Book Review: Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

Fragile Eternity follows the suddenly much-more-complicated lives of Aislinn, Seth, and Keenan as they try to understand their delicate relationships. Aislinn and Keenan are growing closer as the climax of summer approaches, while Seth begins to feel his weak mortality and how he doesn't truly belong with Aislinn. Throw in the rival Winter Court's queen, Donia, who is in love with Keenan, and the Dark Court's new king Niall who once served Keenan, and you get a lot of very complex relationships.

Things I liked:
Marr's depiction of faeries and the Faery courts. I love the history, the descriptions, the characters and personalities of different individuals. She must have done a lot of research into Faery mythology and it really comes through. I also really like the complexity of her characters - they feel many different things and often having conflicting emotions. It makes them more believable.

Things I didn't like:
How all the relationships are about intimacy. I understand when they say in the book that the relationships are more than that, but sometimes they seemed like empty words. And who would want to live for eternity as only the consort of the one you love? I'd rather spend my time finding someone who could be with me and only me. I also was distracted by how much of the book really had no plot. The characters didn't do anything for a while but feel sad and grumpy. Hopefully the next book will have more action (and more of the characters I liked).

Read-alikes:
First two books in the series Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange (which is more like a companion to the first one, but has important stuff that relates to Fragile Eternity as well)
Reminds me of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George for a more lighthearted similar story
A bit like Wings by Aprilynne Pike

RATINGS:
s-factor: !@#
Some strong language.

mrg-factor: XX
Lots of references, not a lot of details.

v-factor: ->
Some more frightening stuff than violent.

Overall rating: ***