Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

The Carnival of Souls - The City where daimons exist and the place that was created by witches, only to ban them from the grounds when daimons became more powerful.

Mallory lives with her father (adoptive, not biological) who is a witch. Mallory is not a witch herself, but she knows about witches and daimons. She has been taught her whole life to hate daimons and kill them when she sees them.

In 17 years, she's never dated a boy before. It was all about learning to fight, staying in shape, perfecting her shooting range.

Then Kaleb comes into the picture. This is the first time a boy has caught her attention.

So, naturally, it would mean that he's a daimon, the species she learned to hate.

Kaleb lives in the Carnival of Souls. He's in the Marchosias's Competition, a fight to the death. This competition will allow the winner to go up in status, in class, and allow the winners to rule with Marchosias - the ruler of The City.

Aya is another competitor - the only female in history to go into the Marchosias's Competition and now she's one of the top contenders. But she went into this competition with an agenda in mind: win and not have to breed. She has a secret that she can't allow anyone in The City to find out.

When Marchosias changes the rules about the winner of the competition, it changes everything. The ruler, if male, will marry his living daughter when she turns 18 and be a part of the elite blood family - Marchosias's family. If female, she will marry Marchosias himself and produce another heir to his blood line.

And his daughter? None other than Mallory, who doesn't know she is a daimon.

Now Aya is trying to find another solution since she forbids to ever have children. And Kaleb, who is already falling for Mallory, needs to get out of a job he took to kill Mallory.

Things are about to get interesting for everyone in The City and in Mallory's world. Read Carnival of Souls to find out how it will end!

My Thoughts/Reflections
I love Melissa Marr. I loved her Wicked Lovely series, which I've reviewed on this blog, and she has created another amazing world full of daimon's and witches.

There are so many characters in this book that at first it was a little overwhelming - but now I couldn't imagine this novel without every single one of them.

Of course, I didn't mention all of them in my overview above. Adam is Mallory's "father" (the witch) and Evelyn is Adam's older sister, who is also one of the most powerful witches in the world and can be a little bit...intimidating.

Kaleb is probably my favorite character. He is extremely devoted to his family, which is just him and Zevi, another daimon is who also a cur like Kaleb. A cur is a person who can shift into a stray dog - they get razor sharp teeth and talons and their humanity disappears when they are in this form.

There was so much information in this novel that I'm not sure my review and overview does it justice, but I do want to say that I think everyone should read this!

The narrators of this novel alternate, through MANY characters. Here are the ones I remember: Kaleb, Mallory, Adam, Aya, Zevi, Evelyn, and more that I've probably missed.

So this novel should be read by everyone, no matter what gender or age. The cover is even gender friendly as there is no romantic scene to chase the guys away from picking this book up.

I can't wait for the next book in this series, though I don't know the name of the novel or even when it comes out (this is a very new novel that was just release, so I'm just being impatient).

I do know that I will be putting the next novel on my "To-read" list and sit on the edge of my seat until I get it!

Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

The ending of the Wicked Lovely series... So sad, endings are always gut wrenching as I never want a good storyline to end. However, Melissa Marr did an amazing job wrapping up each storyline throughout this series, which I think is AMAZING because there were so many characters that needed to be followed, mentioned, and find their ending to the Faerie world.

I'm not going to give too much away from Darkest Mercy, because... well it's the final book! Go read the first 4 and then you can enjoy this amazing ending!

So, at a glance, I'm going to mention the main - er, submain and even lower main - characters of this series to explain just how happy I was for their ending.

Aislinn - Seth - Keenan - Donia: These four have had it rough. Between the different courts they were associated with to who they loved to who they desired, it's enough to make 1 person go crazy - let alone FOUR! But Marr found the perfect (in this crazy messed up quatro) ending for all of the characters, making each one happy with the decisions made.

Niall - Irial - Leslie: While Leslie was barely in here, she was a main part of the ending for this particular trio. With this particular group, Marr lead the reader on a very gut wrenching journey, scaring many by the choices the character makes and maybe even making the readers very, very angry. In the end, though, each character was in a good place, able to keep their connections and find a ... balance ... between the three.

Ani - Devlin - Sorcha - Bananach: While Ani, Devlin, and Sorcha were not talked about throughout this novel, they are very key characters in this series. We got the happy ending for Ani and Devlin in Radiant Shadows (click here for my post on that book) and Sorcha was content at the beginning of this book for things happening in Faerie land. Bananach... well she wasn't very nice, being WAR and all, so she got the ending that she deserved.

Seeing all of the courts complete and whole, with a few additional surprises thrown in for good measure, made me appreciate Melissa Marr's writing abilities. She did a great job for the ending of an addicting series, so while I'm not thrilled that my Keenan, Seth, Devlin, Niall and Irial fix is finite/done/gone, I'm very pleased with the ending.

Oh, and also... If this review didn't convince you to go read the books... then I give up! I think everyone should give 'em a go, though :)

Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr

The fourth book of this series, Radiant Shadows, delved deeper into the Faerie Courts, this time into the High Court and Dark Court following the two characters Devlin and Ani.

We met both of these characters throughout the first 3 novels, but now the reader finds out that Devlin knew about Ani before she was even born! This makes their history together very linked, so it was bound for them to become a part of one's lives throughout this story.

Ani is different. She's a Hound, part of the Dark Court where she feeds off of touching others. But she's also mortal, and a mortal/faerie in the Dark Court feeds off of emotions.

With the two types of feeds, she's a dangerous person to be around, especially when someone is touching her and allowing Ani to feel her emotions. She could drain their essence.

Devlin is the High Court Assassin. He does the High Queen's dirty work, showing no emotion and killing without a thought. He just follows Sorcha's orders - until Devlin was ordered to kill Ani many years ago, and didn't.

Now, Ani and Devlin are drawn together for many different reasons. Ani is different than any fey and Devlin was created in a way that made him different than other fey. When they travel together, trying to find a way to save the fey, secrets are let out and attractions are unvieled that neither character knew they wanted/needed before they met one another.

Melissa Marr did it again. She took two characters and made the fey land very real, explaining the process of each court to the reader to make the understand not just the Summer Court where she first started the Wicked Lovely series, but each Court associated with the fey. I can't wait to read the final installment of this series - which I'm going to start right ... now!

Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

After finishing this novel, my initial thought is "poor Ash!" That girl has gone through too much during her 17 years and this book made her life incredibly hard. I would not have wanted to have been her at all.

*Note* If you have not read any of the previous books in this series and do not want to read spoilers, I'm kindly letting you know that now would be the time to stop reading. I'm not going to give away anything in this book, but I will be talking about the previous books.

In Fragile Eternity, I was pleasently surprised that many of the initial characters from the first two novels were discussed in more detail: Seth, Ash, Donia, etc. and we were introduced to new characters throughout the Faerie Courts: Sorcha, Bananach.

Ash has a lot to deal with: being the new Summer Queen, fighting off Keenan's affections, and staying true to Seth and her love for him, all while trying to live the "mortal" life with her school, school friends, and see her grandmother (Like I said: Poor Ash!). Seth, on the other hand, is getting frustrated with just being a "mere mortal". He's tired of Ash going off with Keenan to do Court stuff and he's getting a tad jealous. So, to fix this, he decides he wants to become a faery himself!

This novel travels with Seth (mostly: it veers off to Ash, Keenan, Donia, and Niall a little bit, keeping the reader on their toes and learning new tidbits of the other Faerie Courts) and his journey to try and find a way to be with Aislinn forever - so she would never have to pick between her mortal boyfriend and her faery king.

In the end, though, Seth was not able to see the ... problems that would arise with his decision that has left ALL of the courts in a bit of a tussle...

I can't wait to read the next book to see what Ash and Seth decide, and to see if Bananach gets her way, since she is War and wants all of the courts to start fighting one another. This series just gets better and better; Marr has a great writing style and she is entrapping me into her stories, making me anticipate what will happen next. (Thank goodness I have all 5 books and won't have to wait!)

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

The second novel in Marr's series, Wicked Lovely, we get to follow Leslie's story about the Dark Court in Ink Exchange. While we visited Aislinn, Seth, Keenan, and the Summer Court throughout this novel, Leslie was our main focus and the reader was able to finally see Leslie's personal life and how she transitioned into the faerie world as Aislinn did throughout the first novel.

Again, Marr created a love triangle in this novel, tying Niall, Leslie, and Irial into a web that was so tight, it was hard not to fall in love with each characters. Niall and Irial are so similar that it seemed Leslie was almost falling for the same person sometimes.

However, for me Niall won because of his heart - he tried to do the right thing for Leslie whereas Irial, being the Dark Court king, had to do things for his court instead of what was right for Leslie.

Don't get me wrong, Irial had some great moments throughout this novel, especially the end where the king of the Dark Court started thinking of someone else's feelings and got trapped by Leslie's viewpoint. He also did the right thing with his court at the end of the novel. I just think overall Niall was able to fight the temptation throughout the novel better than Irial did.

Leslie is definitely a different character than Aislinn was in the first novel, which is why I like her so much. If she was another Ash, I would have gotten bored with the story, but Leslie was a victim in the beginning of the novel. She was scared, timid, frightened and she just wanted to get out of the situation that her family put her in.

Throughout the novel, Leslie was able to grow farther and start to make her own decisions - due to mainly Irial's bad intentions, but at the end of the novel, Leslie was able to finally make her own choice, whereas in the beginning of the novel she wouldn't have have the courage to do so.

While I didn't get to see the storyline grow between Keenan, Seth and Aislinn, I'm very glad that I was able to see one of Aislinn's friends background and how she conquered her fears in this novel. I also liked how Marr was able to change the viewpoint in the series because we obtained more information about another Court in this storyline, tying some more key points together from the first novel and leaving more holes to be answered in future novels.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

I've finally got my own copy of Wicked Lovely book series and am rereading them! This first book of the series is amazing - I love Aislinn. She's a strong character who seems timid at first when she cowers away from the fey that she has been able to see all of her life. However, I think that is very smart rather than cowardly because she was able to throw the faeries for a loop when they discovered that she has been able to see them her entire life.

Keenan's a character - a Summer King who is used to getting whatever and whoever he wants, but he meets resistance when he wants Aislinn. Throughout the novel the kind pouts a lot because he's not able to figure Ash out, but by the end of the book he realizes that this is a different century where females don't have to look dotting at him and he can start his reign of the Summer Court in a different style than the court has seen.

And Seth. I adore Seth - he's got that older, mysterious aura around him that makes anyone associated with him want to find answers to his secrets. I love that he waited for Ash to come to her senses about the two of them and I want to read more about Seth in the upcoming novels.

If you like faeries, a love triangle, or the paranormal, these books are definitely for you! And the best part? All of the books in the series are complete and ready for you to checkout/buy! So no waiting for the next installment - you can fly through all 5 novels as fast as you can read! Now... what are you waiting for? Go check out Wicked Lovely!

Teeth: Vampire Tales by Ellen Datlow

I picked up this anthology of novella's about vampires because there were stories by Cassandra Clare and Holly black included, so I wanted to see what these two authors wrote about vampire wise. However, their story The Perfect Dinner Party wasn't my favorite out of the 20 stories, which kind of disappointed me.

Many of the stories were alright in my opinion. I'm not going to go and give a review to all 20 stories because some I just skimmed or skipped it entirely. There are two poems in here that caught my attention, but my 3 favorite stories were Flying by Delia Sherman, Transition by Melissa Marr, and Why Light? by Tanith Lee.

Overall, I'm glad that I got this at the library and didn't buy it to have for my own copy. It just wasn't that good. I read the reviews on Goodreads that said pretty much the same thing, but I had to give it a go for myself because of the hit names that were included in this anthology of stories.