Carrier of the Mark

Megan Rosenberg has always moved around a lot. After her mother's death, her father just can't stay in one place for too long. This time, they are moving to Ireland because of her father's new job at a marina. When she goes to her new school for the first time, she immediately notices Adam DeRis and feels a magnetic connection to him. Unfortunately, he seems to avoid her at all costs. Other than this anomaly, Megan makes many friends like Caitlin, who tell her about the rumors that Adam and his family are druids and cast black magic. This doesn't deter Megan from her crush. As she spends more time with him, she notices strange things happening around him and his family. Is Adam some sort of druid? Is he dangerous? Why does she feel such a strong connection with him?

When I first heard about this book, I was really excited about it. I enjoy Ireland and paranormal books, plus the cover is gorgeous. I was also impressed that it was picked up by HarperCollins after being put up on InkPop, a creative writing community. However, Carrier of the Mark fell short of my expectations. I enjoyed the writing, the characters, and the dialog between Megan and her friends. The writing was really what kept me interested. It flowed really well and had energy behind it that kept me reading even when parts of the plot didn't interest me. The characters were well rounded and detailed. The dialog between them felt authentic and I wanted to know more about them. No one was a stock character and I wish the book was more focused on character development. The other aspect I really liked was the paranormal and mythological aspects. I had never heard of anything like it before. It seemed to be loosely based in Irish mythology with Leigh Fallon's own ideas thrown in. I loved it and again wished there was more of it.

The main problem I had was with the romance and some of the plot points. The romance was love at first sight and Adam and Megan became quickly obsessed with each other. I get that young love is intense, but they seemed too in love too quickly. I felt that their declarations of love and how they would die without each other got old really fast. There were a lot of similarities to Twilight including the forbidden love, girl moving to a new school and falling in love with the hot outcast, Adam's family, and even some structural problems. The main conflict was introduced very late and then resolved very quickly as well because their meeting and subsequent relationship took up about the first two thirds of the book. The beautiful Irish landscape and culture was also underplayed for the most part.

Overall, I liked Carrier of the Mark for the original paranormal storyline and skilled writing. The romance was overplayed, tiresome, and seemed to similar to others in its genre. I would read the next book in the series to see if the mythology is explored in greater detail.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

** Carrier of the Mark comes out 10/4. Check it out here. **