Book Review: Carrier of The Mark, Carrier #1

By: Leigh Fallon

Published by: Harper Teen

To Be Released on: October 4th, 2011

Source: ARC from publisher to review

4.5 stars- I Really Enjoyed!

Purchase from: Amazon| Barnes & Noble| Indie Bound

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 DeRís.

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.

I was hooked from the moment I saw this striking cover and read the book's synopsis. My addiction with this book continued as I was found myself completely drawn into the unique world that Leigh has created. From her beautifully detailed setting in Ireland, to the engaging world, and fascinating supernatural powers some of her characters have to the sizzling romance between Megan and Adam, everything about this book hooked me. What a fabulous debut!

There's a great cast of characters, and two of my favorites were the main ones, Megan and Adam. Megan's just moved to Ireland with her Dad from the US. She's a genuinely nice person, she's well grounded, sincere and has an inner strength I really admired about her. Adam is also a grounded person, he's geniune, and one of his greatest strengths is his passion. He has a passion for life and a passion for those he really cares about. There's a lot of mystery surrounding Adam and his family, who are treated like outsiders, which is how they'd prefer it. When Megan moves to town, weird things start happening, and she starts to see things that about Adam and his family that no one else pays attention to.

Adam's family is made up of his guardian Fionn, his standoffish brother Rian, who I really ended up liking and his sister Aine, who's an all around fun person to get to know. I like the way Leigh drew me to Adam's family. By building on the family's mystery, she allowed my curiosity to get the better of me and I had to know what Adam's family was hiding, or keeping a secret. Normally I would have been bugged by this, but I liked the way Leigh developed the instant attraction between Adam and Megan. I did get a little annoyed with how often Megan talks about how hot Adam is (at the same time she is a teenage girl, and that should be understandable), but it wasn't something that deterred me from liking the book. The family secret, and the attraction between Adam and Megan all ties together with the story's rich Celtic mythology.

I'm a sucker for a book with a rich mythology, and one of the things that's so appealing to me about Carrier of the Mark is the unique lore and mythology Leigh has created for her story that's deeply rooted in Celtic legend. It's a mythology that's often not found in other YA books, and I really liked how refreshing this was. I also really love the fascinating powers that Megan, Adam and Adam's siblings have with controlling the elements and how that worked into the mythology which is centered on the Celtic goddess Danu.

Carrier of the Mark is an enticing read that I really enjoyed. The story is well paced, the plot line is mixed with action, mystery, and romance, and Leigh's writing is addicting. I liked how she took her time to build up some of the more action filled scenes, the way she grabbed a hold of my interest by creating a great mix of both showing and telling me parts of her story and I loved the way some of the story's mystery unravels through out the course of the book. That allowed me to feel like I was finding things out along side Megan, which made me feel like was connected to the story in some small way. It's a fun, fast paced read and a book I definitely enjoyed spending the afternoon with. I'd highly recommend picking it up!