

There will be five winners.

PS. I also posted this on my personal blog.

 

 

A New Look

So, I've tried DOZENS of times to give Yay! Reads a more 'me' and personalized look. Make it less...taken-from-a-free-backgrounds-site. So I designed the header, inspired in one of my favorite places in the world, NYC. And I manipulated the Minima template and the colors to go with it. What do you think? Is it too dark?

Hopefully, I will be able to keep this one for a while, as I get tired easily. But it took a lot of work so I probably won't be changing it soon. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

PS If the text/links are hard to read, let me know so I can make it more eye-friendly.

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox was started by Kristi at The Story Siren.

This week I bought:

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

A big, sumptuous tale of catty girls, dark secrets and windswept romance unfurls in this compulsively readable novel of late-19th-century New York City socialites. Godbersen weaves a tenuous web of deceit, backstabbing and pretense that follows four teens: Elizabeth Holland, a prim and proper lady of old-money society, is betrothed to one man, though furtively loves another; Henry Schoonmaker, a debauched playboy who must marry Elizabeth or be disinherited; Diana Holland, Elizabeth’s younger sister who is in love with her fiancé; and Penelope Hayes, a member of the nouveau riche who will stop at nothing to win Henry’s affections. As Elizabeth and Henry’s wedding approaches, the spectacle unfolds in a wondrously grandiose scene, making for a fun, though not entirely unexpected dénouement. A delicious new twist along the Gossip Girl vein, readers will clamor for this sharp, smart drama of friends, lovers, lies and betrayal.

Looking For Alaska by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent - no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies. Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green's dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles's inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers. The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days "before" and "after" what readers surmise is Alaska's suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax. The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature. Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles's A Separate Peace(S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends. - Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library

Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Deadly Little Secret


"Some secrets shouldn't be kept...

Up until three months ago, everything in sixteen-year-old Camelia's life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades; an okay relationship with her parents; and a pretty cool part-time job at the art studio downtown. But when Ben, the mysterious new guy, starts junior year at her high school, Camelia's life becomes anything but ordinary.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend's accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She's reluctant to believe the rumors, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. She's inexplicably drawn to Ben...and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he can help--but can he be trusted? She knows he's hiding something... but he's not the only one with a secret.

From the best-selling author of Blue is for Nightmares comes a story of paranormal romance that's sure to be a thrilling and chilling teen favorite."  from GoodReads.

I have been wanting to read this book for a while now so it was my first choice when I got to spend my Christmas Border's gift card. My first impression was that it would be very different from Blue Is For Nightmares, the only other book that I have read from Laurie F. Stolarz. It was a short book, therefore a quick read, I knew I was going to devour it in hours.

And that's how it was. I sat with the book and almost didn't let it down for anything. I loved how the chapters alternate between Camelia and her secret (admirer? stalker?) person. You could really tell that the person was psycho by the way he wrote things and it intensified the scary factor in this book.

In some ways it was like Blue Is For Nightmares since it has this very interesting - and deadly - enigma but it was so much better, too. The story seemed more real and raw to me. The MC was multi-dimensional and therefore didn't seem flat at any moment. Ben is intriguing and I couldn't help but wonder a few times if he was the psycho guy. The supporting characters are as equally mesmerizing. There was a point in the novel where I didn't even know who was who. Everyone seemed like a suspect.

In one sentence:

A scary good read!

5/5 Stars