Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely, #3)

by Melissa Marr

[Jo]

I have to say, I was a tiny bit disappointed with this book. It didn't live up completely to what I have come to expect from Melissa Marr's novels. Wicked Lovely was exciting and suspenceful, Ink Exchange was dark and painful, Fragile Eternity was great, but, in my opinion, it was kind of slow with not a huge amount happening in the way of action compared to the others.

This book is mainly about two things; Aislinn and Seth's relationship, and how it is effected by Seth's mortality and that Keenan's desire for Aislinn to be his Queen completely, and about faerie politics; faerie monarchs making certain decisions to act or not act, to say or not say, for the good of their courts in the face of the war that appears to be just around the corner. Because of this, there is a lot of thinking and discussing, for the most part, mainly between Seth and Aislinn, and Aislinn and Keenan. For the first half, that's pretty much all that happens; Seth worries about Aislinn being tempted by Keenan, and talks to Aislinn about his worries over their relationship. Aislinn tries to fight the temptation she feels for Keenan, and has conversations she'd rather avoid with him about her growing attraction for him, and vice versa.

Then something happens. Seth disappears. We, the readers know where he is, and why, but Aislinn doesn't, and at first she's worried out of her wits, and then hurting like hell. While all this is going on, Bananach, a faerie of the Dark Court and embodiment of War, shares possible futures with the various courts, in the hopes that the courts will act, or not, on those possible futures which will lead to the war and bloodshed which is everything she desires. Each court then has to decide whether to act or not, and try to figure out what will happen based on those choices. And Seth's disappearance is pivotal to the possible futures. The possibility of war is on a precipe, and whether or not it will happen depends on the outcome of his disappearance.

I did like the book, it was interesting, and intriguing, and ends on such a huge cliff-hanger, but even after Seth's disappearance, things still feel very slow to me. Despite that, it was really interesting to learn more about faerie politics, and individual characters, like Sorcha and Bananach. It was also pretty awesome, though jarring, to see the changes in some characters - Niall, Donia, Seth - from Ink Exchange that have occurred because of some circumstances. Although a cliff-hanger, I'm not sure I liked how it ended. The next books are undeniably going to be amazing, but I would have preferred things to turn out differently - though it's easy to see this outcome, for the world they all live in, was unavoidable.

All of Marr's fans should read this book, because it is awesome, just don't expect it to be as fast paced as the previous two.