Marked (Eternal Guardians, #1)

by Elisabeth Naughton

[EBookObsessed]

This series is about the seven guardians. They are the descendants of the original seven Argonauts who journeyed with Jason to find the golden fleece. The Argonauts were favored by the Greek Gods and granted a home called Argolea. They protect their kingdom and the world of the humans from daimons, who are lead by Atalanta. She was an Argonaut not favored by the Gods (because she was female) so she made a deal with Hades for immortality.

The series involves the Argonauts (the Eternal Guardians), the Argoleans, the misos (who are mix of half argolean/half human), humans and the daimons, and don’t forget those rascally Greek Gods who are always causing trouble.

Marked is the first story of the series and features, Theron, the leader of the Argonauts who is the descendant of Heracles a/k/a Hercules, and Acacia (Casey) Simopolous, a small town girl, by day, trying to keep her grandmother’s bookstore afloat, and by night, waitressing at a local strip joint. She comes upon Theron who is being attacked by several daimons and takes him home with her so he can heal and recover. We learn that Argonauts have no emotions and Theron starts our story a bit of a jerk, but the time he spends with Casey helps him tap into his human side and we see his character grow.

The Argonauts are also cursed by Hera (since most of the original heros were fathered by her husband Zeus). She curses them and their descendants to have only one soul mate and that woman will be the one person they would never choose for themselves. I found this aspect of the story to be a little off putting. Casey is human and although Theron will protect them, he feels interacting with humans is unfathomable.

I wasn’t really involved with these main characters right away, but they did grow on me a bit. Also getting into all the what’s and why’s of this series took some time. I found some of the subcharacters even more interesting than the main characters, like Nick, the leader of the misos, and Demetrius, one the Argonauts which a serious attitude problem. The third story in the serves, Tempted, will focus on Demetrius, and will hopefully unravel the mystery of his PMS attitude.

I was interested enough in the series to give the next few books a try.