Review - Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Title: Carrier of the Mark

Author: Leigh Fallon

Series: 1st in Carrier Trilogy

Pages: 352

Published: October 4, 2011 by HarperTeen

ISBN: 9780062027870

Source: Around The World Tours

Description:   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 Give This ...

 

I'm going to give this a 3 for the really strong beginning.  I was thinking this was going to be "that" book after a series of books that were just so-so,  But then somewhere around the middle, the story just feel apart for me.  I found myself rolling my eyes a lot.

I initially really liked Megan.  She's put up with a lot and always tries to put her best foot forward.  I can only imagine being uprooted as often as she had and having to start over every time.   I like the idea of her father and her living in Ireland (it's the one thing I regret, never spending a semester abroad).  Ireland is just not the setting of very many stories.  I also initially liked how the storyline was going.  Megan's interaction with her new friends were fun and lighthearted.  The introduction of Adam was intense.  And why the story was going to be paranormal,  I was hoping it was going to be different.

That's when the story began to read more like fan fiction for me.  There are seriously so many parallels between this book and Twilight.  Considering this book got it's start online, I really do wonder if Twilight isn't the inspiration for this novel.  There is only so many times you can read the same plot line (and sometimes the conversation even felt the same) before it's gets too repetitive.  I plowed through it hoping there would be something that would set it apart.  There wasn't.

I really did like the idea of the carriers.  Each person represents an element that gives them certain powers.  For millenniums there haven't been all 4 elements together with equal powers (I'm not sure how that works).  Together they have the power to realign the elements, this correcting all that is wrong with the world.  I found this fascinating, and am almost tempted to continue this series just for the realignment idea.  I did find the explanation of how the people decedent from the goddess are marked or carriers to be very confusing.  I've even studied genetics, and the process made no sense.  But, maybe it's suppose to be that way.

Overall this was just a disappointment for me.  If you like Twilight fan fiction, you probably would like this one.