Marked

By: Sarah Fine

Narrated by: Emily Foster

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

In a broken landscape carved by environmental collapse, Boston paramedic Cacia Ferry risks life and limb on the front lines of a fragile and dangerous city. What most don't know - including her sexy new partner, Eli Margolis - is that while Cacy works to save lives, she has another job ferrying the dead to the Afterlife. Once humans are "Marked" by Fate, the powerful Ferrys are called to escort the vulnerable souls to either eternal bliss or unending fire and pain.

Unaware of Cacy's other life, Eli finds himself as mesmerized by his fierce and beautiful partner as he is mistrustful of the influential Ferry clan led by the Charon - who happens to be Cacy's father. Cacy, in turn, can no longer deny her intense attraction to the mysterious ex-Ranger with a haunted past. But just as their relationship heats up, an apparent hit takes the Charon before his time. Shaken to the core, Cacy pursues the rogue element who has seized the reins of fate, only to discover that Eli has a devastating secret of his own. Not knowing whom to trust, what will Cacy have to sacrifice to protect Eli - and to make sure humanity's future is secure?

©2015 Sarah E. Fine (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

A lot of sexual content

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story would have been good if there wasn't so much sexual filler. I understand that the main characters where attracted to each other but it felt like there was more time spent detailing the sex scenes than dealing with what the story was actually about.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Interesting world and characters, has some extreme moments

I really enjoyed the character development and the non-expositive way in which context and back story were crafted into the natural unfolding of the story. I really dig the way you put together pieces of details to arrive at certain understandings as a reader versus being narrated to by an external all knowing force.

The unique and wholly unexpected pairing of a totally plausible yet disturbingly dystopian near-future ravaged by who knows what and the plane shifting supernatural... (Preternatural..?) themes of eternal rest or eternal damnation and the care taking of souls in transit was delightful and enjoyable.

The unexpected infusion of VERY, very graphic moments of sexual intimacy made sense to some degree, each building on the growing sense of intimacy between the central characters but they seemed FAR more graphic than necessary. On the other hand I'm certain many readers would rather enjoy those portions, perhaps marking them as among their favorite :)

I can't recommend the book openly for young readers or those with a sensitivity to overt sexual themes. Which is very unfortunate as the book has a LOT to offer outside of those moments.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Marked was well crafted with characters I rooted f

Any additional comments?

I am going to be vague here, because Fine created twists I never saw coming. A human whose timeline will have a rippling effect on everyone involved and beyond is in danger. Sides are drawn, lines are crossed and figuring out where everyone falls is suspenseful, as we fear the outcome. From the beginning, Fine has us invested from both an emotional standpoint and a fate of the world aspect.

Holy hotness and bring out the feels. The chemistry between Eli and Cacy is electric. You can call it insta-love if you want but Fine had no trouble making me believe. Every time these two were together, I felt the sexually tense and intense connection. Swoon-worthy with all the feels, Fine gave us scenes that melted my ears and she did it without making me blush. The angst and tension was brilliantly drawn out without making me pull out my hair. Instead, it had me holding my breath and demanding she find them their happy.

Emily Foster is the narrator and we began a little rocky. She does a terrific job with the character but I found her narration to be too fast. I generally set my audible app between 1.25x and 1.75x. With Foster, I had to set it at 1x. Having said that within the first few chapters I was swept up in the story and found her voices and tones to be spot on. I definitely plan to continue on audio and hope she continues to narrate them.

Marked for the win! I am delighted and excited to continue the series, especially after the epilogue that left me drooling in anticipation. Sarah Fine lived up to the hype. Marked will delight fans of urban fantasy, dystopian worlds, science fiction and mythology based tales.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

More Sci-Fi Than Expected

This was an interesting book. It's not normally my type of fare, but it held my attention and was entertaining enough. It jumps between seemingly normal people and a dark, non-human underworld - if you like these kinds of stories, I think you'll like this one. The narrator is good and seamlessly navigates the various characters with ease and expertise.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great story

This story was interesting and I enjoyed the world and perspective of the characters. My only disappointment is in the performance of the voice actress. I felt as if there was barely a distinction between character voices and all the male voices were canted a little too high. It was also mostly delivered in a monotone that belied the situations the characters were in.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Interesting PNR story, mediocre narrator.

How could the performance have been better?

The narrator doesn't seem to have a lot of range-most female characters sounded alike, as did the male characters. Foster's rhythm was off to my ears and the cadence felt choppy and stilted. If I hadn't been drawn to the story, I wouldn't have finished it.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

great series

I adore this story line and LOVE the Author.... I would most definitely recommend this series to anyone who likes gritty mythological characters that are seeded in the true legends of these creatures. it's a creative take on old models.... definitely improved on original ideas

Why?

The story relies too much on sex instead of meaningful character development. I don't know if it was meant to be pornographic, but it should come with a content warning. I can't figure out why graphic sex and obscene language have to be part of this genre of fiction.

Slow start, but don't give up.

I loved the author's take on mythology here and the characterization is great. I like the main characters and the secondary cast are all wonderful. The bits and pieces of the world that I could make out are interesting, but I wish I could make a bigger picture of the unusual future urban setting. I struggled a little bit with the narrator-I'm not sure if it is that she read with a general perkiness that didn't seem to fit the story or that I had a hard time differentiating between the male and female characters, but either way there were several times that I turned the audiobook off and read on my Kindle for a while. Still, I was hanging with the story up until about the 2/3 mark.

At that point that the story began to really get interesting, like super duper interesting. Unfortunately, the romance between Cacy and Eli also heated up A LOT. There are a couple of sex scenes toward the end that really distracted from the rest of what was going on and while I really love romance stories, I just found these awkward and weirdly graphic for this type of story. So I would say that this story isn't fantastic, but it is okay.

THAT BEING SAID: I have already started the second book in this series and it has started out so much better. So hang in there if you're interested in this series.

interesting book

this book kept me interested and wanting to continue listen. it was so good that I bought the next two books in the series! now I need to find out what is going on!

Very disappointed 😞

The narrator was so monotone and lack lustre that I didn't get past the 2nd chapter
Sarah Fine is an author I usually don't hesitate in buying but I regretted this one. Maybe a better narrator would have helped but I don't like the robotic sound of this one

loved it!

I'm fast becoming a serious Sarah Fine fan. I stumbled on the shadowlands series by accident and loved it, then I read the Reliquary series, again loved it and I've just started on servants on fate. Sarah writes, smart and engaging stories that are right up my street and have me hooked, desperate to to know what's going to happen and if things will work out, for what quickly become favourite characters. Can't wait to keep reading this series and am desperately hoping there will be more of the Reliquary series to come too!

brilliant just brilliant

Really interesting concept to story, very different, fab writing and enjoyed the narration style, highly recommend 5 star.