Inception (The Marked Saga)

For $0.99 this was an alright read. I polished it off in about five hours in one sitting and didn't have to drag myself to the end or anything. It's rather casual. Nothing especially thought-provoking or demanding in terms of its plot or language. But I wasn't exactly impressed by it and the slew of five-star reviews certainly made me have high expectations, so I was disappointed with what I'd gotten.

So what didn't work for me? Well, first off, there's about twenty cliches within the first 30% of the book that just left a bad taste in my mouth for the remainder of the book: supernatural attack is the spark that sets everything in motion, girl from a sunny state moves to cold/rainy place to start life over with a relative who has secrets, male lead is hot and then cold and then hot and cold again leading to conflicting feelings, girl is somehow "special" but not just special but Special Special, and then hot/crazy ex of main love interest has nothing going for her except to pine for Mr. Brooding Hot Lead and vow to destroy the lead girl for existing, etc., etc., etc. You get the picture. I sort of rolled my eyes because this baseline plot formula has been seen and done in so many books. Outside of that, this book is mostly a set up book that takes over 100 pages to really do anything and even then the action and plot projection is minimal. Mostly this book is centered around a few incidents strung together with some interactions with Trace, Dominic, and Gabriel, lacking much of anything else and without any clear goal. I didn't really get a sense of what the major plot is (is it romance? taking hold of her destiny? saving the world? stopping someone from doing something?) I don't know what book #2 and the rest of the series is going to be seeking to accomplish outside of reclaiming an amulet and maybe romance. I'm just not sure. In a way, the story doesn't seem to have a goal in mind and therefore it lacks a point, to be frank. Maybe we'll get some more antagonist "this is the point of the story, the problem, the conflict, the hoped-for resolution" based plot in the next book, but frankly my interest isn't especially piqued. I just have a vague curiosity about Trace and if he was sincere or lying or how the relationship between him and Jemma plays out, though with the "insta-love" thing going on I'm not really sure I even want to know more. I honestly feel like we should have gotten more in book #1 in terms of set up and revealing so we get an idea of the overall plot that will be further explored in the next books.

The baseline idea we have seemed pretty interesting, but somehow the execution just wasn't there. I think perhaps the author wanted to dedicate more time to the story unfolding things slowly so we're all kept in the dark wondering about things so there's a reason to keep reading, but this was done at the expense of the reader having something to fall back on in terms of knowledge and something to keep them centered when reading and not drifting around in a collection of unimportant events. We aren't given quite enough to really get a firm grasp about what's going on and what this whole literary universe is about. More time should have been dealt to things that weren't just Trace being weirdly broody then helpful then cold and then angry and then sort of sweet before starting again.

Some positives about this book are that it looks to be very well edited with no mistakes that were evident to me and it had decent language. The author can clearly write, but I just wasn't really moved by her story. It wasn't a bad book, you understand, it just wasn't anything special in my eyes and more or less it was just an okay read, something casual that I decided to try for a dollar. I might look into book #2, I might not. I wanted to like it more, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Whoa, what a book! I was upset that the second book was gonna come out NEXT YEAR. I was like WHY? This book has the biggest cliffhanger EVER! Oh lord, I hope I'll survive this.

Jemma knows vampires are real, but when she confronts one, it's hard for her to understand. Even though her uncle assures that they are real, she fights the idea of it. When she's told that she has special abilities, she's pissed. She wants to be normal. She doesn't want any of this crap.

She's also having to figure out who's good and evil. The ones she thinks are good aren't, the bad ones are.. still bad? Man, it's so confusing and I was left with a shocker at the end. I was like wait.... he did WHAT? In this book, there's no black and white, there's so much grey!

I can't wait for the second book to clear up all of the questions I got. What a great book! Possibly one of the best vampire/supernatural books I've read so far. I so feel for Jemma. Hope everything will get better for her soon.

this book....
THIS BOOOOOK.
this book seriously was great.
i read it i believe 2 months ago and I STILL think about that ending and how i NEEEED that second book like NOW. this is a fantastic book. i bought it thru kindle but i love it so much im adding the paper back of it to my collection.

I read a variety of YA Paranormal fiction series such as Fablehaven, House of Night, Vampire Academy and this book is comparable to them. I loved the story from start to finish. It is a refreshing novel that makes for an excellent start to a series. The story was captivating and I really enjoyed the characters and their uniqueness. The novel is very descriptive and has a strong story line. I finished this book right away, not because it was too short, but addicting! I can’t wait to see how Scardoni develops the series! A must read!!!

The concept had the potential to be really interesting but the way the information was delivered made it hard to follow. What killed it was the extensive and unnecessary and over the top descriptions. Not everything has to be described in such a verbose and dramatic manner. The other issue I had was the improper use of words. Some may say this isn’t important, but when people read they learn new phrases and words. If an author uses them incorrectly, then the reader learns that. Perfected example: My curiosity was peaked. THIS IS WRONG! It is piqued. There was plenty of wrong usage when it came to adjectives and even some verbs. That is what made the book hard to read. It could’ve been awesome, but there was just too many annoying, juvenile errors.

I NEED BOOK TWO LIKE NOW!!!

I LOVED THIS BOOK IT WAS THE KIND OF READ THAT HAD YOU BELIEVING THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN BUT YOU WEREN'T TOO SURE BUT THEN IT TOTALLY WENT INTO A DIFFERENT DIRECTION AND IT LEFT WANTING MORE....

THE AUTHOR DID A GREAT JOB WITH THE STORY I SERIOUSLY CANT WAIT FOR THE SECOND BOOK WHICH I HOPE IS RELEASED SOON!!!!

So good! I am loving Trace and Jemma and thei chemistry!

I have read all 6 books in this series and LOVED every one of them. Loved the chemistry between the main character and the two guys she ends up falling in love with. Couldn’t put these books down. Can’t wait for the 7th book to come out!

I LOVE a good can't-put-it-down, must-read-the-next-one series and was so glad to stumble upon this one. I have now read the entire published series in a little over a week and am chomping at the bit for the next release.

I started the first book of this Marked series last week and already finished books 1-3 and started the forth book! the story line is exactly what I'm into got me hooked! I never really enjoyed reading until I find something i'm really into and the Marked series is my favorite!