Marked: Eternal Guardians, Book 1

Elisabeth Naughton have invented a true spunky Greek Gods and underlings Story. This book is full of excitement, lust, Demons, powerful Gods and Gorgeous Theron leader of the Argonaut Guardian's. Full of action and many additional characters this book has kept me entertained to the very end. So glad they released book 1 of the Eternal Guardians. I have had book 3 on my wish list for ages thinking i don't want to jump into the series with-out the very important first installment. Elizabeth Wiley done the Perfect Narration and her voice suited each character beautifully. It was intriguing to find out a bit about all the characters that will be included in the rest of this thrilling series. I hope book 2 is on it's way to us and will download it as soon as it is released. Totally YUMMY in every way :)

I really wanted to like this book. I stopped, rewinded, started it again, but to me it just didn't work. I've rewinded this book more than any book I've ever heard because I did like parts in it and I just know I liked it and I really needed to give it more of a chance to grow on me. I'm thinking maybe I was in a bad mood that day so rewind it again today and listen again. I'm just going to have to face the fact that this one is not going to be one of "those" books for me. So I'm just going to say I wish I'd used my credit on something else. This would be a good "on sale" book for me.

I first read the Eternal Guardians series and was happy to see them finally on audible. This is a great PNR series, something different. It isn’t about vampires, shifters, or things that go bump in the night, although some things that go bump; bite back, but that’s off topic. This series is about the seven greatest heroes of Greek Mythology and their descendants. Marked is about Theron, descendants of Greek mythology’s greatest hero, Hercules and Casey, a human woman. From the moment Theron meet Casey the sexual attraction between them was scorching. Theron knows there is more to Casey then an ordinary human woman and even though he is betrothed to someone else, he can’t stop the feelings that Casey arise in him.

Casey is a strong, fierce woman who will fight deadly monsters (and she does) if it means she will save a friend by doing so. She fights with everything that she has for what she believes is right and really isn’t afraid to tell anyone otherwise. She doesn’t allow Theron to decide the decision in her life; even if he is the hottest thing she has ever seen in her life. Theron is a hot, steaming alpha male. He is the captain of the guardians and expects everyone to jump when he yells, that is until he meets Casey. Give him a sword and he will fight his way through anything. Give him Casey and he is at a loss for words.

Narration was decent. I didn’t like the accent she was trying to portray for Theron. It came off wrong. But besides that, it was decent.

From the very first Chapter until the last I was absolutely consumed by this awesome listen and I found myself using stealth and ingenuity tactics. So, I growled at anyone who dared to speak to me, I let the answer-phone pick-up my messages, gave my husband the remote and a beer, bribed the kids, ordered in pizza and then happily became just a 'ghost' for the day. Why you may ask? well......

It's such a richly described, well-written story that'll have you picturing each Chapter, be surprised at the twists and turns and you'll become so emotionally invested as this entertaining, powerful soul-mate love story deliciously unfolds. There's some really great characters, plenty of villains, interesting sub plots, sexy drool-worthy Argonauts, Greek Gods, Demons and it's full of mythology.

A very enjoyable thrilling fantasy romance, with lots of action, passion, sacrifice, lust, Demon slaying and well narrated by someone who breathes life into the characters, puts emotion into the storytelling and adds plenty of feeling into all the drama.

Worth a credit? YES - not only worth the credit but I downloaded all the others that are available too and sooo worth the beer, bribe and pizza money - and all the phone calls I had to return too!!

This story is so well written that I didn't want to put it down once I began it. I'm glad I waited to listen to this series for Book 1 Marked, because it's this one that gives the foundation of what the Guardians are and what role they play in their world. Now, when I listen to the others, I'll know what the narrator is talking about when she mentions other the other characters.
This is a love story told with true passion and love. I, for one, enjoy a good love story.

I liked the theme of the book, I am a huge mythology buff but this book seemed to be constantly beat around the bush...and talk about some serious coitus interruptus! Geez I have three kids and I'm not event interrupted that much. Then after the big climax the book really fizzed out. Now,I have high expectations when it comes to Greek mythology. I had to translate Jason and the Argonauts in Latin class, I only passed that class because of my interest in the mythology, and I did not like how the book portrayed Persephone at all. She is the sweet daughter of Demeter and is the goddess of vegetation. She was kidnapped by her uncle Hades and was forced to be the queen of the underworld. Hades tricked her to eat the pomegranate seeds( a fruit from the underworld) before Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone to Demeter. Since Persephone ingested the seeds it required her to have to spend one-third of the year in the underworld with Hades ( hence the season of winter) only in later writings did it go from three months to six months. The author made her and evil awful goddess and I can't get behind that, it just rubs me the wrong way.

I keep trying to get back to this one. I think the story may be there, but I think I will have to purchase the hard copy to know for sure.

This narrator is best suited for story time with toddlers. I just can't listed without getting mad that no one actually speaks like thais. Overacting....yes.

I still cant get through it so I guess I'll return the title. Thanks for that ability Audible!!!!!

I have read all of Naughton's books it is a great series but after the first book I quit listening due to the narrator. I would give audible a miss on this one and just read the books...

The narration was okay. I don't feel like added or detracting from my enjoyment. It got the job done.

I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. It has great potential as a book one of the series as the writing was pretty fast paced. Constant action and an interesting mix of mythology made the novel interesting. I really liked Theron, but I liked the sister Isadora more than I liked Casey. I didn’t want Theron and Isadora together, but I liked Isadora’s inner fortitude. Both sisters obviously had the capacity for self-sacrifice and get love, so that was really cool. I never quite understood King Leonidas and his fascination with humans when he didn’t really care about humans either. I also had a hard time with “Eternal guardians” who were more human acting, eating sandwiches and wearing jeans. But there was a clear sense of duty and what was right, and the guardians strived to do their duty. How they could spend time on earth fighting demons but be clueless about Misos, half breeds, was beyond me.

I actually enjoyed Hades, who was kind of a villain, and his wife Persephone. They brought a special kind of mischief to the table and it was entertaining. I also enjoyed having a woman, Atalanta, be the villain because of the discrimination she suffered. I felt her pain, though her means of exacting retribution was too extreme. I look forward to her next plan to slaughter the Argoleans. I am hoping book 2 will fill in some more background and tell us more about Isadora’s deal with Hades and Persephone.

While I would have preferred a series about any group of men, warriors, highlanders, SEALS, etc, to be narrated by a man, this one is done by a woman. Some can handle it, and she did not do too bad on men's voices, though as someone else pointed out, the only man that had an accent was the hero, Theron. All his brother Argonauts spoke regular unaccented English, which made no sense. I could live with that. Her regular narration voice was OK and sounded like a normal woman's voice. But her female characters sounded like 13 year olds - high pitched, often whiney. I had to force myself to finish but I was on a trip in my car and had to tough it out. If she would just have used her normal speaking voice for women, it would have been so much better. So I would ask her "When you speak to your friends, do you pitch your voice much higher and try to sound like a kid?" Think normal!

As for the story itself, I enjoyed it very much, though again, sometimes the dialog of the heroine, and her sister, was reminiscent of kids instead of 27 year old women. I'll get the rest of the books from the library and just read them maybe. I sure won't get the audio.