What started off as powerful and compelling petered out about half-way through, and the characterization became compromised. While Berkely's wielding of present tense is strong, poor tone and pacing pulled me out of the story and ever left me confused on occasion. ( )

Dylan doesn't have an easy life... In fact, his life could be categorized as a roller-coaster of emotions, disappointments and distrust. The main reason for this is because his mom is the kind of woman that falls very easily and quickly in love only to pack their things up and leave town when she breaks up with the guy of the town.
She doesn't think about Dylan at all and it has been this way for the last 17 years.

That's why when she leaves him in the middle of nowhere with grandparents that didn't know he even existed he is not that surprised. Hurt yes, but not surprised.
The only good thing in his life? Since Dylan was a kid he always dreamt with the same girl. In fact they had seen each other grow up and had developed a friendship, and even if he knew deep inside that those dreams were not real they were also one of the things he treasured the most.

But everything changes when, behind his grandparent's house, he sees her. There, standing and practically inviting him into the woods. And after thinking about it he decides to go and help her, because he knows she is in trouble.
And thanks to that decision he finally understands why he always felt like he never belonged: he is only half human and his other half comes from a different dimension. And this land, Teag, lacks a king and a ruthless man named Navar won't stop until he controls everyone and everything.

That's why Kera has called fon Dylan, because he has a destiny to fulfill and a new life to discover with her.

Personal opinion:
From the very beginning I didn't know what to expect with this book. To be honest I'm not very fond of situations where a mom is not very "mother material". But to give him credit, neither is Dylan, so we are in the same page here.
And after reading a little bit we get to understand why Dylan's mom leaves him there.

Gladly for me things developed in a very cool, interesting and intriguing way. First we have Dylan who, thanks to the way he was raised, doesn't usually trust in other people and doesn't want to open up his heart to anybody. And to see this guy development throughout the book was amazing. It was like seeing a normal day reaching a glorious sunset, if you know what I mean.
Dylan soon discovers powers hidden within him and creatures and people that, alongside Kera, become not only friends but also family to him.

And then we have Kera, the girl of his dreams with whom he falls in love. And the feeling is mutual because they are meant to be together. Their love felt always natural, like the way the water follows the riverbed.
Besides, want to know something else? This girl is protective and she may not have Dylan's abilities but she does know how to take care of someone else.

As for the plot all I can say is that Shea Berkley has a natural style of writing and I like it. From the way she captures Dylan's thoughts to the great world building she does... everything was great. Even Navar had a deepness that was enjoyable and was the perfect enemy for Dylan.
And the ending? It doesn't have a cliffhanger for which I'm grateful. The book finished in a nice way letting the right amount of questions with no answer to keep me waiting for the second installment.
Trust me here, I'm already waiting! ( )

The Marked Son opens with a GREAT beginning. I was hooked immediately and found myself laughing so hard at some of the things that came out of Dylan's mouth. He was very entertaining and very mature for his age. The story is told from two points of views and that is Dylan and Kera. The relationship between Dylan and Kera at first was just okay for me. I liked the connection they had and the way they were with each other, but at first I wasn't big on them together. It was almost to fake for me. As I kept on reading though I did end up in love with the both of them.My issue with The Marked son was that I felt Dylan's character did not stay consistent. I really like his character, but I wish he stayed the same through out the book. He was up and down a bit. You would have to read the book to understand what I mean. Another issue was that some where in the middle I found myself losing interest in the story, but obviously it wasn't to the point that I did not finish reading it. It did pick back up and it was just non-stop from there.Overall, the world that Berkley created was very believable and other than the issues listed above it was a good story. I give it 3.5 stars and would be interested in reading the next in the series. It had a great ending. ( )

The Marked Son, Book #1 of the Keepers of Life series
Author: Shea Berkley

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Dylan Kennedy always knew something was different about him, but until his mother abandoned him in the middle of Oregon with grandparents he's never met, he had no idea what.
When Dylan sees a girl in white in the woods behind his grandparents' farm, he knows he's seen her before...in his dreams. He's felt her fear. Heard her insistence that only he can save her world from an evil lord who uses magic and fear to feed his greed for power.
Unable to shake the unearthly pull to Kera, Dylan takes her hand. Either he's completely insane or he's about to have the adventure of his life, because where they're going is full of creatures he's only read about in horror stories. Worse, the human blood in his veins has Dylan marked for death...

Our Review [by a LITERAL ADDICTION Associate Guest Reviewer]:
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book since I didn't read the blurb, but I absolutely loved it! It had pretty much everything including action, romance, drama and friendship.

Dylan is 17 and hasn't had the easiest life so far his mother moves him around the country constantly after falling in and out of love with less than savory men and shows no love to her son and he can't make friends since he is moving about so much. Dylan has been having dreams about a girl since he was a young boy and never seems to fit in anywhere. When his mother abandons him with grandparents who he has just met you feel really sorry for him and you really begin to hate his mother. He sees the girl from his dreams in the woods outside his grandparent's home and then everything starts to go wrong.

This is not your typical young adult book in the way that it can get really quite dark sometimes and even I was quite shocked at some parts and had to read parts again to see if that had really happened! I loved watching Dylan form relationships with other people as it was a very new experience for him and it was great to see people accept him for who he was and letting his bitterness go. Kera has grown up in a different world altogether and it is a harsh and cruel one and she has her own secrets to hide. The other characters in this story were great and I can't wait to read more from this wonderful author and hear more from Dylan and Kera!

I would recommend it to anyone who loves YA, magic, action and one hell of a ride! ( )

Review originally posted here.

Title: The Marked Son
Author: Shea Berkley
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Pub. Date: August 2011
Rating: 3.3 Crazy Hearts
Read an excerpt here!

It's 2:43 AM on August 15th, 2011, and I have FINALLY finished The Marked Son by Shea Berkley.

I started reading The Marked Son when it was released on the 2nd and though it may be difficult to believe, I tried to finish it as close to that date as I could (it normally doesn't take me nearly two weeks to finish a book, but what can you do?) .

The Marked Son is the story of Dylan Kennedy, who has always known something was off, that somehow he did not belong. When his mother takes him to the home of grandparents he's never known, who never even knew he existed, and abandons him, the feeling only intensifies and he's waiting for the moment they kick him out and do the same.

Then he meets Kera, the girl (literally) of his dreams, and the strange, yet undeniable pull between the two can only lead to the truth of who and what he is.

I hate making it seem like I didn't enjoy this book, because on some level I really did. For some reason, however, I could not get into this book as much as I wanted to.

I have heard lots of praise about it's fast-paced nature, yet for me it was hard to find a pace for The Marked Son that didn't drag. That's why it took me forever to read this book. For the longest while it didn't really seem like this story was going anywhere (at least not fast), and even when it picked up a bit, it still wasn't enough to pull me deeply in.

But I did enjoy Dylan's story, which wasn't without faults. There were a few things that I did not agree with/found a little unbelievable, but they mainly fall in the personal belief category—Like how open Dylan is with friends he literally just met about certain things he just discovered about himself and, of course, said friends's reactions (I can be a bit pessimistic, and have little faith in the human race, at times. I'm working on it).

Besides that, though, I found the story original, and I enjoyed the conflict and the majority of the characters. They afforded a nice blend of comic relief to dramatic situations, and I thought each character shined nicely in their own right.

My favorite, I think, was Bodog. He's a dwarf, of sorts, and probably the smartest, wisest of them all. Much of the advice garnered and lessons learned by the characters throughout the story comes from him (I've always been fond of sage-y characters).

Yet that's not all there is to him. He's a deternined little fighter, and always packs his weapons with little surprises. On top of that, he's not without his own little quips here and there.

I was not, however, too fond of the relationship between Dylan and Kera. They were sweet together, and I totally rooted for them all the way through, but it felt a bit opressive to me, if that makes sense. I understand that, in a way, they'd known each other their whole lives, but their immediate mutual obsession felt a bit too strong, too soon, in my opinion.

Overall, I found this book worth 3.3 Crazy Hearts, and would recommend it to and one who loves a good paranormal-based story. ( )