Marked: House of Night Book 1 by P.C. and Kristin Cast

I am an admitted fan of the Twilight series. After reading the Booking Through Thursday responses today I was reminded that even though the Twilight series is a huge seller, it is not reviewed positively by everyone. Bringing me back again to my previous post where I read for me. I do read reviews and if someone is really praising something and it sounds good to me I will want to read it. If someone hates it and it still sounds good to me I will read it. If someone praises it but it doesn't sound good to me I won't read it. I read for entertainment. I do like to think also so sometimes I read for entertainment and to think about an issue (Jodi Picoult's books are and example of this for me), but most of the time I just read for entertainment.

So being a fan of the Twilight series and having read all of them, I decided to see what else was out there. The YA genre seems interesting to me at the moment along with the paranormal so that brought me to trying the House of Night series by P.C. And Kristen Cast. I actually saw these in a B&N a few weeks ago and hadn't heard of them. Then I join the blogging world again and learn more about them. So the first book, Marked, made it onto my Booksfree Queue and made it's way to me.

An interesting take on vampires, not totally new, but not totally and completely done too much either. We find Zoey Redbird leading a fairly ordinary teenage girl life in the beginning of the book. She has friends, a not-so-ex-boyfriend and parent troubles. Then her life is turned upside down when she is "marked" and thus must attend a special school for vampyre fledglings. I found the vampyres-living among us as a known entity interesting as well as the school.

So fast-forward ahead and she's at the school, but not until she has more problems with her parents. Being Christian I actually thought I would have problems with the divide created between organized religion and the vampyres as evidenced by Zoey's mom and stepdad. But I really didn't. The world is honestly full of hypocrites and while I didn't smile at the way her parents were portrayed, it is actually accurate of a lot of religious people (note I said religious which is not always the same as Christian - though I am not one to judge on that either) - scared of what you do not know. So while there are pagan rituals and the like in the book, I saw them as a side theme - something that developed the story and the school better. I don't have to participate in the ritual to read the book. Nor do I have to be a vampyre :)

Once that was realized I relaxed and really enjoyed the book. A great coming of age story. Zoey is a likable character and I look forward to watching her grow more through the books. She's not perfect but she tries to think about all her decisions and make the best ones for her and for those around her. Something that not many people do anymore.

So after all of that - I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA paranormal. It's just a good fiction read. The Cast's have created an interesting world with likeable and not-so-likeable people. It let me escape a few hours and the characters have stayed with me after I finished reading it. So to me that was a worthwhile book and I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in this series.

On Sale Date: May 2007
Date Started: 03-19-09
Date Finished: 03-20-09
From: Booksfree
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Setting: Oklahoma
Character: Zoey Redbird
Pages: 304