Leigh FallonRezensionen

I found the mythology of it all very interesting, and it made the story m9ve along. However, the romance felt forced, and exactly how the nasayers in the story described it.

My only complaint is: the last few pages were too summary like and told rather than showed what was going on. Other than that i really liked it. It seemed like it could have ended up like Twilight or one of those terrible star-crossed love stories taking place in high school, but it didn't so it was wonderful.

This is the first in a new series for young adult readers. Some elements will feel familiar -- high school girl moves to new town, unexplained attraction with boy who doesn't fit in, mystery behind the attraction slowly revealed, girl becomes part of new mystical world. But the premise behind all of this is unique, the Irish setting is refreshing and the story hooked me in. The second in the series was just released and I will be picking up a copy for summer reading.

It was a very good book. Carrier of the Mark was kind of Twilight with elemental magic instead of vampires and werewolves, but it was still an interesting read. I jumped right into the second book, [book:Shadow of the Mark|12543750], because I felt so incomplete with the ending of the book. I know there is a third book, but it does not appear to be written yet. I'm not sure if it will ever be written at this point.

I'm really, really sorry, I wanted to read this book in it's entirety so I could give an honest review, but I can't. I wanted to know if they were witches or vampires or what, so I logged on to goodreads and read a couple of other people's reviews, and after doing that, when I tried to picked up this book and read it, I just couldn't. I'm so sorry.
A couple years from now I'll hopefully come back to this book and finish it, but right now I just can't do it.
so sorry.
I made it to page 146

Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon is the first of two books about a young girl, Megan, who moves to Ireland with her father. She finds comfort in her new friends there, and a boy named Adam, soon catches her eye. Megan can feel a pull that she cannot deny between her and Adam, but little does she know that this pull sprouted from a magical fate from her ancestors. She and Adam then find out that their unbreakable love could also be their death sentence.
The cover of the novel is quite intriguing. The bright blue dress that the girl, who would presumably be Megan, is very captivating and contrasts with her bright red hair. Megan is floating in the sky in her dress because the element she possesses is air. I would recommend this book to any girl that is in middle school or high school.

Instantly drawn to a mysterious, alluring boy in her class, teenaged Megan, an American living in Ireland, discovers that they are linked by a supernatural destiny that gives them power Megan never knew she possessed.

[Thursday, ‎December ‎15, ‎2011] I'm almost half way through the book. But as always I can't wait to write my review before I'm done. I guess I don't want to forget a thing. When I first began, I thought the story was very cute, but later on, I thought: "Oh boy! Another Twilight fan!" The story might be set in Ireland (where it's cold) but the story line seems similar to Twilight a lot. First, a girl living with her dad alone, than the whole clan thing, than the weird sister (like Alice) than the accident, and her feeling something is off, and than the incident with the boys assault and him saving her, visiting his family, the possibility of a strange baby if they ever get married... etc etc. The author is following Twilight story line to a fault!! That... I didn't like. But unlike Twilight, the use of words and vocabulary is not strong. Beside that the characters seem lame. I like the cover though.

[‎Wednesday, ‎July ‎24, ‎2013] I can't even give this book two stars. The story is fake, so are the characters. The worst books are the books that make you see that the author is lying and that his/her imagination is flawed. Great books make you believe every lie and invention that author creates.

Instantly drawn to a mysterious, alluring boy in her class, teenaged Megan, an American living in Ireland, discovers that they are linked by a supernatural destiny that gives them power Megan never knew she possessed.

[Thursday, ‎December ‎15, ‎2011] I'm almost half way through the book. But as always I can't wait to write my review before I'm done. I guess I don't want to forget a thing. When I first began, I thought the story was very cute, but later on, I thought: "Oh boy! Another Twilight fan!" The story might be set in Ireland (where it's cold) but the story line seems similar to Twilight a lot. First, a girl living with her dad alone, than the whole clan thing, than the weird sister (like Alice) than the accident, and her feeling something is off, and than the incident with the boys assault and him saving her, visiting his family, the possibility of a strange baby if they ever get married... etc etc. The author is following Twilight story line to a fault!! That... I didn't like. But unlike Twilight, the use of words and vocabulary is not strong. Beside that the characters seem lame. I like the cover though.

[‎Wednesday, ‎July ‎24, ‎2013] I can't even give this book two stars. The story is fake, so are the characters. The worst books are the books that make you see that the author is lying and that his/her imagination is flawed. Great books make you believe every lie and invention that author creates.

***Spoilers***



If I were smart I would probably not even review this book. I think I'm more puzzled than anything else. I should probably also state at this point that I did read the Twilight series: I didn't gag and groan about it as many people did, complaining about how pathetic Bella Swan was as a main character, nor am I a "Twi-Hard." I do think it set an unfortunate trend in Young Adult literature that I thought we were starting to pull out of.

Maybe I should back up a little further. Maybe six months ago, I watched the DVDs of The Vampire Diaries, and I thought, boy, they are really copying Twilight. Then I looked up the dates and found out The Vampire Diaries had been written years before Twilight. It was simply that Twilight made vampires all cool and popular and sparkly. But new? Hardly.

Varney the Vampire was written in the 1840's, almost fifty years before Dracula. I'm sure there are earlier stories than that, Varney is just the first one I thought of (one of the only good things about specializing in Gothic Fiction for my MA. I did have to check the date, though. I don't remember the important things, but that's a hard title to forget).

Anyway, my point is that vampires were suddenly "in" and the new thing, when really they've been around for hundreds of years in literature. Stephanie Meyer just made them popular again. To death. (Sorry, no pun intended).

Publishers, as always, pay attention to the covers of their books. Goodreads has lists of some of the categorizations some of these covers fall into, such as my favorite, "Girl running in dress in the forest." There are a lot of books on that list. Some of them are more tastefully done than others. One of them, Entwined, I happened to like quite a bit and own a copy myself now. I also think it was one of the better done of the covers.

Carrier of the Mark has one of those interesting, pretty covers that made me want to check it out. I liked the abstract blue swipes? feathers? I'm not a graphic artist, I don't know what you call those swoopy things on the bottom of the cover. Incidentally, the same sort of swoopy things also grace the cover of Everneath, which I am also interested in reading, also partially because of the cover. I really like the swoopy things.

The book also takes place in Ireland, which is a sure thing to suck me in. As I was reading, though, the story began to feel very, very familiar. An Amazon reviewer summed it up better than I did because she actually went through Twilight and matched all the similarities situation for situation. I am too lazy to do that--if you want to see how similar they really are, go to Amazon and check out the reviews there. Actually, it's because I have other things I'd rather be doing, but I'm glad someone spent the time to do what the reviewer did, because I thought I was possibly losing it a little.

Basically, it has exactly the same plot line as Twilight, with some exceptions that did make it interesting. Instead of vampires, they are elementals. If things get messed up, it could mean the end of the world in some obscure fashion. The "family" (e.g. the Cullens) consist of a set of twins, a boy and a girl, and a cranky older brother who is very hostile toward the new girl in town that his younger twin brother has fallen head over heels in love with, and vice versa, and the man who is their guardian. Oh, and their rook. I did like the rook, Randel (I think I spelled that right--I've already turned the book back in to the library). But it's too dangerous for them to be together, they might create some sort of monster that could mean the end of the world, or, absolutely nothing. The translations of the histories are a little scrambled. Those crazy monks. Who knows what trouble they get up to down in those catacombs.

Wait, that sounds a little like some past current events--the end of the world is nigh: oh, well, wait, maybe we just read that wrong. We'll try that again another time. Nope. Another year, maybe? We'll get back to you on that. But don't hold your breath.

One difference is the main character, Megan, does actually have some power and uses it at the end, unlike Bella Swan, who, well, doesn't really change very much other than going from human to vampire. Maybe Megan and Bella aren't all that different after all.

This book was "found" on inkpop. For those who don't know, inkpop was a Harper Collins site sold very recently to another company. It is a place for young adults and people who write for young adults to post their manuscripts and from then on it is a mad popularity contest to see if you can get your manuscript to the top five and keep it there for a month. It consists of a lot of spamming other inkpop members, etc. I know this because I did post a manuscript on inkpop, and also on authonomy, which is the adult version of inkpop. I ended up so disgusted by the whole thing (and worse, somewhat obsessed by it, wondering what number my manuscript was at--it's a little nerve-wracking) I pulled my manuscripts from both sites and deleting my accounts. As far as I know, Carrier of the Mark may be the only book, or one of the very few, to actually have been published from the hundreds, if not thousands, of manuscripts that get posted to those sites. I was wondering if I may have read an earlier version of the book on inkpop, because the names were very familiar, the plot was familiar, etc. Then I was left wondering if it was just the Twilight similarities.

It's extremely unfortunate. The book had the potential to be good, instead of a knockoff of an already extremely popular set of books. You can dress a duck up in a dress and call it your Aunt Martha, but it's still a duck. Unless you happen to be a duck, in which case it very well could be your Aunt Martha.

Similarities happen. I believe in the collective unconscious, and am so frustrated when I read something in a book that's already in mine that I started fifteen years ago but am still working on. It's maddening. Will I change it? If it's something big, I might have to. If it's something small, I may just leave it alone. There are a limited set of stories out there--there are theories on that, I'm not just tossing things out there as I sometimes tend to do. (Who told you that? Um. They did?) The point is to tell those same stories in different ways--the challenge. Carrier of the Mark isn't just a case of getting some of the same ideas from the collective unconscious, it's an all out collision with all of the flashing lights.

Carrier of the Mark is supposed to be the first book of either a series or a trilogy. I don't make fun of those people anymore since I've become one of them and people in glass houses... (what? need curtains?) I may read them anyway, just to see if Fallon can pull the books out of the Twilight trap, take the pieces off the ground, and make them into something beautiful and new. (And who would have guessed I could have fit a reference to... now I'm curious to see how many people actually know what that reference is from. I'll give one hint. I like to sing it at the top of my lungs in my car, which is the only place I really sing. By myself. So now you know it's a musical.)

I feel badly, to an extent, about this review. I get on my younger sister's case about being professional in reviews online because you never knew who will read them. I'm not trying to offend anyone. I think it's just my extreme disappointment that the book wasn't what I was hoping it would be, and my fear that now that the Twilight furor is dying down, depending on the popularity of Carrier of the Mark, it might start up again, when there are truly good novels coming out.

Froi of the Exiles is coming out the 13th of this month. It's excellent. I'm actually considering spending the forty dollars or whatever it will be to order the third book from Australia when it comes out in October (not coming out here until next March). Melissa Marr's new book of short stories is out. Some I've already read from when they were posted online. I read one, on the Wicked Lovely timeline, that comes after Ink Exchange. It looks like a really good collection. I should write up a list of Young Adult books that I really liked, which means only that I really liked them, not that I am queen of the world and my taste dictates that everyone else must like them as well.

On the other hand, if you liked Twilight, I think you will really like Carrier of the Mark. I didn't dislike it--I read the whole thing. Pretty quickly. It was just a disappointment. And a frustration. Why won't publishing companies be a little more courageous and publish new things instead of sticking to what they are sure will sell? That's another whole post in itself, not a review. Enough said.

I loved this book!!! I loved the fact is was set in Ireland. All the characters were really easy to like and Adam is swoon worthy!!Full review to come.

I made it about 100 pages in before I gave up. The dialogue is unbelievable (especially the interactions with her dad) and her reactions to what is going on around her just didn't ring true to me.

Originally posted at my blog: The Bibliophile's Corner

Let me just start off by saying I almost didn’t read this book due to the blogger/author controversy that has been hanging around it. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, good. However, I bought it a good while ago and since it is set in Ireland, I could not resist. Ireland is the motherland of my soul and I will live there one day.

Normally, up at the top of my blog, I put three words that I feel give the best description and or feelings of the book I am reading. I just could not do that for this book. I wanted to love this book. I really did. But I just did not connect to this book the way I wanted to. I read it so quickly, mainly because the plot really did move right along. That was great. But I honestly only remember with clarity a secondary character named Aine. She was my favorite. And I’ll tell you why below.

If you loved Twilight, you WILL love this book. Take that as you will. For me, it was a bit of a turn off. And honestly, the first few chapters reminded me of the first few chapters of Twilight. There is an insta-love between our main character, Megan and the love interest, Adam. He is aloof and keeps his distance from her. His sibling, Rian, gives her death glares and tells Adam to stay away from her. But of course, the main brunette had to be interested. Luckily, the sister is the nice one. For those of you who have read Twilight, Aine, the sister, is essentially just like Alice. And that is why Aine was my favorite character. Alice was my favorite in Twilight.

As for Megan and Adam. As a couple, I really didn’t like them. It was too easy. There was ONE fight and it was via cell phone call with Megan blowing things out of proportion. And I felt that it was unmotivated to begin with. Also, and this is not the author’s fault, I am so sick of insta-love teen books. I really am. Forgive me for bringing up Twilight again, but before that book, I truly don’t recall as much insta-love going on in books. And for Megan and Adam, I truly felt nothing for either one of them. When their first kiss happened, they barely knew each other except that they were instantly drawn to one another. But there is no development in their relationship together at all in this book.

As for what I really did like. The mythology and the elemental magic! This is definitely right up my alley and I loved it. The chapters where Fionn, Adam, Aine, and Rian’s guardian, taught Megan about their history were my favorites. The scenes where everyone is showing Megan their powers were really good and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I am very intrigued as to where this trilogy will go.

All of the above being said, I am decently impressed with this book. It was a quick read and I don’t regret reading it. I will be picking up the next book to see where everything goes from here because I feel like Fallon can do a lot. Overall, if you want a quick weekend, read, I would pick this up. Especially if you were a fan of Twilight.

This fantastic review


I've already read Twilight once and I'm not interested in reading it again.

Feeling excited to step into this world again, I found it very exciting with lots of action.

Plot: It leaves off where the last book left off, with Megan doing her best to control her powers. Not all is going well and not to mention that Megan is out of the loop a lot. I felt like the plot ran fast leaving the reader trailing behind. I did my best to catch up, but honestly, I hate being out on secrets.

Love: This part I enjoyed more cause of the tension that they give off. Megan and Adam are not only fighting their on powers but as well as another society. The development of their love and the movement of different forces against them, tested it. I’m hoping and crossing my fingers, more will be resolved in the next book.

Characters: More characters are added and this indeed brings new elements to the story. Also, some characters die. (Don’t worry, I won’t say) but in the end, it left me really sad. New characters answered questions and other characters just brought more in. I’m excited for the new characters cause this in fact, changes a lot of circumstances and things I thought I knew.

Overall, this book kept me on my toes. With every new chapter, the powers got stronger. Alliances were formed. Lies were revealed. I can’t wait to read the last book to see how it will all end. Shadow Of The Mark is a great sequel pulling the reader in for much excitement. An eventful story that doesn’t disappoint, Shadow Of The Mark is awesome!

Shadow of the Mark is the long awaited sequel to Carrier of the Mark. I read Carrier of the Mark way back in the fall of 2011, and I’ve been super curious since then to see what is going to happen in this sequel. If you enjoyed reading the first book in this series, you are definitely going to want to pick up this sequel.

Shadow of the Mark picks up not long after where Carrier of the Mark leaves off. Megan is once again safe from the bad guys, but she still can’t be with her beloved. The relationship between Megan and Adam is one that any lover of ‘forbidden love’ will appreciate. It involves lots of drama and angst. The pull between them is so insanely strong, yet they know that they absolutely cannot be together. You have to feel bad for them for their situation, especially when they want is to just be together.

One of the things I love most about this series is the setting. Oh how I would love to visit Ireland. (One day!) The descriptions were written so that I could definitely picture what the author was describing. I loved reading all of the details of the setting. The story got off to kind of a slow start, but had a lot of action in the end. I was left with some questions, but I hope that we will get answers to those in the next book. I’m super curious to see where Fallon is going to take the series with the next book.

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting read. If you like books that are based around mythology, you will definitely enjoy this read. But be sure to check out the first book in the series, Carrier of the Mark, as well!

Happy Reading!

Also posted on TheReaderBee.com.

***Spoilers***



If I were smart I would probably not even review this book. I think I'm more puzzled than anything else. I should probably also state at this point that I did read the Twilight series: I didn't gag and groan about it as many people did, complaining about how pathetic Bella Swan was as a main character, nor am I a "Twi-Hard." I do think it set an unfortunate trend in Young Adult literature that I thought we were starting to pull out of.

Maybe I should back up a little further. Maybe six months ago, I watched the DVDs of The Vampire Diaries, and I thought, boy, they are really copying Twilight. Then I looked up the dates and found out The Vampire Diaries had been written years before Twilight. It was simply that Twilight made vampires all cool and popular and sparkly. But new? Hardly.

Varney the Vampire was written in the 1840's, almost fifty years before Dracula. I'm sure there are earlier stories than that, Varney is just the first one I thought of (one of the only good things about specializing in Gothic Fiction for my MA. I did have to check the date, though. I don't remember the important things, but that's a hard title to forget).

Anyway, my point is that vampires were suddenly "in" and the new thing, when really they've been around for hundreds of years in literature. Stephanie Meyer just made them popular again. To death. (Sorry, no pun intended).

Publishers, as always, pay attention to the covers of their books. Goodreads has lists of some of the categorizations some of these covers fall into, such as my favorite, "Girl running in dress in the forest." There are a lot of books on that list. Some of them are more tastefully done than others. One of them, Entwined, I happened to like quite a bit and own a copy myself now. I also think it was one of the better done of the covers.

Carrier of the Mark has one of those interesting, pretty covers that made me want to check it out. I liked the abstract blue swipes? feathers? I'm not a graphic artist, I don't know what you call those swoopy things on the bottom of the cover. Incidentally, the same sort of swoopy things also grace the cover of Everneath, which I am also interested in reading, also partially because of the cover. I really like the swoopy things.

The book also takes place in Ireland, which is a sure thing to suck me in. As I was reading, though, the story began to feel very, very familiar. An Amazon reviewer summed it up better than I did because she actually went through Twilight and matched all the similarities situation for situation. I am too lazy to do that--if you want to see how similar they really are, go to Amazon and check out the reviews there. Actually, it's because I have other things I'd rather be doing, but I'm glad someone spent the time to do what the reviewer did, because I thought I was possibly losing it a little.

Basically, it has exactly the same plot line as Twilight, with some exceptions that did make it interesting. Instead of vampires, they are elementals. If things get messed up, it could mean the end of the world in some obscure fashion. The "family" (e.g. the Cullens) consist of a set of twins, a boy and a girl, and a cranky older brother who is very hostile toward the new girl in town that his younger twin brother has fallen head over heels in love with, and vice versa, and the man who is their guardian. Oh, and their rook. I did like the rook, Randel (I think I spelled that right--I've already turned the book back in to the library). But it's too dangerous for them to be together, they might create some sort of monster that could mean the end of the world, or, absolutely nothing. The translations of the histories are a little scrambled. Those crazy monks. Who knows what trouble they get up to down in those catacombs.

Wait, that sounds a little like some past current events--the end of the world is nigh: oh, well, wait, maybe we just read that wrong. We'll try that again another time. Nope. Another year, maybe? We'll get back to you on that. But don't hold your breath.

One difference is the main character, Megan, does actually have some power and uses it at the end, unlike Bella Swan, who, well, doesn't really change very much other than going from human to vampire. Maybe Megan and Bella aren't all that different after all.

This book was "found" on inkpop. For those who don't know, inkpop was a Harper Collins site sold very recently to another company. It is a place for young adults and people who write for young adults to post their manuscripts and from then on it is a mad popularity contest to see if you can get your manuscript to the top five and keep it there for a month. It consists of a lot of spamming other inkpop members, etc. I know this because I did post a manuscript on inkpop, and also on authonomy, which is the adult version of inkpop. I ended up so disgusted by the whole thing (and worse, somewhat obsessed by it, wondering what number my manuscript was at--it's a little nerve-wracking) I pulled my manuscripts from both sites and deleting my accounts. As far as I know, Carrier of the Mark may be the only book, or one of the very few, to actually have been published from the hundreds, if not thousands, of manuscripts that get posted to those sites. I was wondering if I may have read an earlier version of the book on inkpop, because the names were very familiar, the plot was familiar, etc. Then I was left wondering if it was just the Twilight similarities.

It's extremely unfortunate. The book had the potential to be good, instead of a knockoff of an already extremely popular set of books. You can dress a duck up in a dress and call it your Aunt Martha, but it's still a duck. Unless you happen to be a duck, in which case it very well could be your Aunt Martha.

Similarities happen. I believe in the collective unconscious, and am so frustrated when I read something in a book that's already in mine that I started fifteen years ago but am still working on. It's maddening. Will I change it? If it's something big, I might have to. If it's something small, I may just leave it alone. There are a limited set of stories out there--there are theories on that, I'm not just tossing things out there as I sometimes tend to do. (Who told you that? Um. They did?) The point is to tell those same stories in different ways--the challenge. Carrier of the Mark isn't just a case of getting some of the same ideas from the collective unconscious, it's an all out collision with all of the flashing lights.

Carrier of the Mark is supposed to be the first book of either a series or a trilogy. I don't make fun of those people anymore since I've become one of them and people in glass houses... (what? need curtains?) I may read them anyway, just to see if Fallon can pull the books out of the Twilight trap, take the pieces off the ground, and make them into something beautiful and new. (And who would have guessed I could have fit a reference to... now I'm curious to see how many people actually know what that reference is from. I'll give one hint. I like to sing it at the top of my lungs in my car, which is the only place I really sing. By myself. So now you know it's a musical.)

I feel badly, to an extent, about this review. I get on my younger sister's case about being professional in reviews online because you never knew who will read them. I'm not trying to offend anyone. I think it's just my extreme disappointment that the book wasn't what I was hoping it would be, and my fear that now that the Twilight furor is dying down, depending on the popularity of Carrier of the Mark, it might start up again, when there are truly good novels coming out.

Froi of the Exiles is coming out the 13th of this month. It's excellent. I'm actually considering spending the forty dollars or whatever it will be to order the third book from Australia when it comes out in October (not coming out here until next March). Melissa Marr's new book of short stories is out. Some I've already read from when they were posted online. I read one, on the Wicked Lovely timeline, that comes after Ink Exchange. It looks like a really good collection. I should write up a list of Young Adult books that I really liked, which means only that I really liked them, not that I am queen of the world and my taste dictates that everyone else must like them as well.

On the other hand, if you liked Twilight, I think you will really like Carrier of the Mark. I didn't dislike it--I read the whole thing. Pretty quickly. It was just a disappointment. And a frustration. Why won't publishing companies be a little more courageous and publish new things instead of sticking to what they are sure will sell? That's another whole post in itself, not a review. Enough said.

Carrier of the Mark gave me a little bit of Twilight deja vu. Girl moves to new town living with her dad. She is drawn to the mysterious boy who is a loner along with the rest of his family. Once it got off that track though it found it's own plot. I really liked what the made the family so "strange". I've always felt that things incorporating nature seem a little more realistic to me. In a whole if magic was actually real sense. I enjoyed the writing and the character development. I was a little confused on some of the bloodlines. I felt like I needed a chart but I got the jist enough to understand what was going on. I liked the ending even though some things were tied up in a manner of speaking it still left some unanswered questions. Question that I want to know the answer to and will definitely be diving into the next book as soon as it comes out.

Carrier of the Mark gave me a little bit of Twilight deja vu. Girl moves to new town living with her dad. She is drawn to the mysterious boy who is a loner along with the rest of his family. Once it got off that track though it found it's own plot. I really liked what the made the family so "strange". I've always felt that things incorporating nature seem a little more realistic to me. In a whole if magic was actually real sense. I enjoyed the writing and the character development. I was a little confused on some of the bloodlines. I felt like I needed a chart but I got the jist enough to understand what was going on. I liked the ending even though some things were tied up in a manner of speaking it still left some unanswered questions. Question that I want to know the answer to and will definitely be diving into the next book as soon as it comes out.

I first was drawn to this book by the beautiful cover. It is one you notice right away. So when I saw it offered as a ‘give away’ on the Thoughts Of An Endless Dreamer blog, I entered! And I was lucky enough to win. (Thanks Taylor!) However, I have to say, once I got the book, it didn’t pull my in the way I expected. I picked it up and started it three different times before it finally ‘took’ and I was able to stick with it. Even after I did, it never really stuck me.

The story is about an American high school student, who moves with her Dad to Ireland. She immediately is attracted to Adam, who seems repulsed by her, and wants nothing to do with her. Complication; he works for her Dad. As it turns out, Adam has a special power over the water. He has a brother, with power over fire, and a sister, with power over earth. They are descended through a long line of ‘mark’ carriers; humans who were children of an ancient goddess who distributed these powers among her children but gave up on them when they were misused. Now, all need to be present in the world at once to save the world. Megan, it turns out, is a carrier. She is the key. There are forces in the world that do not want this reunion to take place and are working to find and eliminate the carriers. And Adam, though he is insanely attracted to her, wants to stay away from her, ‘because it would be bad for her’. His sister, Aine, really loves the developing relationship between Adam and Megan, and is Megan’s new BFF, helping her dress and hanging out with her when Adam can’t. Their brother, Rian, really does.not.like Megan. And why? Well, Megan has a choice to accept her power or remain ‘human’; and he is jealous because he did not get that choice. Oh, and the family lives on a secluded estate, where they are protected from those who would seek to destroy them. If you think this sounds a bit like Belle and Edward and Alice and Rosalie; well, you are not the first to think so.

Now this book is not terrible. Parts of it, especially towards the end, actually are quite suspenseful! But overall, the book did not hold my interest. I probably will not be reading the rest of the series.

The story and concept were nice and engaging even though they were not totally unique in themselves. I love fantasy elemental ideas and I think the author pulled this off pretty well.

Meg was an okay character, she didn't really do anything for me and really neither did Adam. They seemed pretty flat and one dimensional. The insta-love kind of bugged me too. Okay, I can see a little bit the elemental attraction but it never really was explained enough for me, it was still just uninspiring insta-love.

As I was reading I did (like everyone else) pick up on the twilight similarities. Unlike everyone else I found this to be amusing and quite entertaining overall

I will read and am looking forward to the second addition to this series. The book was a light quick read that was entertaining and fun

What I Loved
Story
Loved the magic, romance, conflicts, the beginning of many trials to come and of course the setting. I was kept very interested throughout the entire book, never any dull moments that made me want to skim through paragraphs.
Romance
A Romeo and Juliet type love affair, always a wonderful classic type love. They have wonderful chemistry and passion, they still keep it innocent for the younger readers though. I am rooting for them to be together and I can't wait to see what will happen in the next book. Fallon has some hard trials ahead of them in the coming books.

A Little Concerned
When I first started reading the book I was a little put off by all the similarities to Twilight. The grouchy across the room first meeting with a cold shoulder, the new girl in a small town with the mysterious hottie family, a Rosalie type character and even the almost attack and save. But I guess we have to all realize that similarities will always happen in books, there is only so many storylines that can be created, but how the author creates the characters and conflicts is how this story completely went its own direction. By the middle of the book I no longer cared about the similarities and I was completely riveted and entranced with this Irish land with magic.

Recommendation
Even with the little off puts I still completely enjoyed and loved the book. It is a great quick read that kept me interested at every page. Worth the read for all readers in this genre.

A secret order of ancient Celts set to protect the world from total catastrophe by training a group of teenagers descended from gods who can control the elements. First in a series.½

I’m a huge sucker for romance, mostly of the paranormal genre. I really am in love with books with an Ireland setting and I like mystery. I love books with a great cover.. This book has it all... Still... I found the book okay, not loving it. I had the feeling I read it all before. Megan was an okay character, not really special. Adam is of course the hot mystery guy. I though it starts good, but… where’s the tension and where’s the getting to know each other? It’s an instant love/relationship thing, I don’t like that! Sure they are cute together and made me smile sometimes, but really!? Not realistic! And then there is the whole mark thing, still don’t know what the deal is with that. It was all kind of vague. All I know is that they are carriers of the mark and therefore they can control the elements. Adam and Megan can’t be with each other, so they have to find a solution. The whole history and the whole why and everything is lost on me. I like the writing style though. The story had so much potential, it’s a shame that it ended up the way it did. It was a quick read, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

See more reviews: http://ifonlytherewasenoughtimeinaday.blogspot.nl/

Let me start by saying I was a little disappointed in this book.... It was like EVERY element of Twilight was featured here. So much so, I remember thinking that Bella and Edward must have packed up and moved to Ireland while I was reading the book. Lucky for the book, I did enjoy Twilight. I just don't think the book had enough of its own voice.
One thing I did like about it was the cover. Wow, it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! And once you read it and you find out why it looks that way..... Psssh you'll be just as hooked as I was.
I also liked the mythology that was featured in the story. I learned so much about the Irish culture that I had never even heard of. I absolutely love books like that. I can enjoy reading them but also learn about different cultures and places as I read.
Which brings me to my next point. I felt as if I were swept away to Ireland as I was reading this. It was a very readable book, but the thing that put me off was the fact that I thought I might have been reading a book I thoroughly enjoyed before or if it was her actual writing. I am looking forward to the next installment of the trilogy to see if it was her writing or the thought that I may have heard the story before.