Review: Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

Synopsis:
The fifth and final breathtaking instalment in the darkly seductive and best-selling WICKED LOVELY series, about the collision of mortal and faery worlds! The Summer King is missing; the Dark Court is bleeding; and a stranger walks the streets of Huntsdale, his presence signifying the deaths of powerful fey. Torn between his new queen and his old love, Keenan left Huntsdale to wander aimlessly but after centuries of leading his court it was not long before the reality of being Summer King became too pressing.

Violence seemed more inevitable by the day and the Summer Court was not yet strong enough to face conflict, so Keenan made a dangerous deal with the water fey. It is a desperate bargain he makes to strengthen his court against the coming war. Aislinn tends the Summer Court, searching for her absent king and yearning for Seth. She knows she must be a powerful queen to hold her court together, while Bananach becomes more and more dangerous, and she is losing faeries to her. Donia longs for fiery passion even as she coolly readies the Winter Court for battle. Her court is still powerful, but she must remain focused on keeping them that way and not get distracted by Keenan when he shows up at her door again.

The Dark Court is thrown into chaos when they are rocked by tragedy. And Seth, sworn brother of the Dark King and heir to the High Queen, is about to make a mistake that could cost his life. They all know what Bananach seeks — the raven-faery is the embodiment of war and discord. She and her growing number of allies want mutiny and murder. Love, despair and betrayal ignite the Faeries Courts, and in the final conflict, some will win! and some will lose everything. The thrilling conclusion to Melissa Marr’s bestselling Wicked Lovely series will leave readers breathless.

Heads up before any of you keep reading, this book is the fifth and final book in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr so there will be spoilers ahead.

I haven’t reviewed any of the other books in this series either so I can’t link you to my previous thoughts on the other books either. I imagine this will be a bit of a summary.

Darkest Mercy was the satisfying end to the series that I needed. It rounded up all the threads of the stories together that just made me so happy to have invested my time into it even with the doubts I had of one character.

Keenan the Summer King throughout all the books had really gross and abusive behaviour. I was so worried that this would all be forgotten and glossed over and Aislinn would make the mistake of just agreeing to be his Summer Queen. But thankfully no, Aislinn continues to stick to her true feelings even with the Summer magic compelling the two to be together and continues to refuse him.

Basically I’m just super happy that Keenan chose to let her go and stop being so gorram creepy. It made me happy that I’d stuck with the book.

Another element I liked about this book is that it doesn’t shy away from death so it portrays the effect of Fae War true and gosh it hurt me. It hurt me a lot.

Lastly we finally see all the courts together for a huge fight and I love how every court has its use and its woven into the fight correctly whilst considering the other courts. The action was fast paced and well thought out. I just really loved it ok.

I’m sad to see this story come to an end, but happy to see it tied up nicely and things I wanted to happen did come true. I’ll remain a big fan of Melissa’s for a long time I’m sure. Especially as I’ve been reading (and rereading some of the books) this series for 10 years.

5 stars / 5 stars

Other books in the series, I’ve not reviewed any of them but thought you might like to see the covers.