Burn Mark by Laura Powell

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: ARC

Published: 7^th June 2012

Number of Pages: 416

Book: For Review*

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Action-Adventure, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, YA

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Violence, Swearing, Alcohol References

No Drug References

Author's Blog: Laura Powell

“I’ll win or I’ll burn – whatever it takes.”

Glory is destined to become a witch.  When she does, she’s going to make sure her East End coven is one to respect and fear again.

But a dangerous mix of conspiracy and betrayal raises the stakes.  And then Lucas Stearne – rich, privileged and a potential Witchfinder – enters her life.

Now Glory and Lucas must put aside their differences to form an uneasy alliance.

And fight for their lives.

                                                                    Review

"Fae runs thicker than blood, quicker than water and wild as wind..."

Glory comes from a long line of witches.  Her mum Edie was a witch - an unregistered one, hunted by the Inquisition.  Glory's dad thinks Edie left to protect them.  But thanks to amazingly vivid dreams, Glory knows differently. 

Her mother was burnt at the stake.  

And yet for as long as she can remember, Glory has prayed to be a witch.  It's her birth-right, a way to bring glory back to her coven. 

Lucas comes from a long line of Witchfinders, proud members of the Inquisition and hunters of those with the Fae.  When he is older, he will be a Witchfinder too...

These two teens from such different backgrounds develop the Fae on the very same day, years before it usually appears. 

From then on in, they must forge a shaky allegiance, as the two prodigies fight to bring down a powerful coven. 

While also fighting for their lives...

I've always loved magic books.  And I love paranormal books too.  But have you noticed that lots of them kinda... blur together?  They're all rather similar in places?  The same kinda thing regurgitated a little differently gets boring after too long...  But not Burn Mark.  It's original, edgy, fast-paced, awesome and just so, so amazing!  The minute I entered the world, I knew I never, ever wanted to leave.  I cannot tell you how awesome it was!  So if you're sick of cookie-cutter paranormal, you must check this one out... NOW!  I'll be waiting...! ;)

Seriously, though.  I’ve always had a really morbid fascination with the witch trials.  I did a project on them in high school and can still remember how dreadful they were – but it all intrigued me anyway.  I think it’s because I want to be a witch.  So what with the creepy intrigue and witchy wishes, I knew I’d love this book!  I had such high expectations and it managed to exceed every single one.  I’m gonna just get on with my review, ‘cause now I’m just rambling excitedly in my head.  It was just that good!

One of the many things I loved about this book was the characters and their relationships: they all felt really, really real to me.  Like I knew the main characters so well they were my best friends.  I loved Glory, our heroine: she was strong, brave, bold, street-smart and sarcastic.  She was rougher and more reserved than Lucas, and therefore took longer to get to know; but once I did, I loved her!  Lucas was someone I liked more-or-less instantly: he was cheeky, smart and also rather sarcastic.  Something about his smooth, confident character was just so automatically loveable!  Their relationship was amazingly done: how differently they both reacted to their newfound power, how their personalities were so different is some ways and identical in others.  I loved how the distrust and hate slowly changed as they got to know one another: it was done masterfully.  All the other characters were just as well padded out as the leads, all so believable and real.  Some I instantly knew were good.  Some I instantly knew were bad.  And some I just couldn't figure out.  As I said before - amazing.  I must mention Trey Morgan real quick: he was such a conflicting character, one I loved trying to figure out!  I can’t wait to see where he goes!

Laura Powell’s writing was simply amazing: beautiful, descriptive and horrid at times!  I could feel the fire burning through Glory's dream, see and smell another witch burning though Lucas...  Dreadful, incredible, addictive!  And there was split POV between Glory and Lucas (happy dance)!  Their voices were both unique: you could hear their different backgrounds in their speech.  The plot… just, whoa!  It was brilliant, and although the start wasn't as fast as the rest of the book, I just didn't care - I was too busy lapping up the world!  And when the action kicked off - man did it kick off!  Twisty and fast-paced, I loved every second and had no idea where everything was going.  And I just have to mention the world, because it was amazing!  It was horrible, but in the most brilliant way possible.  The world building and backstory was mind-blowing – Powell took historical events and seamlessly changed them, adding witches to Nelson's fight against the French, etc.  But the best bit was definitely the Mafia-mob side of the story: it was awesome and so original!  Organised witch crime!  How cool?!  I just loved everything: the description of the world, of the Fae (Seventh Sense), how witches lived, gang war-witch terrorism and the fact that EastEnders will now be for the rest of time a witch soap in my head!  But seriously, this world was just so real, it was like I’d moved there.  It was just that good.  And I totally want the Fae now.  It’s awesome.

A totally original, breath-taking, action-packed, magical, gritty book that left me breathless and desperate for more, more, more!  With a strong, kickbutt female lead, a totally cute and brave male lead, a few added hotties and baddies and the most awesome witchcraft ever Burn Mark had me hooked and on the edge of my seat from start to finish.  Don’t you just love it when a book is so much more than you ever thought it could be 0 when it exceeds all your expectations?  Me too!  Which is why I’m recommending this to you all!  It’s awesome, magical, addictive, incredible - with world you just wanna dive right into!  I cannot wait for Laura's next book - especially if it's about Lucas and Glory!

P.S. Check out my interview with Laura: Here!

Star Rating:
4¾ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Blood Journals by Tessa Gratton

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Advent by James Treadwell

Kill All Enemies by Melvin Burgess

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2012 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

British Books Challenge 2012 (Hosted by The Overflowing Library)

Happy Reading

Megan

* This book was received from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review

Teaser Tuesday (#36) Plus Rambling

Hi guys!  It seems like I've been gone for ages, but I hope you all enjoyed the Fortnight of Guests last month!    We really did have some amazing bloggers and authors taking part and I can't wait until next year - because, fingers crossed, it will return! ;)
Anyway, this is kind of a mix between a Teaser Tuesday and me feeling bad for neglecting my blog, so I'm sorry if I'm rambling!  
I just want to say thank you to everyone who took part in FoG or followed it, and is also to say that I have two FoG giveaways going on - one international for a signed copy of The Long Weekend by Savita Kalhan and another for UK and Ireland only for a signed copy of This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees.  Check them out before it's too late!
And finally, I just wanted to let you know I've done an article for the Guardian's Children's Books, so if you're looking for some books very much recommended, you should check out my Top Ten there!  Also, for you teen bloggers out there who want to get their name out there even more, I really recommend the site - it's awesome!
Ok, shutting up now.  Onto teasers...

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Here are the rules:

• Open your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser!
  
  
  A teaser from an awesome book I got for my birthday that I can't seem to stop reading!
  
  
  From The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor, Chapter Eight, Page 79
  The last image she saw before sleep took her again was of Dennis turning to run and save her.  He looked hunted and scared.  What on earth had happened to him?  
  
  
  The Repossession (Book One) by Sam Hawksmoor
  
  
  Synopsis From Blurb, Check it Out On: Goodreads
  34 kids are missing.
  Vanished without a trace.
  They never write, they never call.
  Parents are frantic.
  Six weeks, four days, sixteen hours and twenty minutes since the bedroom door locked on Genie Magee.  She's possessed, says her mother.  The Devil wants her for his bride. 
  All Genie's hopes, all her life and her soul, are pinned on beautiful Rian.  Rian loves her.  He'll rescue her from this madness.  Won't he?  
  'You're next,' the face on the wall tells her.  By morning, Genie realizes, she'll be missing too.
  The Repossession Is Just The Beginning. 
  An amazing book!  I'll be getting back to it now!! ;)
  
  
  Hope you've all had a great week! :D

The Night Sky In My Head Publication-Day Guest Post!

Today The Night Sky In My Head is released!  It's an amazing book, perfect for fans of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (so, therefore me!).   Make sure you check out all the teasers - they are amazing and very, very, well, teasing!!  Enjoy the post...


Do you think that places have memories? And, if so, can these memories be felt?

Sometimes, people say that they notice a certain tension in a room where a tragic event, perhaps an untimely death, has occurred. Others feel a strong sense of peace and healing in religious buildings, soaked in prayer. Rumour has it that birds would not land in Auschwitz for a long time after the atrocities were carried out there. Could they instinctively sense that something was wrong?

Mikey, the protagonist in The Night Sky in my Head, can sense the memories in certain places. In fact, he doesn’t just sense them – he can see them and hear them, replaying in front of him like a real-life film. He calls it watching the Backwards.

But the Backwards can be frightening.

Mikey can’t control it –  he can’t tell which bit of the Backwards he’s going to see. Sometimes he sees everyday things that happened in the past – perhaps the tramp taking a snooze in his garden shed, or his Mum pottering in the garden. However sometimes events from the past try to replay for Mikey, and he knows that they are very dark. Mikey doesn’t want to see what hides in the shadows.

Over the past four weeks, I have chosen extracts from The Night Sky that show readers different aspects of Mikey’s strange gift (clue: descriptions of the Backwards visions are in emboldened font):

Week 1 (7^th June: http://www.readaraptor.co.uk) - this extract hints at one of the dark things in the Backwards that Mikey doesn’t want to see (‘the murderer is behind me’).  See her extract: here.

Week 2 (14^th June: http://www.susankmann.co.uk) - Mikey tries to untangle his thoughts and work out the ‘rules’ of his strange psychic gift. How does ‘watching the Backwards’ work?  See her extract: here.

Week 3 (21^st June: http://www.serendipityreviews.co.uk) - the local farmer, Cackler, suggests that Mikey’s gift might help him to heal the past.

As time goes on, Mikey begins to think that the farmer may be right. As he sees things in the Backwards that seem to relate to his dad’s disappearance, Mikey realises that he has to uncover the truth behind these frightening secrets before the past starts to repeat itself.  See her extract: here.

Week 4 (28^th June: http://www.iwanttoreadthat.com) - for the final extract, I revealed a longer section from Chapter 1. Now that readers had a taster for the Backwards, I wanted them to start the story from the place it is meant to begin: when Mikey first shows us what the Backwards is showing him…  See her review: here.


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Synopsis From Goodreads:

Step backwards. Witness the murder. Find the truth

Mikey Baxter isn't like other fourteen year old boys. Not since the accident.

The world sees him as damaged. But Mikey has a remarkable gift: the ability to go backwards in time and witness things that hide in the shadows.

Now he must uncover the terrifying truth behind his dad's disappearance. Before the past starts to repeat itself . . .

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Thank you for the guest post Sarah and OUP!  Everyone, I don't know about you but I'm really excited for this one!  I can tell you from what I've read, it's amazing!  Let me know what you think!! :D

Celebrating 15 Years Of Harry Potter Magic!

The search for UK and Ireland’s biggest HARRY POTTER fan

 Ok, this is a seriously late post, seeing as I'm about a week late, but Tuesday 26th June was Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone's 15th birthday!!  To celebrate, Bloomsbury is holding a huge competition to find UK and Ireland's biggest Harry Potter fan!

How are they doing this? you may ask.  Well, Bloomsbury is asking fans to write why they love Harry Potter in a letter of no more than 50 words.  They're looking for the most creative, wacky and clever reasons, and while they're really, really strict about the whole 50-words thing you're allowed to doodle and do fancy handwriting to make your letter as elaborate as possible!

You can only enter by heading to your local bookshop or library and posting the letter in a special postbox.  Head to this site here to find your nearest shop or library and for more details.  The competition runs from Tuesday 26th June to Tuesday 31st July 2012, and then the winner will be announced Saturday 1st September. 

Now onto prizes.  The winner and 14 runner ups will get an exclusive leather-bound, signed, dedicated and numbered 15th Anniversary Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  But the winner gets something extra...  They win a family holiday to the amazing Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort!!  In Florida!!

Ohh, it's all just too cool!  It's safe to say that I'll be entering, as will most of my family!  So if you live in UK or Ireland, get writing!  This competition is just too good to pass up!!

Good luck everyone!!

Fortnight Of Guests 2012: Diana Hendry

Today I'm interviewing the amazing Diana Hendry, who's written so many books it's untrue!  Her latest book, The Seeing, comes out next month - it's amazing, so keep a look out for it!  And for my review! :D  Now, onto the interview...

Q&A With Diana Hendry

Hi Diana!   It’s a pleasure to have you here today!

Hello Megan!

Could you tell us a little about yourself and your books?

I’ve been writing stories since I was about 12, but I didn’t get published for a long time.  Now I’ve published more than 40 books for children, three collections of poetry and a number of short stories.  I’ve worked as a typist, a journalist, a teacher and a creative writing tutor.  I’ve a son and a daughter and three grandchildren. I live in Edinburgh.

The quote on the blurb of my proof of your upcoming book is:

“I've told you.  Philip can see.  He can see inside people.  He can see the swastikas on their hearts.”

It just instantly got my attention and made me desperate about the rest if the book.  Can you sum up The Seeing in one sentence?

No. Why would I?

What gave you the idea for The Seeing?

As a child I used to have nightmares about there being one Nazi left behind.  He lived  (I imagined) in the air-raid shelter on the sandhills opposite my house.

How much research did you have to do for The Seeing?

The Seeing took a long time to write - many drafts.  So although I did quite a lot of research it was spread over several years.

What's the best bit about being an author for you?

Being excited about a new poem or story.

Have any authors really inspired you?

Yes, a great many.  Seamus Heaney and the Israeli novelist, Amos Oz.

What’s the latest book you read that really ‘Wowed’ you?

A short story by Mark Haddon called ‘The Gun’.  It’s in the recent issue of Granta.

I know you write lots of different genres, but which is your favourite to read and write? 

Poetry every time!

If you could go into any fictional world, where would you go?

I don’t think I want to go into a fictional world.  The delight of a fictional world in a book is that you can get out!

If you could have your dream dinner party with five fictional characters, who would you have? 

I’d rather have real people - writers perhaps.  Seamus Heaney, Amos Oz (see above) Penelope Lively, Paul Durcan and Ali Smith.

What's next for you?

I don’t know!  I’m playing about with ideas - hoping one will grab me and I’ll feel excited by it.

Hope you enjoy The Seeing.

all best wishes,

Diana 

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http://www.dianahendry.co.uk/DH_Site/Home.html

Thank you so much for the interview, Diana!  I hope everyone loves The Seeing as much as I did!

Everyone, if you liked this post, make sure you follow all the FoG events on Twitter at #FortnightOfGuests

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Diana Hendry grew up by the sea and has worked as a journalist, English teacher and tutor in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol. Her poetry has won a number of awards including first prize in the 1996 Housman Society Competition. From 1997-1998 she was Writer in Residence at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary. She lives in Edinburgh.

She has published more than thirty books for children, including Harvey Angell which won a Whitbread Award in 1991 and You Can't Kiss It Better, set in Edinburgh (2003). She also writes adult short stories, a number of which have been published in anthologies and read on Radio 4. Her collections of poetry for adults, Making Blue (1995) and Borderers (2001) are published by Peterloo, and Twelve Lilts: Psalms & Responses (2003) by Mariscat Press. With Tow Pow, in a series of poetic ‘challenges’ she has published Sparks! (2005, also Mariscat Press). A third full collection, Late love : and other whodunnits, was published in 2008. She has also published a collection of poems for children, No Homework Tomorrow (Glowworm, 2003)

Fortnight of Guests: Lauren Oliver

Delirium is one of my very favourite series ever, so it's a huge pleasure to say that Lauren Oliver is here with an interview for us!  


In Pandemonium, there was a double time-line - the 'Then' and 'Now' chapters (I loved that SO much, by-the-way!). Are you going to write the same in Requiem? Or are we going to have it from other POVs - like the short Hanna story...?

Unlike the first two books, It's told from two different POVs. Who they are is my secret for now!

I'm being really cheeky now, but can you give us the teensiest hint about what's to come in Requiem?

I'll I'm going to say is that you'll see some characters that we haven't seen since Delirium. 

Lena is also the most incredible lead girl ever, one I loved seeing grow - and just loved full stop! When you started writing, did you know where Lena was going, how she was going to grow?

Not to the exact detail, but I knew that I wanted her to grow stronger, and to find love of course!

I adore Lena and all your characters - but who's your favourite?

I don't know that I can pick one!

You know when you read a book and it does all the right things with your emotions - makes you feel everything the main character does? Your Delirium series do that for me! How, in a loveless world, did you pack so much emotion in?!

Well I think part of what I was trying to show in the book is that no matter how much oppressive forces try to control what people think and feel, those natural emotions are going to surface. Love is such a powerful thing, I don't think it could ever completely be stifled. 

If you lived in a dystopian world like Delirium, would you be like Lena, fighting all the way, or do you think you'd be Hanna, choosing to stay with her family and home and certain, secure future?

I hope I'd be like Lena, but I think it's impossible to tell until you're actually faced with a situation like that. I am pretty feisty though, so hopefully that quality would survive. 

The big news on the block (for me) is that both Before I Fall and Delirium could be made into films! Do you have any more info on that?!

Not really, except that I'm very excited!

If you were in charge of the films, do you have any ideas about actors to play the main characters?

I'm so bad at that question! I have a weird desire to see Taylor Swift play Lindsey though...

You've written a contemp YA, two (almost three) dystopia YA-s and one MG fantasy book. What's next for you?

My next book to get published is another Middle Grade book called "The Spindlers". It's very exciting, and I'm really looking forward to it coming out. 

If you could jump into any fantasy world ever created, which would you choose?

Um, Harry Potter. For sure!

Why do you think dystopia is so huge at the moment, what with Delirium, Hunger Games, etc.?

I don't know why it's so huge at this particular moment, but I think people always have a desire to see the worst of the future as a way of exploring how to fix the present. Sometimes you have to see the worst possible outcome of something in order to find the good and hope in people. 

Have any authors or books really influenced you as a writer?

Yes, The Harry Potter Books, Roald Dhal, Jane Austen, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez... just to name a few!

And you must get asked this every interview you have, but as an aspiring author I simply have to ask! Do you have any advise for aspiring authors such as me?

I always give the same advice, but it's the best advice I know! Write Write Write! Every single day make sure you get something down on paper. 

Last question, promise! ;) What do you want your readers to take away from your books?

I hope that they can be inspired to be strong, and to make the choice that's right for them as an individual, but not to judge other people's choices.

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http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/index.php
https://twitter.com/#!/OliverBooks   @OliverBooks


Thank you so much for taking part, Lauren!  It's been a huge pleasure interviewing you!  

Everyone, if you liked this post, make sure you follow all the FoG events on Twitter at #FortnightOfGuests

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Lauren Oliver comes from a family of writers and so has always (mistakenly) believed that spending hours in front of the computer every day, mulling over the difference between “chortling” and “chuckling,” is normal. She has always been an avid reader. 
She attended the University of Chicago, where she continued to be as impractical as possible by majoring in philosophy and literature. After college, she attended the MFA program at NYU and worked briefly as the world’s worst editorial assistant, and only marginally better assistant editor, at a major publishing house in New York. Her major career contributions during this time were flouting the corporate dress code at every possible turn and repeatedly breaking the printer. Before I Fall is her first published novel. 
She is deeply grateful for the chance to continue writing, as she has never been particularly good at anything else.

Fortnight of Guests 2012: Celia Rees (Plus GIVEAWAY!)

We have one of my favourite historical writers with us today: the amazing Celia Rees!  She's here to tell us about her favourite historical writers!  AND!  Bloomsbury have agreed to give us a signed copy of Celia's latest book This Is Not Forgiveness to giveaway!!  If you live in the UK or Ireland, enter the giveaway in the Rafflecopter thingy and tell us your fave historical author/novel! :D  Now, I'll hand over to the wonderful Celia...

My Favourite Historical Novels (And Writers)

I am a writer, but also a reader. For me, the two things go together. When people ask me for advice about how to become a writer, my advice is to read. Read all the time, as much as you can. Read writers you admire, the best writing in your chosen genre. Learn from them.

I’ve always loved history and, as a child, I read historical fiction because it allowed me to be part of the story. I devoured books on the Tudors when I was studying for ‘A’ Level because it was a quick way into the period and rather less boring than the average textbook. I never thought, back then, that I would actually be writing historical fiction. When I started writing in this genre, it seemed natural to read other writers. I still do, and I go to the best of the best.

Two writers stand out for me. Both of them women. Sarah Waters and Hilary Mantel. Apart from their gender, they have certain other traits in common. They are both supremely clever. The kind of writers who leave you thinking: ‘How does she do that?’, ‘I couldn’t do that.’ So they give you something to aim at. They are also very brave. Their books are innovative and daring, in structure, subject matter and style. They take risks constantly and resist the temptation to look down. You know that their books are meticulously and deeply researched but you feel it, sense it, rather than wading through detail page after page. They do not let the research take over, it never jars, never clogs up the story. That is where the cleverness lies. The research allows total immersion; it is as though you are living in that time, that period. They make the time come alive.

I first came across Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet in an airport bookshop, looking for something to read. It was only a short flight but even that would be unbearable without a book. I loved it immediately: the finely realised sense of period, the sly humour, the sense that you were looking into a secret world, hidden from the mainstream, and she wrote like a dream. I’ve read all her subsequent novels and have found a great deal to admire, each time a different thing. The intricate structuring of Fingersmith; the sudden switches in Affinity, as if the rug is being pulled from under you; the complex, clever and controversial narrative form that The Night Watch takes and the mixing of genre in The Little Stranger. Each book is set in a different period, but she manages to realise the time absolutely, from the dreadful poverty of reeking Victorian rookeries to the grey exhaustion of Post War Britain. In these days of relentless self publicity, Sarah Waters is a rarity: a modest, unassuming, self deprecating author, absolutely sure of her own ability.

Unlike Sarah Waters, Hilary Mantel does not write in one specific genre (I guess we have that much in common). I have admired her writing for long time, her Orange Prize winning Beyond Black, is a particular favourite of mine. Her fame has increased with her Booker Prize winner, Wolf Hall. I once stood next to her when we were both checking into the same hotel for the Ilkley Festival, I guess that wouldn’t happen anymore. I read her A Place of Greater Safety when I was writing Sovay and had to admire her awesome skill at filleting the bewildering complexity of the French Revolution and making it not just understandable, but as exciting and terrifying as the events must have been, without ever betraying their complexity.

She has a talent for taking on the major players. In A Place of Greater Safety, Danton, Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins carry the story; Thomas Cromwell, Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are all characters in Wolf Hall and her new novel, Bringing up the Bodies. That takes great writerly confidence and not a small amount of courage. In her last two novels, Hilary Mantel has brought new life to the tired, trammelled ground of Tudor history and has imbued one of the time’s most reviled figures, Thomas Cromwell, with real humanity. Her books are a gift to any ‘A’ Level student. I wish they’d been around when I was studying the period!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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http://www.celiarees.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/CeliaRees   @CeliaRees

Thank you so much Celia!  And to Bloomsbury for the giveaway!   Everyone, I LOVED This Is Not Forgiveness and can't recommend it enough!  Good luck in the giveaway!!

Everyone, if you liked this post, make sure you follow all the FoG events on Twitter at #FortnightOfGuests

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Celia Rees (born 1949) is an English author of children's literature, including some horror and fantasy books.

She was born in 1949 in Solihull, West Midlands but now lives in Leamington Spa with her husband and teenage daughter. Rees attended University of Warwick and earned a degree in History of Politics. After university, she taught English in Coventry secondary schools for seventeen years, during which time she began to write.

During her time in teaching she asked several of her pupils why they wouldn't read the books they were given and what they wanted to read about. The pupils said that they wanted books with action, horror, danger, magic and pirates.

All of these are main themes in Rees' books.