The Rose Mark

Publisher's Summary

Sherra

We belong to the king - those of us with the black roses tattooed on our left wrist, directly over our pulse. As if every beat of our hearts reminds us that we are not our own.

All the women with the fire burning within them are culled, tattooed, and taken to the warriors to provide more energy. Energy that the warriors will then use to defeat the barbarians from the ocean of sand. Women with black roses on their wrists are emptied of their power by those warriors, who care not that they die a shrunken husk.

In the king's library, The Book of the Rose says to honor the tattooed women. More than anything, I want to spit on its pages.

As for running - there is one thing worse than having a black rose on your wrist. That is for the enemy to find you and see the black rose on your wrist. Your death will be slow and excruciating at their hands...

©2017 Connie Suttle (P)2017 Connie Suttle

Excellent book

This was a very interesting audio to me. The storyline was different and the heroine was smart, sassy, and competent which I loved. They were lots of twists and turns, danger, and love. I do wish the second book was out already. I would definitely recommend this audio, it is worth the price of admission for the unique storyline alone. There narrator did a decent job, it was not offputting or distracting from the story. However it was definitely the story that kept me engaged.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Loved It! Where is Book 2?!!

I love power girl type stories. Sure they might be terribly unrealistic, but in The Rose Mark, all of the main characters are likeable, and the villains are unlikeable. I love the story, I love the characters, and I can hardly wait for book 2 to come out in Audible! Please hurry.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Exciting

Long time since I've been this enthralled. This is very 👍 Must wait until next book. Not good.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazing

Connie Suttle is a true mistress. An incredibly rich storyline that left me wanting more. I plan on trying everything available on audible. Traci Odom is perfect as the narrator. Delighted to discover an author to follow.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great

A new home run, great story ,strong characters and last but not least the narrator matches the book prefect.

Connie Shuttle's Imagination is vast

This book is meant to be read by TWO readers: one female, one male. The current reader is excellent. The producers must learn that when an author separates chapters by male/female characters, the readers should reflect those changes, i.e. read by a man AND a woman.

Good first 1st book in the series

The author, Connie Suttle, created a unique world. The society has been at war for years. There is very little about the war and the enemies. They are called barbarians. Their weapons are technology i.e. guns, trucks, airplanes, while Az-ca is magic.

In Az-ca, man/escorts work in pairs to defend their country. The escorts are subservient to the warriors. The escorts are the power source, defense, sexual slave of the warrior.

The escorts are identified at two years old to have the ability to use be a power source. They are marked with a rose on their wrist. As a rose, the child becomes a pittance source of income for the village. They are ostracized and feared by their villagers and grow up in isolation. They also grow up knowing they are fated to die when they are drained as power sources.

Sherra is highly intelligent and very progressive. She is restful for the inequalities which hold so little value for the lives of the roses. Much of the story illustrates the changes she makes in the use of roses’ power, the defense of the warrior’s life against the enemy and the self-preservation of their life against a warriors draining their power.

Korn is the commander of the army and the prince of the region. He is mourning for the death of his rose and battling three enemies, a foreign one who wants to take his country, treachery from country men who want to rule his country, and a phantom.

These two individuals fight together to make winning the war and saving lives a priority. Of course, there is their romance, which they fight against and generates many misunderstanding. I have prejudice against the I love her/him, I love her/him not crape that authors dump upon readers. The romance is just shy of being harlequin but extremely unoriginal.

The story is told from their point of view. The action centers on the training for the warriors and escorts and the resistance for the new methods introduced by the Sherra/Korn pair.
It gets repetitive with Sherra’s complaints against a society that condemns the life of woman, without her consent and Korn for his unwillingness to work with an escort he could possibility love. Those two things detract from much of the story.

Because of the romance crap and repetition of societal inequalities, I could not give it a higher rating. The story line of the war and fighting the treachery are interesting for me to read the next in the series.