Published Date: October 4th, 2011
Finished Date: October 20th, 2011
Publisher: HarperColllins
Source: Review
Format: Paperback
Pages: 342
The Blurb from Goodreads: When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRÍs. But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.
The Review: “Maybe I picked the wrong brother.” He grabbed me and pushed me up against a tree, “Oh, I have ways of convincing you that you chose right.”
Well, what can I say. I was so excited when I received this for review, and I loved it. This is Leigh Fallon's first novel, and she's done a wonderful job. I'd read mixed reviews about this book but I wanted to read it all the same.
The setting of this book was great, so fresh to have a book set somewhere else other than the U.S. Ireland is beautiful and Leigh Fallon has done it justice. All the characters were wonderful. Completely likeable; especially Megan. She's very strong and when she finds out certain things about herself she takes it, and is excited about it. To be different, to be unique, and it's a wonderful change to some of the YA novels that I've read where the heroine doesn't want a certain power, doesn't want a certain thing. Megan took it all and liked it. Megan meets new friends, and all these friends are completely wonderful! And do you know what else was nice and refreshing? The hero. That's right Adam DeRis who is completely passionate and strives to be with Megan, to want to be with her, he doesn't follow her around but it's nice to finally see a hero wanting to be with the girl from the beginning instead of the other way around.
After the first few chapters, Carrier of the Mark gets a little 'Twilight-esque', girl moves to a new town (country), girl goes to a new school, boy and girl are drawn to each other even though they shouldn't be, girl meets boys family, girl gets kidnapped (unwilling unlike Bella), boy comes to the rescue etc...all of these similarities are in there but you can easily look past it because it's written so well that you forget about it and remember that this is Megan and Adam's story, not Edward and Bella's. The love that unfolds between Megan and Adam is a slow process at first, but then speeds up pretty quickly after an eventful night on Halloween which leads to the first kiss. As their love grows, the lore of the Carriers, the Order, the Knox all come into play and ultimately test the love of Adam and Megan, both whom are still determined to be together no matter what the Order says or how their 'powers' are affected.
The mythology created in this book is great. I love anything to do with the elements of the world, Earth, Fire, Water and Air. And seeing all of this come to life in the book was extremely fascinating. Watching how Adam's power grows the closer he and Megan get, how Megan manages to control her power; and watching Adam's brother and sisters power unfold as well was beautiful. It's all a little confusing at first, with the legend of the Carriers, the Order, the Sidhe (spirit guide), it's a lot of information to take in and I felt I was a little in way over my head, but after a while I managed to focus on the legends and it all became pretty simple. That's pretty much the only gripe I had with that, a lot of info all at once.
Other than that, Carrier of Mark was a wonderful, quick and interesting read. I look forward to reading the sequel to get more Adam (God he's hot). Total s*x pot.
Anyyywayyy, thank you to HarperCollins for allowing me to review this :) (I'm sorry if this review is pants)
