Burn Mark ~ Laura Powell (eARC) review

Burn Mark
BloomsburyUSA
June 19, 2012
419 pages
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In a world where witches face harsher punishment for the same crimes as their non-witch counterparts and must report to the government for a type of binding, two teens whose lives have been couldn't more different will find themselves linked together. Whether they want to be or not.

Glory is from a family of witches. Witches that live outside the law and practice their magic freely - and she cannot wait for the day she comes into her powers.

Lucas, the son of the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition, has no witches in his family. Dating back generations and generations on both his mother's and his father's side - it's a source of pride in their family.

Then, they both become witches on the same day.


As with all books that just did not work for me, I need to start this review by saying that, to give you fair warning in case you wish to go no further. I was terribly interested in Burn Mark because I really do love books about witches and this one added in the element of a governing body seemingly regulating and punishing the witches.

It just couldn't keep my interest, however. Something about it didn't click with me. I had a horrible time keeping my mind from wandering when I was reading it.

It may have been the pacing that was at issue: At the beginning we're given a whole lot of information about the world Lucas, specifically, and Glory live in. While incredibly interesting it all came so quickly that it was hard to retain all of it - and put it all together into a proper idea of what their world was like.

Maybe I need to do what Georgina Kincaid (of Richelle Mead's Succubus Blues) does with her favorite novel - albeit for different reasons - and read only five pages a night. Where in her case it was because she wanted to delay the inevitable finishing, I wonder if a real, true slow reading of this novel would allow me to focus. on. each. word. and. get. all. of. the. information. given.

Maybe. Maybe not.

I do wish that Lucas and Glory had met sooner into the book. The parts of the story that I found strongest - and that worked for me - were the scenes of them together. Yet, they don't meet until about halfway through the novel. If I hadn't been reading this for review, I'm not sure I would have stuck with it for the 200 pages it took to get to that point.

Overall, this book just was not for me, but the idea of the plot really does show promise (it's a bit like Harry Potter in slight way), and the two characters' interactions with each other was good . . . it was just too hard to focus on or get into, though.


Rating: 5/10



Here are some other reviews: Debra's Book Cafe, BookHoundsYA, & Paper Cuts YA




Thank you to Bloomsbury & NetGalley for my e-galley of this title; part of Bloomsbury blog tours