Marked – (House of Night #1) by P.C. & Kristin Cast

3 Butterflies

Ok, today i am reviewing a Young Adult novel entitled Marked. It’s really interesting actually that this series was written by Mother and daughter duo P.C. & Kristin Cast. I dont know if its just me, but i found myself alot of the time wondering who had written what & who’s idea certain plot themes were etc! Either way it was an extremely entertaining read! …. oh but without spoilering anything, this idea may freak you out when your a few chapters in, theres a certain scene where… well, teenagers eh? *rolls eyes and cringes* I wonder which of them decided to write this in.

Anyway, onways and upwards. I will do my best not to give anything away… well, anything important anyway.

Blurb: After a Vampire Tracker Marks her with a crescent moon on her forehead, 16-year-old Zoey Redbird enters the House of Night and learns that she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess Nyx and has affinities for all five elements: Air, Fire Water, Earth and Spirit. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite club, is mis-using her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny – with a little help from her new vampyre friends (or Nerd Herd, as Aphrodite calls them).

So this is actually a second time read for me, i think i enjoyed it more this time around aswell. I actually lost touch with the series when it first started, books were slow coming out and life intervened with my reading for a while.

Its pretty much as i remembered, we have the protagonist Miss Zoey Redbird (lovely name might i add) a 16 year old student who is marked by a tacking vampire at her highschool. This pretty much sucks for Zoey because from this point onward everyone in the human world will consider her a freak. Mean huh? Personaly i think thats just vampir…..ism? Uh… vampist? You get the idea.

So stuff happens and basicly Zoey ends up attending a new school full of fledgeling vampires called the House of Night (cue the twilight zone music). She meets a group of awesome friends, my favourite being Stevie Rae…. i want my own SR, shes just adorable!!! I have a soft spot for the Oklahoma accent and i can hear her  voice in my head whenever she speaks (in a non creepy messed up going crazy way). The only person who annoys me in the group is Damien…. hes…hes…. over gay. He’s been written as a cliche and it just annoys me. I’m gonna leave it light that before i start off on a rant.

The main thing I noticed about this book which was really annoying. Every person who was not white skinned was compared to some kind of caffeinated product. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m caucasion English, to be honest I don’t want to be compared to a weak cup of English breakfast tea. Why people have to be described as a cappuccino or a latte, god only knows. In these kinds of circumstances I think cutting to the chase and getting to the point is better for everyone.

“Oh Mr Smith, you look like a delightful frappuccino, may I have a bite of your biscotti?” *growls coquettishly*

So blah blah, Zoey goes through the change (the vampy kind), contends with the usual teenage angst, meets a cute guy… has an ex-guy (i know… very original plot so far *rolls eyes again*) and also we cant forget the antagonist of this teenie tale, Aphrodite. I LOOOOVE her name, it makes me forgive her personality a smidge, but shes basicly a class A betch and hoe-bag, or hag even.

This concludes a mediocre read for me, i hope you enjoy it if you choose to select this title yourself, toodles!

Want to get a copy of this bookalicious peice of 3 star kahoonie?

Amazon.co.uk: Marked
Amazon.com: Marked

Book Review – Everville by Roy Huff

3 Stars!!

Firstly, thank you Roy for providing me with a free copy of your e-book for review 🙂

I feel I need to justify my rating on this book. I’m giving it 3 stars but as i keep trying to stress, this isn’t a bad rating. The book was good, I liked the imagination. It just wasn’t 100% to my taste, but you can’t expect everything to be.

Everville is described as “Somewhere between here and there, sometime between yesterday and another day”.

Blurb: Owen Sage is the emblematic college freshman at Easton Falls University. He studies hard, plays hard, and is incredibly charming. With all the worries about his first year in college, he was not prepared for what would happen next. His way of life was flipped upside down when he was drawn into a different world, a world unbeknownst to him. He mysteriously crossed into another dimension, into the beautiful land of Everville. His tragic excitement was abruptly halted when he discovered that there was a darkness forged against both the natural world, which he knew well, and the new land which he discovered, Everville. He must devise a plan to save both worlds while joining forces with the race of Fron and The Keepers, whom both harbor hidden secrets he must learn in order to gain power over the evil that dwells in The Other In Between.

With a race against time to save both worlds, his short time at Easton Falls did not quite prepare him for the evil, dark forces he must fight in order to conquer The Other In Between.

With regards to the story, it was ok. It was very unique and told from the perspective of Owen Sage, a freshman at Easton Falls University. The story dives in head first and follows Owen to his first explorations of Everville, which he begins visiting through his dreams. He has two best friends, Dante and Anika, who are with him from the very beginning and help him along his journey (never actually following him into the world however). I would go into more detail about the rest of the characters but I’ll be completely honest and admit I don’t really remember any of them. None of them really got my attention and I found them very forgettable. (sounds mean but its true!)

To me the story felt like it was being told from Owens mind, which is all very nice but there wasn’t a lot of character interaction. I thrive from getting to know the characters and establishing a bond with them, yet I did not receive any of this which to me was very disappointing. Also I did notice (what little dialect there was) was quite scrambled and I struggled to tell who was actually speaking at times! Owen was average and uninteresting at best, I got the feeling his view of the world was very grey. Nothing seemed to interest him or create any flux of emotion within him.

Then there was the keeper. I cannot seem to recall him speaking very much either, however you got to witness his journey as a ‘Fron’ in his own adventure in the past. Owen is transported through a mind device into the memories and we live this tale along with the current story. I thought this was actually a nice feature of the book and I actually found this story more interesting than the main tale! *nods*

Ok, let me start on the ‘Fron’. Everytime they popped up all I could think about were them little guys from ‘Despicable Me’. I found it quite hilarious. They were also the main reason I stuck with the story to the very end as I found them to be the only likable characters. Oh and considering the Fron were meant to be hairless, I cant even begin to imagine what a female one would look like! Holy heck, I can’t see them winning any beauty contests, hah!

I also couldn’t get to grips with the obligatory ‘bad guy’. They were called Them and lived in The Other Inbetween. I couldn’t get my head round their lack of presence. Dont get me wrong, they were mentioned a lot but they never interacted with the main storyline or the characters. They were always just lurking around in the background somewhere.

In summary…..the concept was great, the side story was good and I finished the book! There was a point when I almost classed this as a ‘did not finish’, however I said I’d read this book and provide my honest opinion. This is what I have done.

If you’re not a massive character buff (unlike me) then this may be the perfect book for you. It’s an easy read and has a lot of redeeming qualities. Roy Huff has created a lovely imaginary world full of unique places and magic. I can honestly see it being made into a successful children’s TV series. I’ll keep my fingers crossed

Would you like to get a copy?
(Its free until the 16/05/2013)

Amazon.co.uk: Everville
Amazon.com: Everville
Unfortunatly it does not appear to be avaliable on Smashwords at present.