Customer Reviews

Marked by Passion (The Guardians of Destiny)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gabrielle Sansouci Chin works as a bartender. She is also a talented artist. Gabrielle receives in the mail, one day an ancient scroll. The problem Gabrielle has with receiving the scroll is that means that her father, Wu has passed away.

Soon after that, Gabrielle receives a visit from her father, in ghost form. Wu tells Gabrielle that he has to get her prepared to battle as she is now a guardian. Gabe does not want anything to do with her new status or especially her father. It is bad enough when all you want is to be left alone and you have someone, who can pass through walls.

Rhys Llewellyn has been sent to watch over the new guardian. He is tall, strong, and has abs of steel. Gabe can take care of herself. She does not need her father or Rhys to take care of her. Well on second thought, maybe it won't be a bad idea to have Rhys around...just in case.

Gabrielle and Rhys made a good heroine and hero. Marked by Passion is the first book in the Guardians of Destiny series. I have never read anything by Kate Perry but after finishing this book, I can't wait to check out the next book in this series. Marked by Passion incorporated the best of both worlds with intrigue and plenty of action. Watch out for Kate Perry as she takes readers into her fantastic world in the Guardians of Destiny series.

Finally artist Gabriel Sansouci's dreams are about to be realized with a gallery showing of her paintings on the horizon. Then destiny comes knocking on her door, Gabe is the `marked' heir to the guardianship of one five ancient mystical Chinese scrolls, even though Gabe has tried to put that part of her past behind her. So now not only is Gabe desperately trying to produce four more paintings for her show while trying fend off those who seek the scroll for its power, she's also trying to master the scrolls Earth magic so that she isn't responsible for California falling into the sea. Adding to the excitement, there's gorgeous dark dapper dangerous sexy Brit bad boy Rhys, the timing of his appearance and sudden interest in Gabe is suspicious. Even though Gabe can't trust that Rhys wants her for herself and not the scroll, she can't resist their instant electric attraction either. And if all of that isn't enough, add her family into mix: the spirit of Gabe's dead father who is bound to the scroll and wants to be her `Obi wan' even though Gabe doesn't want to `use the Force', and her estranged brother who only wants to `help' by taking the scroll off of her hands.

Rhys was the main reason I liked the book. Rhys is clearly more of a dark knight than one in shining armor, but his desire to protect Gabe - in spite of his original less than sterling motives - makes him a great bad boy hero. I also really liked Rhys and Gabe's relationship. The attraction between them is well done. Since Rhys likes the challenge that Gabe presents, he has no problem waiting until Gabe is willing to ask for she comes to need from him. So he continually stirs things up with Gabe but then backs off - making the final payoff so much more satisfying.

The plot in Marked by Passion is not deep. The story is mostly about getting to know Gabe. We witness Gabe's struggle with her 'baggage' from the past and watch as she debates how to escape the responsibilities that are hers as one in a long line of hereditary Guardians. And though Gabe's father's ghost is a cool idea, Gabe interactions with her dad are too brief to really play a significant part in the story - but I can see him playing a larger part in subsequent books as Gabe learns the guardian ropes and works through some of her past issues. One small nit - in the first few chapters there are bits of French dialog for Gabe's artist mentor and even though the meaning can be gleaned from Gabe's responses, this still bugged me a bit.

From reading this book I wasn't sure whether the Guardian series was going to be a romantic urban fantasy series or a paranormal romance series, because even though everything is not resolved for Gabe by the end of the book, the excerpt for the next book switches to Gabe's best friend Carrie. But according to the author, even though Carrie will be the star of Chosen by Desire (Oct 09), Gabe and Rhys will be back as secondary characters to tie off loose ends left dangling here.

Gabrielle Sansouci, also known as Gabe to all of her new found friends, has an ancient secret that she is sworn to silence. She is the next heir to a family heirloom that goes back hundreds of years, and she doesn't want it. She can't help it though, because she has been marked since the day she was born, and has been training for this day her whole life. Despite all of this, she is still surprised the day it lands in her lap, and she's plagued with the responsibility of wielding the powers it brings forth to the owner. All she truly wants is to go on with life as being an artist, but life isn't always what you want it to be.

I first ordered this book because I was sent an ARC of the second book to this series, Chosen by Desire. I hate reading a series out of order, and the only way that I could prevent that was to make sure I grabbed all back installments. Luckily, there was only one book to get, so I'm getting caught up pretty quickly.

This book pulled me in from the very start, and it had a very interesting story to tell. I was looking forward to a new spin on the paranormal romance genre, and I got it. Gabe is a very selfish character though, although I guess that's how she would be with the way that she grew up. When you have a destiny that is not what you desire, there is only one thing you can do, and that's fight it. I'm pretty sure I would do the same thing.

I just wish that Gabrielle would have overcome her fears a little sooner in this first installment. Most of this first story wasn't truly about the legend of the scroll, but more about Gabe and her inability to trust, love, and take on a responsibility that was given to her at birth. I think that if Gabe could have gotten over her fears just a little sooner, we would have been able to enjoy this story better. On a side note, I knew from the start who would be the bad guy at the end, and I was not in the least bit surprised by the little twist, because it was just too obvious.

I will say that I did enjoy this story, and I look forward to reading the next installment, Chosen By Desire, later this month. I'm hoping that there will be less information and more action in the next installment. I am excited that it will be featuring Gabe's best friend, Carrie. I'm also excited to learn from author Kate Perry's website, that there will be a third installment to The Guardians of Destiny Series, and it will be called Tempted by Fate, and it will be released in 2010.

Marked by Passion is a very engaging novel. The story is fascinating, with a set of highly detailed characters who are very striking and distinctive. The settings are described so well that you feel like you are in the room with the characters. The plot takes exciting twists and turns, making me wish I have super powers too! The pacing of the story was really great and the speed was quickened at just the right moments to propel the flow of the story into the suspenseful action scenes. Gabe (Gabrielle) and Rhys are steamy-as-heck and have a sumptuous chemistry; they sure made me hot under the collar!

I highly recommend this book!

(8 out of 10 Diamonds) - Thoroughly enjoyed it

© 2008-2009 Bobbie Crawford-McCoy (Book Reviews By Bobbie).

All rights reserved.

In this book, which despite its drawbacks, I had a hard time putting down, I felt as if I were forever waiting for the story to get going as the reluctant heroine verbally spars with her would be assassin/romantic interest, ignores clues as big as a stop sign, pacifies bar regulars at a Cheers type pub, and behaves like a child who doesn't want to go to the dentist even though she has a toothache.

I was ever waiting for her to just finish her paintings already. To be as discombobulated as she is only would prove her father's point that she is too unfocussed. The constant breaking into French as she visits her friend/agent is handled pretty well, but obviously.

And, while there is a bit of a red herring in the villains' corner, the villain is the one we are lead away from. As a reader I find this a little annoying because it feels like the writer thinks I am stupid and the obviousness is a surefire way for me to see the heroine is. After all, she has an intuitively charged magic birthmark that is always sending a signal when something isn't right. It would be like ignoring the ringing phone at the Fire Station.

The energy that Gabrielle has to handle is also hard to characterize and unpredictable but it always flairs in certain situations.

The sexual encounters are not as hot as I expected they would be and there aren't many. Mostly the romance develops and marinates. Eventually it gets tasty. It's hard to see why the romance develops though, sure the heroine is pretty but she is also bitchy, ill-mannered, unfocussed, a slob and lives in a hovel.

So, it is an okay book, mildly erotic, mildly entertaining and mildly suspenseful. It is as if the author knew what she wanted to write but couldn't quite find the words or structure to write it.

If I rated, which I don't it would get an It's Okay rating on a scale from Gak! to This Changed My Life!

Marked by Passion is Book One in the Guardians of Destiny Series.

Marked from birth to be a Guardian of an ancient Chinese scroll and the power of the element of Earth, Gabrielle "Gabe" Sansouci Chin couldn't be any less pleased and has, in fact, spent the past fifteen years running from a destiny she loathes. A destiny that caused the death of her mother and ensured constant disappointment from her father. Now that her father is dead, the scroll has come into her possession and the power of the scroll has flared to life in her. The problem with that is that she has no control, wants nothing to do with learning control, and just wants it and all the responsibility it entails to go away.

As enemies emerge from the shadows intent on stealing the scroll and taking its power for their own, and a mysterious, sexy Rhys Llewellyn pops into her life seeming too good to be true, Gabe finds it harder and harder to tell friend from foe, and impossible to know whom to trust.

While I applaud Kate Perry's fresh voice and unique premise, and recognize her talents at writing a quickly paced narrative with fast, sarcastic dialogue (I have a huge fondness for sarcasm), I had too many problems with this book to enjoy it. I found the lead character, Gabe, to be unlikable through the first three-quarters of the book, and only passably tolerable beyond that. She seemed to have two goals in life, be a successful artist, and avoid responsibility at all costs. I didn't mind the first, but the second, given her comprehension of the inherent dangers of passing off her responsibility, made her seem immature, obstinately self involved, and ultimately stupid. As the story is told in first person from her point of view, thereby insuring the reader spends all their time in her head listening to her bemoan her wicked power and scary responsibility over and over and, well, over again, that's a large stumbling block. Unfortunately, it wasn't the only one.

~*~*~* Warning! Mild Spoilers Ahead! Warning! *~*~*~

The romantic plot arc between Gabe and Rhys seemed bizarre to me, mostly because there wasn't one. They didn't have all that many scenes together, and those they participated in mostly featured Gabe being a total bitch to Rhys, even as Rhys was trying to help her. And about Rhys. Yes, he was sexy, and he was my favorite character in the book, but the fact remains that he's not a nice guy. In fact, he was in San Francisco to steal Gabe's scroll and take her power - which he could only get by killing her. Sure, he didn't do it, because for some reason, he takes one look at her prickly, emotionally retarded, stubborn, belligerent self and "quickly realized" they were meant for each other (he must have gotten a much closer look at her than I did). And that was the majority of the development of their relationship. The rest was sexual chemistry, not romance.

And one thing kept niggling me about Rhys through the book... He didn't kill Gabe. He fell in love with her. Okay, but...the fact remains that he's the sort of man who would plan to kill an innocent woman to get what he wants, just because he wants it. I'm not sure there's enough sexy in the world to make that okay for me.

Then there were the plot holes and large gaps in logic. Hiding an ancient, powerful scroll in a refrigerator didn't seem all that stealthy, but then again, nobody tried to break into her apartment to search for it, either, despite the interested parties knowing exactly where she lived. Not very motivated scroll hunters, it would seem. And about Gabe's brother...no surprise there, in any way, shape, or form. I still don't understand why Gabe would repeatedly blow off her father's spirit, even when the power was making her sick. I get that she had issues with him, but it seemed a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face to me. He was the single person whose motives she could absolutely trust to help with her control, no matter how much she disliked him personally.

Truth is, though, the pieces were there for a good book with an original premise and interesting mythos, and I'm sure that Perry has the skill to turn this into a solid, entertaining series. I may not have been crazy about the plot, which didn't really go anywhere or contain much beyond Gabe's attempts to shirk her responsibility, but it was tightly written with little to no annoying filler. And honestly, had I not disliked Gabe to such an extent for so long in this one, I definitely would've enjoyed the book more and been more forgiving of the plot issues. I was also pleased with some of Perry's stylistic strengths. Unlike a lot of first books in a series, this book wasn't weighed down by excessive description, exposition, or world building. There was just enough to inform without being overwhelming.

I also genuinely liked that there were some dangling plot threads at the end, like the mysterious anonymous buyer of Gabe's last painting. They offered up enough teasers to make me at least interested in the next book. And I know that the heroine in the second book, Chosen by Desire, is Gabe's friend Carrie, which is actually a draw rather than a detractor. I liked Carrie far more than I liked Gabe and think she'd make a solid heroine in her own story.

Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

Ever since Gabrielle was born and her father seen she was marked to be a guardian of the scroll he has tried training her. He devoted all of his time and attention to her, to prepare her to be a good guardian. But this was never what Gabrielle wanted; all she wanted was to paint so when a fatal accident resulted in her mother's death she ran away from that destiny only to have it delivered to her by carrier all these years later upon death of her father is the only way for Gabe to inherit the scroll. With the scroll in her possession and her powers uncontrollably stronger and the ghost of her father nagging at her to step up and embrace her destiny she's not sure she can handle it all. Then she meets this incredibly handsome man that sends her body into sexual overdrive when he walks in the room. He tells her he wants to help her control her powers and that he is a guardian to. But can she trust him? Is it just a coincidence he shows up right after the scroll gets delivered to her? Then to make matters even more complicated her brother Paul shows up after not even a phone call since she left home all those year and he has a easy out for Gabe , he wants the scroll. He says he will take over guardianship for her. Then she can focus in her painting. Could she give it to Paul? Why does it make her feel like she is shirking her responsibilities? She never wanted this guardianship. But if she doesn't have the scroll she will know for sure if Rhys wants her or her just her scroll.

I thought the book was good. I had a hard time with how much French was used in the book with no glossy so at times I had no idea what they were talking about. The story line was different and unique I liked that. It was a quick read. But what I loved was Rhys .. Omg he just radiated sex. He was always well dress and his deep voice with his British accent. oooh so nice .I loved it when he called her love. I loved how he pursued Gabe, he knew he needed to make her see she wanted him before he could fully have her so he kept at it till she was practically begging for him . But he was never too much. Gabe on the other hand sort of got on my nerves at times. I couldn't have denied Rhys as long as she did. She was just a little too distant for me I thought she should warm up sooner. But all in all it was a good read I'm curious to see what happens next there is still three more scrolls and guardians out there.

The book was what I was looking for after reading one of her other books. It arrived in a timely manner and the condition of the book was like new. You can't go wrong getting your books this way!

A new paranormal voice has hit the market, one that is sure to only get even better as the years go on! And instead of focusing on vampires, like (as others say/complain) a lot of the paranormal romances have been, Kate Perry's Guardians of Destiny Series focuses on a new aspect, a mix of old Asian lore and magic.

Marked by Passion provided a fresh new read, and one that kept me reading from morning to night just to finish! Not many books have that affect one me. Oh sure, I READ from the time I get up in the morning until I fall asleep at night (Excluding breaks, work, etc, of course), but all those hours of reading are not always on the same book. But this time, I didn't want to pick up either one of the other two novels I was working on at the time-- my full attention was focused solely on Gabe's life and sexy encounters with Rhys. (Two words: British Accent!)

Though this was Perry's first novel (for this series, at least), I never would have guessed. From page one, I was pulled into the story, and instead of being lost and confused for a few chapters, like you can be in some paranormal worlds, this one was instantly explained. Of course, Gabe wouldn't have even had to have dealt with this new life if her father hadn't been killed, and the sacred Scroll sent to her, but still. The characters were fairly strong, not weak and 2-D, and I enjoyed a lot of their witty banter and dialogue. The story just seemed to flow, and the characters (along with the relationships) evolved along the way.

Gabe, for example, wasn't some wimpy heroine, which I can't stand to have in a romance. Rhys was a good example of a gentleman. Sure, he gave her more than a fair taste of passion, enough to tempt her, but he held out, not only because of their growing affection (and eventual love), but also because he respected her. She use to be the kind of girl that didn't want commitment-- if she needed companionship, she'd date someone for a few weeks, maybe more for the occasional good relationship she found, and they'd both benefit from it, but she never wanted commitment from them, it was pretty much about sex. Rhys, I believe, realized this and wanted to show that they could have something more than that.

Of course, when they finally did get together, it was pretty steamy. Maybe not erotic romance material, but definitely not some tame excuse for a sex scene either! I think the best part of watching their relationship throughout the book was the sexual tension. Because he'd always refuse her, at least for the first 200 or so pages, their connection and sexual tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife! This, of course, provided more than a few hot mini-scenes along the way, along with some interesting conversations between the two. To me, those things can sometimes be even better than the actual sex scenes, though don't get me wrong, the sex is (usually) a major element that I enjoy reading about,too.

Besides the romance, which was very well done, Marked by Passion also had a great plot line, fast-paced and interesting. Every time you'd think nothing more could possible happen, you'd be wrong. There was a bit of suspense, more than a few surprises, and the glimpse into the Guardians' world was enough to make me crave the next installment, which, sadly, will not be out until winter of 2010 (2010, can you believe it?!). As best-selling author, Jeaniene Frost, said in a review for Marked by Passion:

"A perfect combination of urban fantasy and romance!"

I second that, Jeaniene! That pretty much sums up the book in one short sentence, and I couldn't have said it better myself.

4.5/5 stars! I can't say enough good things about MP, it's simply a great paranormal romance, a new take from a genre that I've always loved, and I am anxious to read any future books from Perry, especially in this series! This one small taste of their world simple is not enough to whet my appetite, and I'm sure that you too will find that it applies to you after you've read the book. In my opinion, it might possible be on of the best 2009 debut paranormal series! Buckle up, and prepare for a fantastic ride with Gabe, Rhys, and all their friends and enemies.

Gabrielle Sansouci Chin (Gabe) thought she had been released from the role of Guardian until she signed for a package. Now she is the most reluctant Guardian in the history of scrolls. Gabe had put her entire past behind her and was just about to grab the gold ring with an art show featuring her work. Now the ghost of her father is talking to her, her brother has suddenly realized that Gabe exists again and a very sexy, and darkly handsome, man has begun to show up whenever she turns around.

Rhys Llewellyn, is a treasure hunter who holds a very serious secret. Rhys had a reason to find Gabe but it seems to have changed once he got to know her. Now Rhys wants to keep her safe and with him- preferably in his bed. Just when she might have fallen for him, Rhys tells Gabe why he found her and it puts a major crimp into the sexy romance of the night.

Danger has come to Gabe, and Rhys is not going to let her be harmed. But the question is who is behind it and just how many are involved? While Gabe is trying to learn about the scroll and decide if she can or even wants to be the Guardian, Rhys is right behind her showing her new ways to fight and driving her slowly crazy with heated passion. Scroll to save - check; ghost of father to annoy - check; Art show to prepare for - check; sexy man to drive her crazy - check; Now all Gabe has to do is figure out who wants the scroll bad enough to kill for it and hope that Rhys is not the person behind it all.

You can't escape fate, is all that Gabe heard growing up until one act of uncontrolled power harmed a loved one. In Marked By Passion Gabe will learn that you can't run from fate after all and also learn more about what really happened all those years ago. Rhys is a mysterious bad boy that rings Gabe's bell upon introduction. The heated response was not something either Rhys or Gabe expected when meeting. Gabe has just discovered that her past has become intertwined with her present. Rhys was looking for Gabe, but she was more than he expected. I was thrilled to watch as two "bad" people with hearts of gold for some things, found their way into love. The mythology and danger that was a heady part of the plot made Marked By Passion a page-turner for me. I can't wait for book two of this interesting series.

Jo

Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed