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wayfaringbibliomaniac's review
5.0
ARC provided in exchange for honest review.
I absolutely loved this book!! I got so stuck into it that I read it in just a few hours. And when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about what might happen next... Right up my alley with all the mystical creatures humanised and the lead character being so relatable. Not only is the author wonderful, but she is also hilarious and capable of writing the story of a strong female lead who may need the guidance of her companions in the new world she comes to, but is still more than able to take care of herself and kick some ass when needed.
I love when characters are multidimensional from the beginning and progress throughout their stories. Miss Tingey made all of that happen and more. I did realise within the first couple of chapters that Kayla is not all that she appears, but that really becomes obvious near the end of the novel. There's always something that doesn't add up throughout the course of the story; too many coincidences that are obviously not coincidental. Then, when one problem is solved, another arises. And, of course, as the story ends, she has the decision of a lifetime to make...
Will definitely be reading book 2 of the Soulseer series! As a matter of fact, I just downloaded it...
I absolutely loved this book!! I got so stuck into it that I read it in just a few hours. And when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about what might happen next... Right up my alley with all the mystical creatures humanised and the lead character being so relatable. Not only is the author wonderful, but she is also hilarious and capable of writing the story of a strong female lead who may need the guidance of her companions in the new world she comes to, but is still more than able to take care of herself and kick some ass when needed.
I love when characters are multidimensional from the beginning and progress throughout their stories. Miss Tingey made all of that happen and more. I did realise within the first couple of chapters that Kayla is not all that she appears, but that really becomes obvious near the end of the novel. There's always something that doesn't add up throughout the course of the story; too many coincidences that are obviously not coincidental. Then, when one problem is solved, another arises. And, of course, as the story ends, she has the decision of a lifetime to make...
Will definitely be reading book 2 of the Soulseer series! As a matter of fact, I just downloaded it...
blodeuedd's review
3.0
I liked this, the underworld, well it's just fun. And it was light and it left me wanting more.
Lucky can see dead people, and her best friend since childhood is one. Kayla, the friendly neighborhood ghost. Lucky also wrote this book telling the world how fake mediums are and they all hate her now. So now all she has is Kayla. She was a bit of a hermit, poor girl. I guess it's like that with all ghosts running around.
Then someone comes for her help and the adventure begins. Adventure and adventure, more the danger, the secrets and the demons. Lots of demons.
And the secrets were juicy. I also liked the world she created and the dramas unfolding. The end was something too. All is nice, but all is not nice. So sort of a cliffie and not a cliffie. I mean stuff is going down, but for now it's nice. Until something happens. I am very glad I have book 2 nearby.
I liked the start to this series and stay tuned as there will be more. Fingers crossed for some budding romance too ;)
Lucky can see dead people, and her best friend since childhood is one. Kayla, the friendly neighborhood ghost. Lucky also wrote this book telling the world how fake mediums are and they all hate her now. So now all she has is Kayla. She was a bit of a hermit, poor girl. I guess it's like that with all ghosts running around.
Then someone comes for her help and the adventure begins. Adventure and adventure, more the danger, the secrets and the demons. Lots of demons.
And the secrets were juicy. I also liked the world she created and the dramas unfolding. The end was something too. All is nice, but all is not nice. So sort of a cliffie and not a cliffie. I mean stuff is going down, but for now it's nice. Until something happens. I am very glad I have book 2 nearby.
I liked the start to this series and stay tuned as there will be more. Fingers crossed for some budding romance too ;)
kirkw1972's review
4.0
Sometimes I really love having started reviewing books. Especially when you get an email from a publisher saying would you like a paperback trilogy gift in return for some reviews? Yes please!
Lucky is of a rare breed of people that can see ghosts and spends her days writing books that debunk the fake psychics. Shes accompanied by her ghostly best friend Katya. Seeing ghosts everywhere means that Lucky has no other friends except Katya so lives a quiet existence working from home. Until she is asked to remove some ghosts at her old school and comes face to face with demon Henri le Dent who insists that Katya ‘comes home’.
Turns out Katya is not a ghost but demon royalty and of we go on an adventure to the Underlands on a journey of discovery complete with all new demon bodyguards and a dragon. Lots of twists and turns in this book. And for the most part it’s really good. I do think that when the truth of Lucky’s true parentage is revealed she takes it so much better than I probably would. In fact she doesn’t seem to question it much at all.
I think it’s classed as a paranormal romance but there’s hardly any romance… well apart from accidentally becoming engaged (‘marked’) by both a Guardian and a Death Bringer which is apparently unheard of. The ending of the book though promises much more movement on the romance front whether Lucky will have to choose between her handsome daemons or just share her life with them both.
It’s a fun book, it’s very descriptive. I love the rich detail of the demons with their exotic skin colours (maroon, aubergine, duck egg blue..), tails, horns and even wings. The author gives us such a rich book with her characters. For the most part they’re well developed, as much as they can be when nearly everyone is hiding a secret and we learn about Lucky as she does. I quite like that approach.
Overall it’s a fun flirty beach read and I’m looking forward to reading the next two.
Thanks to Hannah & Olivia at Quercus books and JoFletcher books for the hard copies
Lucky is of a rare breed of people that can see ghosts and spends her days writing books that debunk the fake psychics. Shes accompanied by her ghostly best friend Katya. Seeing ghosts everywhere means that Lucky has no other friends except Katya so lives a quiet existence working from home. Until she is asked to remove some ghosts at her old school and comes face to face with demon Henri le Dent who insists that Katya ‘comes home’.
Turns out Katya is not a ghost but demon royalty and of we go on an adventure to the Underlands on a journey of discovery complete with all new demon bodyguards and a dragon. Lots of twists and turns in this book. And for the most part it’s really good. I do think that when the truth of Lucky’s true parentage is revealed she takes it so much better than I probably would. In fact she doesn’t seem to question it much at all.
I think it’s classed as a paranormal romance but there’s hardly any romance… well apart from accidentally becoming engaged (‘marked’) by both a Guardian and a Death Bringer which is apparently unheard of. The ending of the book though promises much more movement on the romance front whether Lucky will have to choose between her handsome daemons or just share her life with them both.
It’s a fun book, it’s very descriptive. I love the rich detail of the demons with their exotic skin colours (maroon, aubergine, duck egg blue..), tails, horns and even wings. The author gives us such a rich book with her characters. For the most part they’re well developed, as much as they can be when nearly everyone is hiding a secret and we learn about Lucky as she does. I quite like that approach.
Overall it’s a fun flirty beach read and I’m looking forward to reading the next two.
Thanks to Hannah & Olivia at Quercus books and JoFletcher books for the hard copies
emiliana_soy_22's review against another edition
4.0
Right from the start it has you guessing and drawn into the story. Love the characters and there individual personalities and getting to know them all. Great story although felt like it had fillers in some place but didn't stop me from moving further in the story.
emiliana_soy_22's review
4.0
Draws you in you won't want to put it down. Amazing characters that you fall in love with. All in all great read.
slc333's review
2.0
Interesting idea and story but the characters were so irritating I couldn't rate it higher. Everyone was so patronising towards Lucky. Always being 'amused' by her and her reactions in the Underland (even though she had never been there before, wasn't aware it existed etc) laughing at her, her two hot guards exchanging looks (usually amused) about her and never explaining basic stuff to her. It was fricking annoying. But what was worse was the way Lucky put up with it. So many of her conversations were like:
Lucky: I know you are not telling me something. You need to tell me.
Kayla: No. Just trust me.
Lucky No I insist you tell me.
Kayla: No you just have to trust me
Lucky Ok
Lucky: You have been keeping things from me. How can I trust you.
Jamie: Just trust me
Lucky; Ok
And the fact that she kept trusting these people even after they repeatedly lied to her was so annoying. I mean Kayla lied to her her whole life about who she was, and who Lucky was, failed to give Lucky any information after a freakin demon threatened her yet she kept blindly accepting whatever she said. And Jamie he lies about who he is, does some sort of magic/manipulation on her in the beginning so she will let him stay, freakin tricks her into the Underland with no intention of returning her home, never gives her any information yet she keeps trotting along behind him, trusting him just cause he says so. At least with Kayla she had a lifetime of experiences to overcome - she has known Jamie for a few days. She was a MORON.
Lucky: I know you are not telling me something. You need to tell me.
Kayla: No. Just trust me.
Lucky No I insist you tell me.
Kayla: No you just have to trust me
Lucky Ok
Lucky: You have been keeping things from me. How can I trust you.
Jamie: Just trust me
Lucky; Ok
And the fact that she kept trusting these people even after they repeatedly lied to her was so annoying. I mean Kayla lied to her her whole life about who she was, and who Lucky was, failed to give Lucky any information after a freakin demon threatened her yet she kept blindly accepting whatever she said. And Jamie he lies about who he is, does some sort of magic/manipulation on her in the beginning so she will let him stay, freakin tricks her into the Underland with no intention of returning her home, never gives her any information yet she keeps trotting along behind him, trusting him just cause he says so. At least with Kayla she had a lifetime of experiences to overcome - she has known Jamie for a few days. She was a MORON.
amyextradot's review
3.0
It started out as if it was going to be a dark mystery, then morphed into...something lighter and with some light (very light, the protagonist is a virgin) sexy-talk. Interesting take on demons, Devils, and Angels. So, I'll read the next one--they're a light read
elephant's review
4.0
Lucky sees dead people and debunks psychics. When she is called in to investigate a case she finds more than just ghosts and is drawn into the realm of demons. She learns that her best friend, a spirit named Kayla, is not really what she thought she was and neither is Lucky herself. Remember the cartoons where a character would have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other shoulder? Kayla meets those guys, only they are really hot and both are interested in her. Fans of Twilight should enjoy this paranormal romance. Lucky is a strong, independent, fun character to read about. I look forward to other books in the series coming out. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.
coolcurrybooks's review
2.0
I should never have read this book or requested it as an ARC. Unfortunately, it has two different blurbs, one of which is honest and one of which is misleading, and I read the wrong one. The honest one is upfront about this being a paranormal romance. The misleading one tries to sell it as a psychic investigation. Only the first few chapters are anything like psychic investigation before Marked takes an abrupt genre twist.
Listen, I hate paranormal romances. I always have, and in all likelihood always will. I am utterly the wrong person to be reading this book. This book is clearly wish fulfillment, and I don’t feel like I am the audience for it. If I’m going for a tropey wish fulfillment book, I’d chose the one about the action girl over the princess every time. However, this was an ARC from Netgalley so I felt obliged to read and review the whole thing. And even if you like paranormal romances, I think this one has obvious flaws.
Lucky’s only friend in the world is a ghost – Kayla – who she’s known since childhood. Only, Kayla isn’t who Lucky thinks she is, which leads Lucky to be dragged into another world and a battle for power among demons.
A large part of this book is people not telling Lucky things. She will ask and they’ll deflect her, and that is how it goes for the vast majority of the book. It’s super annoying. Lucky also feels younger than she’s supposed to be. Is it lack of responsibilities? She’s supposed to be a twenty something who makes a living exposing fake psychics. Yet, she acts like the protagonist of a not very good YA novel.
Lucky just doesn’t do much in this book. She makes a few decisions, but she mostly relies on the characters around her to take care of her. There’s also a lot of time spent describing what she was wearing and how hot she looked in it. Plus, there were at least three attractive men who were all into her. Oh, and she finds out…. Is Lucky a Mary Sue? I feel like the term’s rather meaningless, so I’ll just say that she’s a reader insert/wish fulfillment character and leave it at that.
There’s no tension to this book at all, and the plot’s a mess. Something interesting could have been done with Lucky having to “chose” between the two worlds, but it’s no contest since literally all the characters who appear in more than one chapter are in the Underlands. There would have been a lot more conflict if she had actual ties to the human world, say if her father had still been living.
Speaking of worlds, the world building was also a mess and very under developed. I’m not sure what if any thought went into the construction of the Underlands culture or social system. There’s different types of demons, and Lucky’s love interests are both super powerful due to abilities? Then there’s the demon king who’s in charge because… reasons? And the culture was just generic medieval, with the explanation being “oh, technology doesn’t make humans any happier so we don’t use it.” Yet, there’s still a scrumptious apartment for Lucky’s apartment is scrumptious even by modern standards, and she’s got a gigantic wardrobe of totally cool outfits. Somehow these these facts are not contradictory with the imposed medieval theme?
The characterization was horrible also. The love interests are mostly just sexy and shirtless and don’t have anything resembling personality. Oh, except one’s a “bad boy” which just means that he acts like a jerk and is considered sexy because of it. But it’s all okay, because they’re both hot, right? And when I say “shirtless” I mean, one of them never wears a shirt at all and the other one is more often found shirtless than not. I know people normally talk about the male gaze with fiction, but you could use this book as a prime example of the heterosexual female gaze.
The one possibly interesting thing about the book was that its love triangle seems to be of the polyamorous variety instead of the “she chooses one” variety. I’ve seen this before but not very often, and all the times I have seen it there’s usually been some overlap with characters being LGBTQ. Everyone in Marked is straight. The polyamorous part was still the most original aspect to the book though.
I chose this book partly because the misleading description I read talked about Kayla and I was excited for a book about two female friends. I would not recommend reading Marked for this reason. Kayla’s sort of sadistic, and she gets far less page time than the sexy shirtless love interests. She and Lucky are also the only reoccurring female characters in the novel with literally everyone else being male. The book also had this weird obsession with virginity that I didn’t know what to make with and that was never explained. It was acting like Lucky being virgin should be a plot point but never told us why this was important? The book has a whole had tons of sexual undertones even though there were never any actual sex scenes. Oh, and the villains were rapey, because of course they are. Doing other wise would require characterization, I guess…
Paranormal romance aspects aside, this book just has so many problems. I’m not sure I would recommend it even if you like paranormal romances. The only reason I can see people liking this book is if they’re looking for this specific sort of wish fulfillment. Even then, I’d suggest reading it with your brain turned off, because you don’t have a chance of getting any enjoyment out of it otherwise.
In general, I just would not recommend this book.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received a free ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Listen, I hate paranormal romances. I always have, and in all likelihood always will. I am utterly the wrong person to be reading this book. This book is clearly wish fulfillment, and I don’t feel like I am the audience for it. If I’m going for a tropey wish fulfillment book, I’d chose the one about the action girl over the princess every time. However, this was an ARC from Netgalley so I felt obliged to read and review the whole thing. And even if you like paranormal romances, I think this one has obvious flaws.
Lucky’s only friend in the world is a ghost – Kayla – who she’s known since childhood. Only, Kayla isn’t who Lucky thinks she is, which leads Lucky to be dragged into another world and a battle for power among demons.
A large part of this book is people not telling Lucky things. She will ask and they’ll deflect her, and that is how it goes for the vast majority of the book. It’s super annoying. Lucky also feels younger than she’s supposed to be. Is it lack of responsibilities? She’s supposed to be a twenty something who makes a living exposing fake psychics. Yet, she acts like the protagonist of a not very good YA novel.
Lucky just doesn’t do much in this book. She makes a few decisions, but she mostly relies on the characters around her to take care of her. There’s also a lot of time spent describing what she was wearing and how hot she looked in it. Plus, there were at least three attractive men who were all into her. Oh, and she finds out…
Spoiler
she’s secretly a princessThere’s no tension to this book at all, and the plot’s a mess. Something interesting could have been done with Lucky having to “chose” between the two worlds, but it’s no contest since literally all the characters who appear in more than one chapter are in the Underlands. There would have been a lot more conflict if she had actual ties to the human world, say if her father had still been living.
Speaking of worlds, the world building was also a mess and very under developed. I’m not sure what if any thought went into the construction of the Underlands culture or social system. There’s different types of demons, and Lucky’s love interests are both super powerful due to abilities? Then there’s the demon king who’s in charge because… reasons? And the culture was just generic medieval, with the explanation being “oh, technology doesn’t make humans any happier so we don’t use it.” Yet, there’s still a scrumptious apartment for Lucky’s apartment is scrumptious even by modern standards, and she’s got a gigantic wardrobe of totally cool outfits. Somehow these these facts are not contradictory with the imposed medieval theme?
The characterization was horrible also. The love interests are mostly just sexy and shirtless and don’t have anything resembling personality. Oh, except one’s a “bad boy” which just means that he acts like a jerk and is considered sexy because of it. But it’s all okay, because they’re both hot, right? And when I say “shirtless” I mean, one of them never wears a shirt at all and the other one is more often found shirtless than not. I know people normally talk about the male gaze with fiction, but you could use this book as a prime example of the heterosexual female gaze.
The one possibly interesting thing about the book was that its love triangle seems to be of the polyamorous variety instead of the “she chooses one” variety. I’ve seen this before but not very often, and all the times I have seen it there’s usually been some overlap with characters being LGBTQ. Everyone in Marked is straight. The polyamorous part was still the most original aspect to the book though.
I chose this book partly because the misleading description I read talked about Kayla and I was excited for a book about two female friends. I would not recommend reading Marked for this reason. Kayla’s sort of sadistic, and she gets far less page time than the sexy shirtless love interests. She and Lucky are also the only reoccurring female characters in the novel with literally everyone else being male. The book also had this weird obsession with virginity that I didn’t know what to make with and that was never explained. It was acting like Lucky being virgin should be a plot point but never told us why this was important? The book has a whole had tons of sexual undertones even though there were never any actual sex scenes. Oh, and the villains were rapey, because of course they are. Doing other wise would require characterization, I guess…
Paranormal romance aspects aside, this book just has so many problems. I’m not sure I would recommend it even if you like paranormal romances. The only reason I can see people liking this book is if they’re looking for this specific sort of wish fulfillment. Even then, I’d suggest reading it with your brain turned off, because you don’t have a chance of getting any enjoyment out of it otherwise.
In general, I just would not recommend this book.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I received a free ARC copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.