Review: Mark of the Raven

Genre: Fantasy

Subgenre: Young adult, clean

As part of my personal writing/reading journey, I’ve been branching out a bit and trying to read more novels outside of the romance genre. That said, I am first and foremost a historical romance writer/reader, so I have a tendency to look at books through that lens. I’m certain this comes through in my review of Mark of the Raven.

Now for the required disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of Mark of the Raven from Bethany House.

I am giving Mark of the Raven three stars. I really wanted to like it more, but it had a couple of drawbacks that kept me from raising it to four stars. To be completely fair, I’m going to start with the things I liked – and there were many – before sharing what I didn’t. I should be able to avoid any plot spoilers.

Story background:

Lady Selene is heir to the House of Ravenwood, one of seven great houses, each endowed with a special gift. Ravenwood’s gift is the ability to walk in another’s dream; however, the other six houses all believe Ravenwood’s gift died out when the Dominian Empire razed the land hundreds of years prior. Unbeknownst to them, there was a survivor who passed on the ability to the female heir for hundreds of years. Whereas once Ravenwood women used their gift to help others, now they are hired as spies and assassins.

This aspect of their secret is kept from Lady Selene until she awakens to her abilities. One of her first assignments is to slay the young heir of another great house: the one who may hold the key to uniting the great houses and protecting their land from new ruler of the Dominian Empire. Selene is torn between her alliance to her people and the good that dwells within her.

What I liked:

It really is a compelling story, and although I’m only giving Mark of the Raven a three star, I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. The characters are all believable and likeable. The villains are compelling and not altogether unlikeable either. The author does a great job of making them vivid characters. In fact, I could easily see Mark of the Raven having been produced as a graphic novel.

Also, being a romance reader, I appreciated the relationship between the two main characters. There was a chemistry that appealed, even if it didn’t rise to the level of a romance. (I am really hoping this gets played up in the sequel.)

I also really liked the cover!

What I didn’t like:

The story started out a bit slow. It was interesting enough, but it wasn’t until chapter 9 that we meet the male lead – Damien. I would have loved to have seen more of him earlier, maybe his backstory interspersed with Lady Selene’s. You could argue that he’s a secondary character, but once he makes his debut, he doesn’t feel like one. In fact, he somewhat steals the show.

I also thought the story ended too abruptly. Maybe this is how all fantasy stories end these days, but I felt like we had just reached the climax of the story, when suddenly, I’m reading back of the book material. I flipped back to see if I had accidentally missed a chapter or even a page or two. 

I don’t want to give away too much, but at the very least, I felt like it should have wrapped up with more of the main characters’ stories. Even just one or two chapters that gave us an idea of what was going on with them and the battles they would need to fight in the next book would have done it for me.