Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

The Summer King is missing; the Dark Court is bleeding; and a stranger walks the streets of Huntsdale, his presence signifying the deaths of powerful fey.

Aislinn tends to the Summer Court, searching for her absent king and yearning for Seth. Torn between his new queen and his old love, Keenan works from afar to strengthen his court against the coming war.

Donia longs for fiery passion even as she coolly readies the Winter Court for battle. And Seth, sworn brother of the Dark King and heir to the High Queen, is about to make a mistake that could cost his life.

Love, despair, and betrayal ignite the Faery Courts, and in the final conflict, some will win . . . and some will lose everything.

The thrilling conclusion to Melissa Marr's New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series will leave readers breathless.


The Wicked Lovely series... what can I say?  Very confusing and slightly boring.  The first book, Wicked Lovely, was interesting.  I though it was a promising twist to the whole faery genre.  But then the next three books, Ink Exchange, Fragile Eternity,  and Radiant Shadows, were very strange.  I felt like they really had nothing to do with the whole story line and it just confused me by adding all these new and (in my opinion) unimportant characters.

So... let me break it down for you.  There once were four courts in Faery - Summer and Winter (they balanced each other), and High and Dark (they also balanced each other).  But in the last book, a new court was created - the Shadow Court.  It was created to balance Sorcha, queen of the High Court and all of Faery, because she was losing control and in doing so would have destroyed all of Faery.  But in doing so, it left the Dark Court unbalanced.

Each of the courts has at least one ruler: Sorcha (High), Niall (Dark), Keenan and Aislinn (Summer), Donia (Winter), and Devlin (Shadow).  So the story starts with the death of the last Dark King, Irial, which leads to a sort of instability in Niall, the current Dark King.  It doesn't help that he has no one to balance his "craziness", so things start spiraling out of control.  Add to that the Bananach (the embodiment of Chaos and sister to Sorcha) is let loose on the world and trying to bring war to the faery courts in order to destroy everyone.

Basically all the rulers want someone they can't have, but they all have to work together, goodness prevails, and in the end all the rulers end up happy.

To me, it was the best book in the series because I understood who everyone was and what was happening to them.  I also felt a connection to their stories and wanted what was best for them.  And, it ended, if not a little too quaintly for me, nicely for everyone.  Really, I'm just glad the series is over with.  It was too much for the story, if you ask me.

Rating: 3/5