Indelible

Can't decide on a star rating for this one.... Ink and Inq are twins, brother and sister respectively, and are members of the Folk. A community of sprites, banshees, toad like creatures and other odd beings. The twins are scribes, and their job, the reason they were created, is to mark humans for the Folk. A marked human, or lehman, then becomes the property of the markee, as their slave, lover, friend, or whatever use they decide. When Ink marks Joy, it's apparently a mistake. He was actually trying to blind her. His sister Inq tells Joy that it's in her interest, and Inks, to put on a charade and pretend to be together, or they could both be killed. So obviously, Joy goes ahead with this. And I think you can probably guess how the relationship goes from here? It happened a little too quickly for my liking, but it wasn't insta love or anything. I just like things to play out for a little longer. This book had a lot of long winded descriptions and I found myself skimming through most of them. I know some people like this, but I'm not one of those people. And at times, there was long, complicated information overloads which I felt could have been told in much simpler terms, so again, I was skimming and just coming away with the gist of what had been told, but it was enough to get me through. I was almost halfway through before I really started to feel this book, and became more interested. Joy is an okay character, but I liked and was intrigued by Ink. How he and his sister came to be, and as they appear human because they decided to, what do they actually look like? Unfortunately, I managed to reach the end of the book without a lot of answers. Overall, this was an original idea to me, but it could have been better executed, it wasn't without it's faults. But I enjoyed it too. It's a series, and I can see myself picking up the next book as I'm curious to see where the author is going to take this series, as this one ended quite well, and would work as a stand alone, excepting of course for the unanswered questions and some unfinished story lines, that actually had nothing to do with the main plot.show more

There is something about the cover on this book that makes you want to pick it up. The rough lines, the colors, they make a statement and leave you wondering what the book is about and you won't be able to put it down. "There's a guy and you like guys and you met a guy, this Someone-A-Guy?" Joy gets in an altercation with a mysterious man with solid black eyes at a night club and injures her eye after he attacks her for some unknown reason. Strange things keep happening to Joy. Read the entire review at http://www.musingwithcrayolakym.com/3/post/2013/08/indelible.htmlshow more

"Once upon a time" he began, "there was a young girl..." "Not so young." Joy shot back. "Once upon a time, there was a not-so-young, girl," he amended. "who was invited to go on a magical trip." "With a prince?" Ink grimaced. "Hardly." "A magician?" she guessed? He shook his head. "A myth." Indelible was relatively engaging and the concept had a lot of potential. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't wrap my brain around the universe Metcalf had created. There was a lot of things that kinda confused me as to the two different worlds (the human and the folks) and how they actually intertwine and affected each other. The ending had a pretty interesting scene that kind of help me figure out more the universe but still, the book could be clearer in it's intent. That being said, it was a cute read, in particular the relationship between Joy and Ink. From the synopsis, I was expecting more of the Mr. Darcy & Elizabeth / Pride and Prejudice feel, that bickering yet attraction tension. Instead we got a very sweet, almost innocent romance. The characters were okay enough, though really having two "main-ish" characters named Ink and Inq (who are siblings by the way) is...I don't even know, baffling? It was kind of interesting watching Ink learned to be more "human". Inq on the other hand kind of annoyed me with her overbearing know-it-all attitude. Joy was rather average, she had both good and bad moments. Overall, an enjoyable read with potential for a lot more magical adventure. The book could easily be standalone, though I might be interested in checking out more Joy and Ink (if I ever get this universe in order). {*Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review. Review can be found at Bookmunchies.com}show more

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Harlequin TEEN and Netgalley.) 16-year-old Joy doesn't know what's happening to her when she sees a boy with all black eyes in a club, and he tries to take her eyes out with a knife. Even stranger, no-one but her saw the boy, and ever since nightmare creatures that no-one else can see keep appearing to her and asking her to relay messages to 'Ink'. When Joy eventually meets Ink, and his sister Inq, she finds out that they are scribes - created specifically to put marks on those humans who certain 'folk' want to mark as their own. Ink had been trying to remove Joy's eyes because she could see him, and therefore see other 'folk', which isn't allowed. In missing though he marked her, and has now had to claim her as 'his' human. Joy must now keep up appearances and pretend to be Ink's human in front of the folk so that no-one realises his mistake, and it seems that Joy might be helpful in her own right when she notices something odd about the marks that Ink and Inq make. Who is after Joy though? What is going on with the marks? And what does any of this mean? This reminded me of a cross between 'The Immortal Instruments' series, and the 'Wicked Lovely' series, and unfortunately I found the storyline a bit complex and difficult to keep up with. Joy was an okay character, but I didn't love her or particularly warm to her, and her friend Monica was a bit irritating. Ink and Inq were both okay, and they were probably my favourite characters, but most of the characters were all just a bit blah for me. The opening scene of this book reminded me so much of 'City of Bones' that it was ridiculous. A girl sees a boy that no-one else can see in a club with a weapon? Sound familiar to anyone else? And Ink too - he had a weapon that he used to put marks on people - marks like tattoos - very familiar also. And guess what, Joy can do something very special with Ink's weapon too, and Ink's sister is also a scribe who makes marks with a similar weapon, and Joy's brother comes out as gay, and I'm sure there were other similarities too, I just can't remember them all. This book also reminded me a bit of 'Wicked Lovely' probably mostly because a lot of the characters in this book were Folk, but also because of the way that they would turn up and talk to Joy, and she wouldn't be able to answer without looking like she was talking to thin air, that and some of the folk liked to attack her because she had the sight. Anyway, moving on from the similarities between this book and others, I actually had a hard time knowing what was actually going on in this book. I kept re-reading bits, and still having no clue what was happening. I understood that Joy could see these marks left by Ink and Inq, and that she recognised that the same mark kept coming up among the marks that Ink and Inq were supposed to make, and that they needed to sort this out, but other bits of the storyline were as clear as mud. I just got so confused as to who had attacked who and why etc. and who was after Joy currently, and I got really annoyed and frustrated with the whole thing, to the point where it was really difficult to finish this. The ending was okay, but again, I really don't understand what happened, which obviously makes it a bit difficult to comment on. I just finished this book feeling really frustrated, and even more than that disappointed, as I was really expecting this book to be good! Overall; reminded me too much of 'The Immortal Instruments' series, and confused the hell out of me. 4.5 out of 10.show more