Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Release Date: 4th October, 2011

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 342pgs

The Story

Their love was meant to be.

When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRis.

But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago - and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.

The Review

If anyone knows me well enough, they would know my love of Ireland and one day I will have to visit its beautiful world. So when I first saw the stunning cover and read the summary, and finding out the book was actually set in Ireland, I was literally bouncing in my seat and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of THE CARRIER OF THE MARK. However in due time, before the release date, I read many reviews concerning the book and there were quite a lot of mixed opinions. In this case, I decided to go into this novel without too many expectations. And that was a very good decision on my part.

Let's start with the storyline. It had a great premise. Being interested in the elemental magic of earth, water, air and fire, I thought it was a great direction for Fallon's debut novel and there were plenty of directions that she could have taken us to. Unfortunately for many fans of this book, while I enjoyed the overall reading but I found it was far too similar to Twilight.

Okay so I fear fans will attempt to hurt me by saying such a thing and honestly I don't like comparing a novel to Twilight - I just don't - because it just seems like the easiest thing to do. You know, blame the book apocalypse on Twilight and think every other book is not original because of Twilight. But it's just that the CARRIER OF THE MARK had the same thing happen again and again. Girl moves with dad to a new town. Girl meets boy. Boy goes "OH GOD it's a GIRL. I might catch a disease". Then after many avoiding attempts boy and girl admit out-of-the-blue feelings for one another (only after they talked once according to my count). Then boom a love fest hits. Then let's meet the family (cause you know how families always want to meet their son's girlfriend whom he's only been with for a day or so). Then there's powers. Then there's secrets. Then there's the whole evil vs good thing. And oh yes - there's forbidden romance. Look, the thing is all of these elements worked perfectly for this book and I can see why many girls swooned over it. But for me personally, I just felt like I was reading the same old cliche lines. Not to mention the sometimes-cheesy dialogue. Nonetheless despite some flaws it possessed, I thought the mythology had its own great uniqueness and it was probably the strongest point of the book in my opinion . . . so there's one good thing to be grateful for.

Now moving onto characters themselves. Like other reviewers, I believe Megan is another imitation of the likes of Bella from Twilight and Luce from the Fallen series. Poor comparisions I know and while Megan was a little easier to like as a main heroine and while I thought she wasn't going to be one of those girls, but then when her love interest Adam comes into the picture, all she does is pine over a boy who stares at her like a looney bin and a boy who doesn't say boo unless he's walking into a door or he has no choice but to say something in awkward circumstances. I don't know about you guys but I'm just tired. Tired of girls. Tired of their reactions to these out-of-this-world good-looking guys with secrets. Over it. Adam on the other hand was no different. Sure he was a favourite character of mine, but damn boy enough with the Victorian-esque woefulness. In the future, Adam should focus more on what he says rather than protecting Megan from powerful forces. At least Adam's family had some sense in them to say things meaningful than rolling-eyeballing like he did.

And then just when the book got better . . . the ending came. Ah, the ending. I understand the development of the characters, the mythology, and even the powers themselves, but when a bad guy is supposed to cause a great BIG scene and leave you wanting more of the sequel, it didn't hit me like that nor how I wanted it to. I felt like the book's tension was all for nothing. Sure, I get that it's the first book in the series but I wanted something more from it - more action orientated. But beggers can't be choosers I suppose.

When it comes down to CARRIER OF THE MARK, there were definitely some things that worked and where other things didn't. In the end, I don't regret reading the book and I liked the characters and the setting they were surrounded with. Readers might question what I've said above in this review but don't let me stop you in reading this book. It's very good. Well-written. Easy to adapt to. But hey, I'm not your typical teenage girl who swoons every time a boy wants to smother you will their hotness and makes romantic one-liners that you've heard all before.

All in all if you've read a lot of paranormal books like me and are looking for something different, then probably this book might not be for you. However, if you're a sappy-loving YA lover who doesn't mind the similarity to the Twilight-esque feel, then it's definitely a book for you. I'm still looking forward to reading the sequel of Fallon's - don't get me wrong - because the mythology was very interesting - a little confusing perhaps - but it was interesting enough to get me wanting the sequel this year!

The Rating

3 1/2 / 5 stars