Review: Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Published Date: October 4th, 2011
Finished Date: October 7th, 2011
Publishers: HarperTEEN
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Series: Carrier Book Two
My Rating: 3/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
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.

My Review

I am very sorry to say that I was a tad bit disappointed with CotM. I was all hyped up about it when I read the first 6 chapters of it on Inkpop (preordered it and all), and...I got this.

The summary's pretty typical actually. Meghan moved to Ireland, saw the local hottie, Adam, fell in love with said hottie, hottie fell in love with Meghan, Meghan finds out that she's special, they find out they're not meant to be together, bad guys come into the fray, cause some trouble, Meghan does something phenomenal and scarily powerful, saves the day... And voila! You get yourself a cliched Young Adult novel, and in this case, CARRIER OF THE MARK.

Even tho Fallon did make an effort to drag out the sexual tension (ok, this is more of an adult romance term, but it fits the context, so...) for about 7 chapters, I still felt that their relationship progressed a little too fast. Know why? Cause in the hour that their overwhelming supernaturally-induced attraction took the better of them and they actually introduce themselves properly to each other, they started snogging. I'm not kidding. They snogged under some tree. Ugh. That just screams adolescent infatuation. So no, I didn't buy it.

Y'know how the fire element guy's always the one who's fiery-tempered (no pun intended) and out of control? Rian, fire element guy, was just that. Fiery-tempered (again, no pun intended). So when Adam&Co. told Meghan that Rian's going to be the one who's going to teach her control, I was like, "What in the name of...". Then they go on to explain that Rian's gone thru the most control training so far. But well, you can't really fault me for thinking that after Rian flared up more than since Meghan turned up. So I have got to ask this, "How's the control training coming on? What's your training like? Once every decade?"

Meghan's dad kinda disappeared after he was introduced to Adam and gotten his spotlight moments. And Fallon used the convenient excuse of him having met another woman and was busy hooking up and dating. RIIIIGHT, like my dad will abandon me once he found a new girl. That's just wrong, man, on so many levels. You don't just slink out of your kid's life.

The plot was good, actually. Very exciting and there was always something new. I loved the action scene at the end where Meghan got the chance to really kick some ass. She is a goddamn powerful air bender (lol, Avatar-style), and she definitely showed off some cool moves in front of the baddies.

I thought that the first 7 chapters were top class, but it plummeted the moment they snogged under that tree. So when you reach the part where they snog, you can skip reading the middle portion till the final battle. Doesn't make much of a difference anyway since it's just harping on the protagonist couple sucking face and proclaiming their love for each other. But there were some swoon-worthy parts.

Example: I fluttered my hands to my chest. “Well, Rían is devastatingly handsome, with that whole smoldering, brooding-eyes thing he’s got going on. Maybe I picked the wrong brother.”

He grabbed me and pushed me up against a tree. “Oh, I have ways of convincing you that you chose right.” He kissed me with such passion it left me breathless. I felt my legs starting to give way under me.

“Yeah, that could do it.”

WOAH. But it kinda also emphasizes my point on the whole sucking face thing they had going on. So.... Yep. I've made my stand - Ultimately very lukewarm. But I would continue reading the sequel. What can I say? I'm a curious girl.;)

My Rating