Mark of the Raven

Back Cover

Lady Selene is heir to the House of Ravenwood and the secret family gift of dreamwalking.  As a dreamwalker, she can enter a person's dreams and manipulate their greatest fears or desires.  Soon after the gifting, however, Selene discovers that the Ravenwood women have been secretly using their gift to gather information or to assassinate those responsible for the fall of House Ravenwood to the Dominia Empire hundreds of years ago.

 

As she becomes more entrenched in Ravenwood's dark past, Selene longs to find out the true reason behind her family's gift, believing that its original intent could not have been for such evil purposes, but she is torn about upholding her family's legacy - a legacy that supports her people.  Selene's dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations - but who is also prophesied to bring about the downfall of her own house. 

 

One path holds glory and power and will solidify her position as Lady of Ravenwood.  The other path holds shame and likely death.  Which will she choose?  And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?

 

Review

 

I find fantasy novels can be very hit and miss.  Either the author re-writes the same story that has been written so many times over, or creates a story so "original" or different, that it is difficult to follow or engage in as the world system is so complex and/or there are way too many main characters and plots that as a reader, you feel you need some sort of map or encyclopedia to the story in order to follow along. 

 

However, I can safely say that Mark of the Raven hits the ball out of the park.  The storyline is perfectly unique, and for a lack of better term, so utterly cool.  As I was reading the book, all of my expectations were blown away by the originality of the plot, the ease of following the plot, awesome characters, and the detailed setting.  Mark of the Raven is the perfect adventure story with a kick-butt female lead, strong male counterpart, classic battle of good v. evil, family tensions, impossible choices, and special "secret" gifts. 

 

The back cover of the book gives a great synopsis without giving much away, so rather than run the risk of giving any spoilers, I will not add to it.  All I can say is this: Mark of the Raven was awesome read.  I cannot wait for the second book!!

 

 

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.