Review: Burn Mark by Laura Powell

Burn Mark by Laura Powell

• Pub. Date: June 19, 2012
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Pages: 416

Glory is from a family of witches and lives beyond the law. She is desperate to develop her powers and become a witch herself. Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition—the witches’ mortal enemy—and his privileged life is very different to the forbidden world that he lives alongside.

And then on the same day, it hits them both. Glory and Lucas develop the Fae—the mark of the witch. In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together, whether they like it or not . . . 

First Line: The walls of the Burning Court were high and white-tiled, its ceiling one giant chimney.


Review: 

This is one of those books I was set out to fall in love with but instead of being sucked in and finishing it in a matter of hours it took me almost a week to finish it.

The premise of the book is pretty unique and what made me want to read it. It's set in an alternate London where there are Covens which are actually gangs, everyone knows that witches exist and they are looked down upon in society, and modern day witch burnings happen in all parts of the world. Glory and Lucas are the main characters. Glory being the next in line to become the head witch of a coven and Lucas who is the son of a Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisitorial Court and finds himself to be a witch which pretty much ruins all his future plans of being part of the inquisition.

Like I said the concept sounds awesome and I really would have loved this book if it wasn't for all the extra details and info dumping that occurred. It really took away from my enjoyment of the book and I even started skimming some paragraphs because it didn't hold my interest. Another thing that was a little frustrating was the switch of point of views in the middle of the chapters. For the most part the povs alternated with each chapter but about half way the switch would come without warning and there were times I thought I was reading in Glory's pov but somewhere in the middle it became Lucas' point of view and vice versa.

Another thing that had thrown me off was that the prologue sucked me in but then after that about half of the book nothing really happened. It was just giving us details about the day to day lives of our two main characters. It's not until Glory and Lucas finally meet up which was literally about half way into the book that things picked up, and I found myself actually wanting to finish the book instead of marking it as a DNF.

Burn Mark has an amazing cover which I think actually reflects the personality of Glory who is very strong willed and knows she is a very powerful witch. She was the only character who I really liked in the novel. Lucas did grow on me by the end but not so much, he was too stuck in his prejudice mindset about witches even though he had become one also.

Overall Burn Mark had great potential but it just wasn't executed well.

Review: Endure by Carrie Jones

Endure by Carrie Jones

• Pub. Date: May 8th, 2012
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Pages: 272
• Series: Need #4

Zara is at the center of an all-out war, and an impending apocalypse. True, she’s successfully rescued Nick from Valhalla, but it simply isn’t enough. Bedford is being ravaged by evil pixies and they need much more than one great warrior; they need an army. Zara isn’t sure what her role is anymore. She’s not just fighting for her friends, she’s also a pixie queen. And to align her team of pixies with the humans she loves will be one of her greatest battles yet. Especially since she can’t even reconcile her growing feelings for her pixie king…Unexpected turns, surprising revelations, and one utterly satisfying romantic finale make Endure a thrilling end to this series of bestsellers.

Review: 

Endure is the last and final book in the Need Series by Carrie Jones and let me tell you it's been a blast reading this series. The plot and characters were done so well throughout the entire series with tons of twists and turns and compelling characters that made it worthwhile for the time I invested into reading the series. Okay now on to the actual book and the review.

Nick has been brought back from Valhalla thanks to Zara, and instead of being grateful the guy is acting like a complete jerk towards her. Meanwhile Zara is developing deeper feelings for Astley which I was all for it. Also Zara and her friends are still trying to stop the apocalypse from happening and this brings on quite a few adventures and hardships for the characters especially Zara who is the key to whether the apocalypse will happen or not happen.

I applaud the growth Zara's character has gone through in the series. She was willing to put all her personal life issues aside and concentrate on trying to save the world. She steps up and becomes a true leader in Endure. And she isn't the only character who I saw growth in, pretty much all of them had grown in their own ways. The only one that got on my nerves was Nick he was such a brat.

As far as the romance goes I was very happy with who Zara ended up with. She couldn't have picked a better guy.

I was very satisfied with the wrap up of the series. Endure was fast paced without a dull moment in sight and if you haven't read the series go pick it up, every book was an incredibly fast read for me.