Now a faerie queen, Aislinn must learn how to rule without her King by her side, when the Summer King, Keenan, goes missing. Meanwhile, Donia, Queen of Winter and Keenan's love, must cope with her new-found status while preparing for an inevitable war. Keenan wanders, away from home to seek allies. But when no one is on your side, how can you win a battle? And Seth, heir to the High Queen and no longer mortal, must make important choices that can either result in delight or disaster. When immortals die and bonds between courts are tested, war looms on the horizon. But war may not be what ultimately divides or brings together the different courts...
After finishing Wicked Lovely, I was very excited to begin this book. Until I realized this was the last book in the series and I'd skipped over three in between. But my, how things changed. It seemed to me as though the characters' whole personalities had changed since book one. I thought I knew them, and then it threw me for a loop. And then there were all the things I'd missed. Betrayal, deaths, mortal-becoming-a-faerie, love... I couldn't believe it. Now, this wouldn't be so bad alone, but I found it very difficult to keep up with all the new information. I could only imagine what someone entirely new to the series would be thinking. I would have appreciated a little more clarity instead of gathering what I could from the characters' rather short and discreet conversations.
Another thing I found to be very confusing was the interchangeable names. Bananach and War, the same person. The High Queen and Order, another pair. Then of course there was the Winter Queen=Donia, The Summer Queen=Aislinn, the Summer King=Keenan, and there were two Dark Kings: Irial and Niall. I understood who the Queens and Summer King were, but it got much more confusing with both Irial and Niall being referred to as Dark Kings. I found Bananach being War to be the most flummoxing of all, since she wasn't in the first book. Also, with a name like War, I at first assumed the faeries were talking about war, lower-case. As in, the large battle they were dreading. I didn't understand until probably a third of the way through the book that Bananach and War were the same person. If I'm confused at the beginning of a book, I tend not to find the rest as enjoyable.
Despite the things I didn't enjoy about this book, I found that as I got into it, I started to like the storyline more. It was interesting, because book one in this series was mainly from Aislinn's point of view - now, the perspective was equally shared between all the characters. I don't usually like this, which is probably another reason I didn't like this book in the series as much. However, I found it gave much more information and much less mystery than Wicked Lovely. Not a good idea for mystery fans, but definitely better for those who can't stand to be left in the dark. The change in scenery was sometimes welcome, but it also was suspenseful, when it left off at some interactions between characters at crucial points. Perhaps not as mysterious, but certainly more edge-of-the-seat!
Overall, I'd say I enjoyed Darkest Mercy; just not as much as I'd anticipated I would. It is a good book with good writing. It's one of those books where the writing's good, the storyline's good, the author's good, but the book doesn't become what it's built up to be. I still enjoyed this book, though, so I rate it three stars. Not as good as Wicked Lovely, but still better than others I've read. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for love, mythology, and revenge.
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