Author: Melissa Marr
Published: 2009
Publisher: Harper Collins
Series: Wicked Lovely series #3
389 pages (hardcover)
Summary: Aislinn and Seth are still trying to adjust to their relationship. After all, Aislinn is a faery who will live forever, and Seth is a mortal with finite time. Not to mention Aislinn’s king, Keenan, is still intent on winning over Aislinn’s heart, so that their Court may become stronger. Seth decides he wants to be a faery as well, despite everyone’s warning that that is a bad decision. The only problem is that Seth doesn’t know how to go about changing his mortality, until his best friend, the Dark King Niall unintentionally informs him that the High Queen Sorcha has such power. In the meantime, the War Faery Bananach is pulling some strings from the background, attempting to create a massive war between all four Faery Courts.
My Thoughts: There is a novel between Wicked Lovely and this one in Marr’s faery series, called Ink Exchange, but I didn’t read it. It’s more of a companion novel, as it deals with a different set of characters. I understood the events in Fragile Eternity even without reading Ink Exchange first. The book mentions a few events that happened in Ink Exchange, but nothing you can’t figure out on your own as you read.
Anyway, despite Wicked Lovely leaving me kind of iffy about the series, I decided to give the series another chance, and I’m glad I did. While I can’t say I’m now a fan of the series, Fragile Eternity was a pleasant read. The plot was by far more interesting than Wicked Lovely, I really like the direction the series is heading in. I think what convinced me to continue with the series is the world if Faery. It’s really intriguing, with the Four Faery Courts and the way they balance with one another, it’s one of my favourite aspects of the series, and Fragile Eternity does not disappoint with regards to that. It built on and expanded the Faery world. It’s really a beautiful and haunting world that Marr has created in the series.
I still feel issues with the characters, primarily the faery characters (which is pretty much all the characters, hahaha). Everyone is still pretty one-dimensional or two-dimensional at most; flat. Take Bananach, the War Faery for example. She is the villain of Fragile Eternity and I was disappointed that this new villain was pretty much the same as Beira was in Wicked Lovely — the same one-facet personality. Not a different facet either, the two have essentially the same personality! Not to mention I simply can’t understand Bananach. Granted, she’s supposed to be ‘insane’ but there’s something random about how she appears out of nowhere giggling about wanting to start some sort of war between all the Courts. Perhaps this was explained in Ink Exchange? Other faeries, such as Keenan and Donia, remain the same as they were in Wicked Lovely, nothing new about them. I was a little shocked at Seth’s drastic personality change near the end of the book. Even given the circumstances he was in, it was just such a big change.
At times, the book felt a bit repetitive. There is a constant repeat that ‘if X happens, war might occur!’ or ‘Aislinn doesn’t really love Keenan but he is her King’. They just get rephrased over and over again, that after a while, as a reader, I wanted to say, “I know already!”
Overall? I liked this book. Fragile Eternity is what Wicked Lovely should have been — intense, haunting and beautiful. If there are any future books in this series, which I suspect there will be because of the way Fragile Eternity ended, I will definitely pick them up to read.
My Rating: 3/5
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