Mark of the Raven

The Ravenwood Saga, Book 1

By: Morgan L. Busse

Narrated by: Jaimee Draper

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Lady Selene is the heir to the Great 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. For the last hundred years, the Ravenwood women have used their gift of dreaming for hire to gather information or to assassinate.

As she discovers her family's dark secret, Selene is torn between upholding her family's legacy - a legacy that supports her people - or seeking the true reason behind her family's gift.

Her dilemma comes to a head when she is tasked with assassinating the one man who can bring peace to the nations, but who will also 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 execution. Which will she choose? And is she willing to pay the price for the path chosen?

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2018 Morgan L. Busse (P)2018 Oasis Audio

So glad this is on audiobook!

This book is amazing! Of course, I knew it would be since I've adored every single novel this author has ever written! I was so excited that one of her books is finally on audiobook!

This one started off slow. But the sort of slow where the plot and worldbuilding are unfolding like a flower, one petal at a time. Just at the moment when I wasn't sure where this was going, stuff started happening, deceptions upon deceptions and betrayals and plots and planned assassinations, and everything just got tense and crazy.

This is a great start to this new series, and now I am even more eager for book two!

Also, I read most of this book via audiobook, and the audiobook version is well done. The narrator does a really good job! There was a couple parts where the voices weren't as distinct as they could have been, but for the most part the narrator speaks clearly and in a pleasant tone that moves along at a balanced clip without dragging the story down. I hope the next books in the series have the same narrator since she did such a good job!

Epic

I read this book a year ago and was pleased to find it on audio book. I feel like the narrator got the voices right, especially Lady Ragna's. Perfect job. Now to go and get the next one.

Excellent series!

This is an excellent series, a very well written story of light vs darkness, personal growth, and romance. The characters are realistic, the magic/gifts unique, and it kept me reading well past my bedtime.

The series is clean in language and without sex. There’s some heated kissing, but it’s tasteful… and oh what a beautiful love story :-)

Highly recommended!

Goosebumps

Wow! Well done, Morgan Busse. And well done, Jaimee Draper. I forgot I was listening to one person. Mark of the Raven is a riveting fantasy that gave me chills at multiple points through the story. I’ve already made my advanced purchase of the next book.

The narrator needs to be replaced

The narrator is very breathy and made the story really difficult to listen to. I haven’t finished the book yet but her reading is very distracting.

Loved it

I was in the market for Christian fiction that wasn’t overtly Christian and boy did I find it with this one. This book was a great read, it’s style, format, and even vocabulary was simple but that all made for a clean read. I wouldn’t rate it as one of the greatest books I’ve ever read but just an overall good read that I’m happy I got to experience. The audio version was great. Definitely grabbing book two!

YA Romance

The idea is intriguing. The writing style is solid. The heroine’s spiritual turmoil is too repetitive and doesn’t evolve much until right at the end. All of the romance and beauty descriptions and inner longings made me want to scream. I’m going to try the second book in hopes that we get to more of the adventure and wielding of gifts.

Entertaining

The book was entertaining, made of a fantasy worth that has definite Christian refrences. The super powers of the families in this world are similar to the gifts of the spirit spoken about in I Corinthians. The families have to learn to appreciate each other in order to function properly as a kingdom. The characters are shown that they have to give the gift back to the "Light" which is similar to the Christian concept of giving our lives to God as a kind of living sacrifice. The central good versus evil conflict of the series is one of dark vs. light, selfishness vs. selflessness, hopelessness vs. hopefulness, and forgiveness and love vs. bitterness and hatred. Some of these concepts are personified in this fantasy world.

Busse writes from the perspective from several different characters which is not like many other books I have read or listened to. It made it a more interesting listen for me. I found the characters interesting and likable.

I made more in depth reviews on the next two novels.

Excellent!!

Great story and great narration. I love that it was told from this particular perspective.

Entertaining clean fantasy with allegorical themes

This was fun! Love both the dual POVs and worldbuilding. Can’t wait to listen/read the rest of the series!