Marked (Eternal Guardians #1)
Elisabeth Naughton
Published: April 2010 (Love Spell)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon
Reviewed by: Jo
Rating (out of 5): 4.5 stars
After finishing Fantasy Lover for this month’s VBC Group Read, Marked popped up on my Amazon recommended page. A series based around the descendants of the Argonauts, with smokin’ hot romance and more Greek mythology than you can shake a stick at… How on earth did I miss this series for so long?
Running her grandmother’s bookshop during the day and waitressing in a strip club at night to make ends meet, Casey has never really felt like she fits in. Enter Theron, tall, dark and radiating dangerous. When she stumbles upon him, battered and bloody from a vicious attack, she goes against her better judgment and takes him home. Getting hot and bothered with a guy she just met isn’t Casey’s normal M.O. but there’s something about Theron… until he drops her like a hot potato. More than a bit pissed by his disappearing act she isn’t in the receiving mood when he shows up at her store. What he has to say will explain who he is and why he’s there though… And just what she may be.
Theron is the leader of the Argonauts, a band of warriors swore to protect the Argolean realm. Direct descendants of the original Greek Heroes, these warriors are all about duty. So when his king dispatches him to find the one person who can save their kingdom from a deadly foe, Theron is willing to do anything, even if that means sacrificing the woman he can’t stop thinking about. Words are one thing but action is quite another, and Casey has unleashed the one thing that can bring him to his knees: his humanity.
Marked is a story of duty and destiny with both lead characters having their very foundations rocked. Casey may be the one we discover a new reality with but it’s Theron that goes on the deeper journey. Torn between his orders and his growing connection with Casey, it’s the first time the right path hasn’t been utterly clear to him. They bring out the best (and, at times, worst) in each other and I loved watching them struggle to find their footing. I also really liked that both Theron and Casey have deep relationships outside of each other, that grow and change throughout the book.
The world building is dense at times, but in the best kind of way. Rich and intricate, it sets up the world and characters in a manner that makes me think this series is going to get delightfully complex. While there is one arch-bad-guy-type, there’s a mixture of races, monarchies and gods, all with their own agendas and shades of grey. Of course, more than one character makes a deal with a god that is bound to come back and bite them in the ass.
Marked is a fantastic series opener and while I was mostly definitely digging the romance between these two, the plot and action didn’t take a backseat. Theron aside, there is a plethora of alpha Argonauts clamoring for their own books which has me rubbing my hands together in glee at the prospect of gorging on this series!
Sexual content: Graphic sex
I LOVED this book! The review was so intriguing, that I just had to download & read for myself, and boy I’m glad I did! This is the first series since The Black Dagger Brotherhood that I just couldnt put it down. The men in this book OMG and the story has the perfect balance of danger, love, adventure, and suspense. Getting ready to read the second book now 😉