Marked

Eternal Guardians, Book 1

By: Elisabeth Naughton

Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Theron - Dark haired, duty bound and deceptively deadly. He's the leader of the Argonauts, an elite group of guardians that defends the immortal realm from threats of the Underworld.

From the moment he walked into the club, Casey knew this guy was different. Men like that just didn't exist in real life - silky shoulder-length hair, chest impossibly broad, and a predatory manner that just screamed dark and dangerous. He was looking for something. Her. She was the one. She had the mark. Casey had to die so his kind could live, and it was Theron's duty to bring her in. But even as a 200-year-old descendent of Hercules, he wasn't strong enough to resist the pull in her fathomless eyes; to tear himself away from the heat of her body. As war with the Underworld nears, someone will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

©2011 Elisabeth Naughton (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Conniving Greek gods, horrifying demons, vengeful warriors, and true love clash in this sexy, fast-paced paranormal romance series launch." ---Publishers Weekly

Delicious Greek Hero

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.

I enjoyed the story, but the narration....

I've been looking for a new series so I gave Marked a try. I found the story to be interesting and I enjoyed the characters. But the narration was almost unbearable for me. Her speech was very choppy and distracting. Every man except for the king and Hates sounded like caricatures and not people. Not to mention the fact that, all though they are all Argolians, only Theron has an accent, and a bad one at that.

I'm probably not going to continue with this series, because I don't want to hear this narrator again.

Good Premise

Though the story could have been interesting, it lacked something in it's ability to keep me interested. It moved way to slowly for me and at times felt manipulative in too obvious a way.

OK but lots of angst and tons of TSTL

Overall opinion: 3.5 Stars

I liked the story and premise but there is so many TSTL moments and way too much internal monolog all of the time!

Brief Summary: No need to expand on the author's summary.

Narrator(s) - 5/10 - screechy on the male voices.

POV: dual

Overall Pace: moderate to fast

Instalove: sort of

H Rating: 5/10

h Rating: 5/10

Sad/happy/thrill/Angst/TSTL - lots of TSTL and Angst

Heat Level: 5/10

Descriptive Sex: 7/10

OW/OM Drama: Not really

Sex with OW/OM: No

Cheating: Read

Separation: Light

Triggers:

Closure (HEA/HFN/Cliffhanger): HEA

Additional Thoughts?

DREAMING

everyonce in awhile you just want a listen to something out of this world. this is one of those books. easy, busy, woman so she is just as good as her man. easy listening.

Great in your face PNR book

Intrigue, plot twists, betrayal, and much much more. This book kept me on my toes all the way through. I would highly recommend this book. Looking forward to the next ones. Keep up the great work.

Kind of boring.

I would love to find another series like Immortals after Dark by Kesley Cole. But I think she is the one in a billion as far as writing fantasy with romance, spice and action. This book seems to have potential as a series. Nut unless it's included in my membership, I will not be wasting my credits or money on it.

I tried

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 thought it was kind of average

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.

Gods

I absolutely love the world that Elizabeth created! So much going on, and how she was able to join the human world with the godly one was spot on. This is a great introduction to the series and you get enough of the various characters that you will want to continue the series to learn more about them. The narrative is excellent!