Book Review: Darkest Mercy

TITLE: Darkest Mercy
Book 5 in the Wicked Lovely series
AUTHOR: Melissa Marr
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: Faeries, urban fantasy, romance, drama
SHORT PREMISE: the conclusion to the Wicked Lovely series
MY REVIEW: Everything comes to a head in the final book in the Wicked Lovely series. Irial has been poisoned and is near death (or is he?), Niall is letting grief take over, Keenan makes a decision that startles everyone, Donia is trying to rule and ignore her feelings for Keenan that never went away, Ash deals with a weakening Summer Court, Seth deals with the repercussions of becoming a faerie, and all of them are dealing with the growing threat of a Dark Queen who wants blood.
Unlike many fans, I am still deeply into these books about faerie politics. I love the twists and turns of the plots and that the author takes time to do character study and developement. It's just fascinating to me and I never knew where she was going to take it. Plus, the imagination she put into it as well as following faerie lore just makes me want to hug her. Yes, it is sometimes slow, the thing with Irial was awfully convenient, and occasionally I wanted to shake someone (usually Keenan or Niall). But overall this is still a wonderful series and I'm a bit sad to see it go.
This is the final book apparently, but I don't know, I feel there's definitely room for more books. Or at least more short stories. But in the meantime I'm definitely checking out Marr's new adult series, Graveminder which sounds awesome.
WHO SHOULD READ: those who've read books 1-4, faerie book fans, you like court-intrigue books
MY RATING: Four out of Five Summer Girls