Radiant Shadows in the fourth installment in Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series, and follows another off-shoot of the Ash/Keenan/Seth arc. In this story, we see more of Devlin, who is featured in Fragile Eternity as Sorcha's Bloody Hands (aka Assassin) and Ani, who is the Dark Court hound halfling.

Devlin is the first male faerie, made of Sorcha and Bananach. Sorcha is the embodiment of Reason and Logic and Queen of the High Court, and Bananach is the embodiment of War and Discord and a member of the Dark Court. They are meant to balance each other. But when Sorcha re-created Seth into a fae using her own essence, the balance was thrown off because she then carried some human emotion. Sorcha has been mourning Seth's presence in the mortal world, and therefore she is no longer the exact opposite of Bananach.

Ani has a secret. While her court has a reputation of "feeding" off of human emotions, Ani can also feed off of faerie emotions. She's also losing her mortality by the day, and is becoming more and more fae. On top of that, she is "skin starved", meaning she needs touch to nourish her, as well. This seems to be a Hound trait, but being a halfling, she really shouldn't be able to do any of this. Her and Irial have been doing tests on her blood to see what it is that makes her so different, and so important to Bananach.

Devlin's prior secrets are coming back to get him. He was ordered years ago to kill the pup Ani, who has been under the prior Dark King's protection, but chose not to. When Ani is confronted by Bananach and ordered to kill Niall and Seth, her and Devlin start a journey across country to try to outrun Bananach's chase. But plans change when they find out that Faerie is falling apart while Sorcha chooses to remain in a dream until Seth returns.

Devlin and Ani realize that something must be done to regain the balance between the High Court and the Dark Court.

I am a big fan of Mellisa Marr, but when I heard this book would be another "side installment" of the series, I wasn't too excited. Ink Exchange just wasn't that good for me, and I never really got into the whole Dark Court thing.

This book totally changed my opinions on the series. I. Loved. This. Book. It had everything a great book should have; it was exciting, it had moments of romance and moments of suspense, and the main characters were fun to read. Everyone can fall in love with Devlin, because he's been sheltered in Faerie for so long, and he's finally realizing that he wants to choose his own path. Ani is witty and dangerous and strong.

Fragile Eternity focused a lot of Sorcha and the High Court, and I probably like that arc MORE than I do the Summer Court/Winter Court arc that is supposed to be Wicked Lovely, Fragile Eternity, and the soon-to-be-released fifth book. I like reading about the High Court, and now the Dark Court, too. (I think it was the whole Niall/Irial/Leslie thing in Ink Exchange that really turned me off from it.)

I'm really hoping the series is continued past a fifth book. Every installment, there are new developments and new characters involved. With the way Radiant Shadows ended, I don't see how the entire series can be wrapped up in just one more book.

I highly recommend this young-adult series. Just make sure you read the entire series! Yes, even Ink Exchange. :)