The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele (Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Published by HarperCollins on June 7th 2016
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, General, Royalty, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 400
Format: ARC
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Los Angeles)…
When Cedric, crowned prince of Caelum, and his fellow royal friends (including his betrothed, Kat) find themselves stranded in modern-day L.A. via a magical portal and an evil traitor named Malquin, all they want to do is get home to Caelum—soon. Then they meet Liv, a filmmaker foster girl who just wants to get out of the system and on with her life. As she and Cedric bond, they’ll discover that she’s more connected to his world than they ever could’ve imagined…and that finding home is no easy task…
The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele is a book I have had my eye on for a while. First of all, that cover is gorgeous and I love everything about it. On top of that, the summary had me super interested. Portals, mysterious worlds, and conflict across the board…I am in.
Liv is a foster kid living in Los Angeles and while working on a project with her friends, she encounters a group of kids who appear to very different. Being someone realistic, Liv doesn’t immediately connect the dots that they aren’t really from around LA. I liked Liv and felt for her and her situation. As she is pulled further into the hunt for the scrolls, things change drastically for her.
Cedric is the crown prince of Caelum and while escaping from danger in his world, he finds himself in a strange world (Los Angeles) and separated from his family. His only goal is to find the scrolls his father told him about and get back to Caelum to save the people he loves.
I have to admit, being teenagers and not from the world, Cedric and his group seem to survive just fine. Ultimately, they end up living in tunnels under the museum…which is where this strange world of wraiths and danger start to become very real to Liv. Once Liv is pulled into what is going on, they begin to realize she has a bigger part to play and her background and marks mean something.
As the story progresses, the friendship that Liv and Cedric have begins to change and they are drawn to each other more and more. The problem with this is that Cedric is betrothed to Kat – who just happens to be one of the other people who went through the portal with him. She knows that even though he has feelings for Liv, Cedric will do whatever he needs to do to save his family and his kingdom. That includes give up what he feels for Liv.
One of the things I wish we would have had more of was Caelum. The entire story is based in Los Angeles and I would have loved to learn more about Cedric’s world and what was going on there while he was gone. I am hopeful that based on the ending of this book that we will get this in the next book. I am also interested to see where the friendship/relationship between Liv and Cedric goes. With Cedric pulling back from Liv, I have no idea how the change of scenery will impact who they are and how they interact with each other.
Overall I found this to be an interesting story. There were some ups and downs for me…mostly around the way parts of the story dragged a bit but I am definitely curious to learn more about the scrolls and the world Cedric comes from. If you are looking for a story with quite a bit of action and some interesting characters consider checking this one out when you can. I will be adding the next book of the series to my TBR list when I can.
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3 Finished Copies of THE MARKED GIRL (US Only)
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