Marked (Servants of Fate, #1)

by Sarah Fine

[kimbacaffeinate]

World: This urban fantasy takes place in Boston and weaves mythology into a dystopian world. Fines’ twist on the Fates and supernatural creatures was fascinating from the Scopes to the Fates themselves. Power struggles, romance and timeline threads held me spellbound. While we do not get all the pieces of this world, it was fleshed out enough to have me craving more.

Characters: From the very first chapters I was swept up and each character drew me further in. Cacy Ferry is tenacious, inquisitive and has such spunk. She is a bit of rebel choosing to be a paramedic instead of joining the families’ corporate business. It helps balance out her true calling. Eli is not your typical hero and I loved him. He is loyal, loves hard and hides secrets from his past. The tale is told in the dual perspectives of Eli and Cacy. To me this was brilliant and only enhanced the storyline and their interactions. The secondary characters and hierarchy were stellar. I love when an author fleshes them out and has me equally curious. We have villains and characters whose role we are unsure of making this a real page-turner.

Plot: I am going to be vague here, because Fine created twists I never saw coming. A human whose timeline will have a rippling effect on everyone involved and beyond is in danger. Sides are drawn, lines are crossed and figuring out where everyone falls is suspenseful. From the beginning, Fine has us invested from both an emotional standpoint and a "fate of the world" aspect.

Romance: Holy hotness and bring out the feels. The chemistry between Eli and Cacy is electric. You can call it insta-love if you want but Fine had no trouble making me believe. Every time these two were together, I felt the sexually tense and intense connection. Swoon-worthy with all the feels, Fine gave us scenes that melted my ears and she did it without making me blush. The angst and tension were brilliantly drawn out without making me pull out my hair. Instead, it had me holding my breath and demanding she find them their happy.

Narrator: Emily Foster is the narrator and we began a little rocky. She does a terrific job with the character but I found her narration to be too fast. I generally set my audible app between 1.25x and 1.75x. With Foster, I had to set it at 1x. Having said that within the first few chapters I was swept up in the story and found her voices and tones to be spot on. I definitely plan to continue on audio and hope she continues to narrate them.

Caffeinated Conclusion: Marked for the win! I am delighted and excited to continue the series, especially after the epilogue that left me drooling in anticipation. Sarah Fine lived up to the hype. Marked will delight fans of urban fantasy, dystopian worlds, science fiction and mythology based tales. The next book/audio in the series, Claimed releases in March of 2015. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer