Marked: House of Night #1 by P C Cast and Kristen Cast

Lovely haunting novel by the author of Divine by Mistake and her daughter, Kristen.

Marked starts out with Zoey Redbird being marked by a Vampyre "tracker" while she's standing at her locker with her best friend. Immediately, the mark appears and Zoey is already condemned to being a freak by those who were, seconds ago, the closest friends she had.

Being marked means that Zoey will have to go to the House of Night, a vampyre school where fledglings are taught vampyre history (and sociology) and also where the young fledglings either take to the change or die.

You see, in Marked, when you are chosen by the Goddess Nyx (Goddess of the night) to become a vampyre, your DNA begins to change. If you aren't in the company of elder Vampyers, you will sicken and die. And even in the presence of those Adult vampyers, some still sicken and die.

Zoey fears the change at first and runs to her Cherokee Grandmother's Lavender farm where she, Zoey, comes face to face with the Goddess Nyx and receives more than just the outline of the crescent, she receives a full mark. Unheard of in a new fledgling and a sign that her powers are strong, Zoey becomes a curiosity for the new students which makes her apart from the crowd while bringing her close to those who will help her most in her journey.

The story really moves quickly and, at times, feels a bit rushed. You want the story to linger because the world that the Misses Cast have created feels familiar, comforting even while it feels alien.

All in all, a great start to what I hope will be a VERY long series. I really enjoyed this one.

Giving it 4.5 out of 5 berries.

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

I bought this last night, got home around 8:30 and headed to bed around 9 to start reading. I was finished by 3 am. Could NOT put it down.

New Moon picks up on Bella's birthday. She's not happy about turning a year "older" than Edward but agrees to go to a birthday party that Alice has planned for her out at the Cullen's house. She promises Edward that she'll "behave" (read: won't be grumpy and sarcastic) because this is the first real birthday the Cullen family has been able to celebrate for 70 some years and they're all excited.

Of course, being the klutzy Bella, while she is opening her presents she gets a paper cut. The family, reluctant "vegetarians" that they are, go nuts over the smell of just a little drop of blood. Uproar takes place and, in the end, the Cullen family decides to leave the tiny town of Forks. Edward breaks it off with Bella, believing that she'll be better off without him, stating that it's been fun but...yeah...and tells her "it'll be as if I were never here" and leaves her taking all memorabilia from their time together so she has nothing but her memories...

Bella spends the next few months in emotional withdrawal from everything she loves. She pulls away from everyone, her father, her mother who has flown up from Florida, her school friends. She finally begins to recover when she renews her friendship with Jacob Black, an American Indian living on the reservation outside of Forks.

Then, just as everything starts to come alive for Bella, Jacob gets sucked into a "cult" and begins to change.

The themes in the book might seem trite and over done but Ms. Meyer has once again taken the familiar and made them hauntingly new.

I ached for Bella as I read this book. I cried when Edward and the Cullen family left her. I wanted desperately to be there, to hold Bella while she cried, while she was having the never ending nightmares that stalked her through the months of her absolute desolation. The end of the book...again starting around the last 1/3...gave me hope, made me happy and sad again.

Once I finished this book, I cried. Not because it was over, although I did want it to continue forever, but because it was beautifully done. Hope was not in vain and the book continues to weave itself into my thoughts and even my dreams.

I'm giving this one 5 of 5 berries as well.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I bought this book 6 months ago because everyone was telling me how wonderful it was and of course, my library had book 2 and 3 of the series but not book 1. Then, when it came from Amazon, I set it aside. I'm not sure if I was afraid that it wouldn't be as good as everyone assured me it was, or if I wanted to savor the discovery of a new author or what, but I'm very glad I did wait.

Because the wait was so worth it.

Twilight starts out with17 year old High School Junior, Isabella "Bella" Swann moving from sunny Scottsdale,AZ to Forks, WA where it rains pretty much 362 days of the year. Her first day at school she meets Edward, a beautiful mysterious "boy" who seems to hate her. Intensely bothered by his apparent hatred, Bella tries to ignore him. But it's already too late. She's attracted to him and he to her. The revelation that Edward is a vampire (of the "vegetarian" variety...they dine on animals instead of humans) is almost anticlimactic, Bella's apparent nonchalance is more compelling given Edward's insistence that they not become friends. Again it's too late. They fall in love and Bella is introduced to the vampiric world by Edward.

Ms. Meyer has beautifully recreated the vampire mythos in this book. While it is a book aimed at the YA crowd, it is surprisingly sensual in its delivery. I've read much smuttier (much much smuttier) books than this and have been "meh" about them. With Twilight, I found myself a bit aroused by the tender love story between Bella and Edward. This is not to say that the book is unsuitable for the younger audience, (although I probably wouldn't give it to anyone under the age of 15) and I also wouldn't say that it is a "romance" novel either. There is action, almost terrifyingly so, toward the last 1/3 of the book.

I will be going out and buying the next two novels in the series (in hardback!) and will report on them here. I truly fell in love with this book. It gets, and deserves, 5 out of 5 berries.