Sunday, April 11, 2010

Enchanting Review: Fragile Eternity

FRAGILE ETERNITY
MELISSA MARR
Young Adult Fantasy
HarperTeen
ISBN# 9780061214714
389 pages
$8.99
Paperback - Available Now

Rating: 5 Enchantments

A great continuation to the Wicked Lovely series and an interesting look into Melissa Marr’s world of the Fae, FRAGILE ETERNITY turned out to be quite an interesting read. Having heard some mixed reviews about this one, I was a little nervous to see if this third installment could live up to the first two books. Following the incredibly intense Ink Exchange, FRAGILE ETERNITY could have easily floundered. Luckily, it didn’t.

While Ink Exchange took us over to watch the Dark Court, FRAGILE ETERNITY brings us back over to the lives of Aislinn, Seth, Donia, and of course our Summer King, Keenan. Struggling to find love where they can and fend off love where they shouldn’t allow it, life is anything but easy for these four. While Aislinn and Keenan fight against the lusty call of Summer, Donia becomes absorbed in finding a way not to wage war against the Summer court. After all, the man who is supposed to love her can’t help but find himself drawn to another woman. Amidst the chaos Seth finds the answer to his dreams, but will the required sacrifice be worth it?

Seth and Keenan both soar to new heights in FRAGILE ETERNITY. We see a new, deeper side to Keenan that we hadn’t really witnessed before. With Seth we begin to see the beginning cracks of insecurity. Aislinn’s pull to Keenan isn’t something he wants to witness but with no way to stop it, he’s at a loss for what to do. I think readers will love Seth in this book as he really becomes the focal point of the story.

The overall feel of FRAGILE ETERNITY was quite a bit different from Ink Exchange. Missing the deliciously dark, romantic element that the previous book held, this book stands out as more of a turning point in the series. We learn more about the world and get to meet a few more characters. It is still Ms. Marr’s world of the Fae, so there is plenty of darkness thrown throughout the pages of this story, but overall it felt that the tension here wasn’t as great as in previous books.

Readers will enjoy getting a deeper look into Ms. Marr’s world. Many of our questions are answered which, of course, only leaves us with more. One of my favorite aspects of her books is the way she manages to give us a fulfilling story without necessarily giving us a happy ending. Readers of Ms. Marr’s work will understand what I mean. FRAGILE ETERNITY is certainly no exception to this, but there was something about it, something about the change in the characters that leaves me thrilled and excited for the next installment in the series.

Melissa Marr is hard at working promoting the fourth book in the series, Radiant Shadows. She can be found online at http://www.melissa-marr.com/.

Cinnamon
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
April 2010

No comments:

Post a Comment