Burn Mark by Laura Powell

ARC received for review
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (7 Jun 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1408815222

Glory is from a family of witches and lives beyond the law. She is desperate to develop her powers and become a witch herself. Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition—the witches’ mortal enemy—and his privileged life is very different to the forbidden world that he lives alongside.

And then on the same day, it hits them both. Glory and Lucas develop the Fae—the mark of the witch. In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together, whether they like it or not . . .

Cover:  I like this cover.  Fire plays a significant role in this book so I was pleased to see it on the cover, but the girl I take to be Glory on the cover, I don't see why she's there and not Lucas as well, they are both equal protagonists and I think he should be on there as well as they both narrate.

I was so excited for this book but I was left sorely disappointed.

The over all premise of the book was great 'Ancient witchcraft. Modern World.' but it took AGES for me to get into the book.  Too long.  I couldn't sit and read 50-100 pages at a time, I was lucky if I could get through 20.  It took me over two weeks to read.  This was not normal for me, especially for a book that's only 416 pages.  It was just so slow and drawn out for me.

While I enjoy books with dual perspectives I didn't really warm to either Glory or Lucas as characters.  I felt the first half was repetitious info-dumping that stagnated- the plot wasn't driven forward.

The idea of mixing the criminal streets of a lower class London with magic and covens, the historical 'inquisition' still in place was great, and really unique.

The last 50 pages really picked up, and I wish the other 350 had been like that because then it would have been really enjoyable.

There was also no love interest- I feel that if there had been it may have endeared the book to me that little bit more but there was no romantic spark to draw me in and keep me interested.

Lucas and Glory are supposedly 15 but they way they act and speak comes across as much older, which just bugged me.

Over all I give Burn Mark 2/5 stars because while the premise was great and I liked the setting it was just too slow and at some points I honestly felt like it would go on forever.

If you're looking for a really different supernatural come dystopian read with zero romance this might be one for you to try but it was not for me.