rating.Burn Mark by Laura Powell is an interesting urban fantasy set in an alternate London, Filled with witches, inquisitions, burnings, the mob, and corruption, We meet two young people from different worlds who develop the Fae on the same day and suddenly find their lives intertwined.
The tale begins when we meet fifteen year old Gloriana Starling Wilde, She is having a nightmare about a woman being burned as a witch, She has had this dream since her mother disappeared when she was just three years old, She lives with her Auntie Angeline Starling and father, They belong to a mafia type witch family, They are unregistered and make their living in petty crime and running the neighborhood, Every night she prays for the mark of the Fae, We then meet fifteen year old Lucas Stearne, His family comes from a long line of Inquisitors and he is expected to fill his fathers shoes, On the very same day these two come into Fae power, The tale that unfolds takes us deep into the world of both witches and Inquisitors, Unexpectedly Gloriana and Lucas find themselves working together undercover, Both enter this arrangement for different reasons and on different sides of a war against/for witchcraft, They soon discover that not everything is black and white,
The characters Powell creates are unique, Gloriana in her dark eye makeup appears hard and streetwise, She has come into her Fae and she is powerful, While she wants to scream this from the treetops she is forced to keep it a secret, She is tough and life has taught her not to take crap from anybody, Her boisterous ways had me laughing aloud, She shows no fear and feels a sense of loyalty even to those who dont treat her well, In the beginning she had clear opinions about witchkind and humans, Her prejudice runs deep, and its her time spent with Lucas that changes her, Lucas is the perfect son, on track to follow in his fathers footsteps even if he silently disagrees, As he comes into his Fae, we see a change in him, He sets out to prove himself to his father, but quickly forges his own path and begins to be firm in his own beliefs.
While I didnt always approve of him jumping into action without backup, I liked him, Together their personalities worked of each other and made them each a better person, Other characters add to the storyline and present us with characters to love and loathe,
The worldbuilding reminded me of a modern day version of Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch trials, Today they declare themselves much more civilized, They have rules by which all Fae are governor, They must declare themselves and be tested, They can choose to give up their Fae, by wearing irons or once they reach adulthood seek work using their skills.
Witchkind are constantly monitored by the Inquisitors and police, By all accounts they are second class citizens, They are sent to trial and burned at the stake for acts of witchcraft and treason, As we enter Powells world it is on the cusp of change, The Inquisitors are recruiting and working with Fae, This has caused a crack in the balance and some fear this change will lead to equality, Some might go to great expense to see that it never happens, I enjoyed this novel but I am afraid the pace might turn some readers off, I found the worldbuilding fascinating and the writing flowed well, but there was very little action until the last few chapters.
The conflict in this novel was resolved and this works well as a standalone, however Powell has left the door open for a series.
Fans of witches and witch trials should enjoy Burn Mark, While the pace is slow, the detail is rich, I am hoping a second book develops and that Powells next plot has more action, I am keeping this author on my watch list,
I want to thank Bloomsbury Publishing and netGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.
When a Burn Mark's description says:
"An actionpacked drama full of East End gangs, witches, and a modern day Inquisition.
In a modern worldwhere witches are hunted down and burned at the staketwo live interact, Glory is from a family of witches, and is desperate to develop the 'Fae' and become a witch herself, Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition and his privileged life is very different from the witches he is being trained to prosecute.
And then one day, both Glory and Lucas develop the Fae, In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together, whether they like it or not, "
I say, "Sign me up!"
Seriously, witches and a modern day Inquisition, So awesome. I'm loving the trend of alternate realities in contemporary culture, See also sitelinkEvery Other Day,
The book description on NetGalley is better than the one here, Lucas und Glory leben eigentlich in zwei verschiedenen Welten: Während Lucas ein sehr piviligiertes Leben als Sohn des Inquisitors führt und selbst auch mal Hexen richten soll wartet Glory nur darauf, dass sie wie ihre Mutter zu einer Hexe wird.
Derweilen lebt sie in einem der Slums,
Doch dann passiert etwas Unerwartetes: Sogar noch vor Glory zeigt sich bei Lucas das Hexenmal, . .
Ich mag Hexengeschichten, aber momentan gibt es nicht so viele auf dem Büchermarkt, Als ich dann "Witches of London" mit diesem wunderschönen Cover entdeckt hatte, stand für mich schnell fest, dass ich es lesen muss.
Leider habe ich mir wohl ein bisschen zu viel und eine andere Art von Story versprochen, . .
Der Anfang ist interessant, Man erfährt ziemlich alles, was man über Hexen und die Inuisition wissen muss: Wie wird man zur Hexe, wie werden diese behandelt, was ist die Inquisition,.
. . Das InfoDumping ist genau richtig verpackt,
Ich fand es zudem toll, dass Glory und Lucas beide Hexen werden, Ich hatte schon richtig Angst, dass nur Lucas zur Hexe wird und Glory nicht, Der Klappentext führt da einem ja leicht in die Irre,
Aber nachdem wird das Buch ziemlich, . . anders. Anders als ich erwartet hätte, denn es gibt die WICA,so etwas wie eine Behörde der Übernatürlichen und plötzlich war ich mehr in einem JugendSpionRoman, statt in einer Hexengeschichte.
Also ja, das Buch spielt in unserer Zeit, aber die Magie gibt es eben auch,
Nun zu den Charas, . . Die Geschichte wechselt immer zwischen Glory und Lucas, Einen Draht konnte ich aber irgendwie zu keinem Aufbauen und ich hätte mir auch nicht gedacht, dass sie so "jung" sind.
Auch die Liebesgeschichte hat mich dann nicht wirklich von den Socken gehauen, . .
Alles in einem kann ich sagen, dass das Buch einfach nur Mittelmaß war,
Das Cover ist so verdammt hübsch! Das allein hättevonPunkten verdient, aber leider hält die Geschichte nicht mit.
"Witches of London" ist die etwas andere Hexengeschichte, Wer neben der Magie auch gerne etwas von einem AgentenRoman in seinem Buch hätte, hey, vielleicht wäre das Buch dann genau das Richtige für euch
Ich vergebevonHerzen.
Solidstars, but not what I was hoping for,
The premise is that the Witch Trials were real trials for real witches, and now all witches have to be registered.
. . for the safety of the public,
Of course, there are illegal witches who operate outside the law, and criminal witches who are given a trial, and then burned.
Supposedly, they are given an anesthesia beforehand, though, so they don't actually feel anything, ltprepare yourself for a creepy opening scene,
shudder
In other words, the humans are very fair and humane when it comes to their treatment of them.
Or so one boy named Lucas thinks,
His father is
the chief prosecutor for the Inquisition, and he's been raised to believe that the laws are fair, and that the witches are just naturally predisposed to evil and deserving of pity.
His father isn't a bad man, In fact, he tries his best to raise Lucas not to believe that cruelty is necessary when dealing with witches.
And over the course of his career, he's done his best to be an honorable man,
But not everyone in the organization feels the same way,
Unfortunately for him, Lucas is about to learn all about how the other half lives when his witchmark pops up, and he has to go register.
Enter Glory!
Unlike Lucas, Glory comes from a long line of powerful amp unregistered witches, and she can't wait for her witchmark to show up.
Everyone she knows lives outside the law, and in her neighborhood being a witch is a good thing.
Her family pretty much runs a mafialike organization, and she's looking forward to having some real Power,
Ok, There's a lot of different themes packed into this story, but the biggest one seems to be about how insert minority here is abused privately or quietly, while the majority of people are blissfully unaware.
And, quite honestly, this had some fantastically accurate insights into how that happens, and why most people choose to ignore and/or justify it.
BUT.
I just couldn't get into this one the way I wanted to, because so much of the book was borderline dull.
Everything kind of plodded along slowly, There was for me too much information and not enough action, I guess
It's not a bad book at all, but for whatever reason it just didn't blow me away.
.
Find Burn Mark Scripted By Laura Powell Available As Publication
Laura Powell