Book Review: The Summer Marked by Rebekah L. Purdy
Title: The Summer Marked
Series: The Winter People #2
Author: Rebekah L. Purdy
Sale Date: September 22, 2015
Age: Ages 12 And Up
Genre: Fantasy & Magic
Pages: 304
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads
The sequel to the chilling Winter People returns to the world of Faerie, and is a romantic and enchanting follow-up.
Salome left humankind behind to be with her boyfriend, Gareth, in the Kingdom of Summer. But now forces of darkness are rising. Her happily-ever-after is coming apart, and the Kingdom is on the brink of war.
Newly-single Kadie Byers is on her way home for Thanksgiving, imagining a visit filled with hot chocolate, a hot guy for a little rebound action, and some girl time with her bestie, Salome. Except she receives a message from Salome with two important words: PLEASE HURRY.
When Kadie rushes to help Salome, she’s ripped from the human world and pulled into the kingdoms of Faerie, where she's shocked to learn that Salome's monsters are real, and that she's now at the mercy of one extremely vengeful Winter Queen...
Now both Salome and Kadie must find a way to survive the deadly chaos...or lose themselves to Winter's deadly, icy grasp.
THE SUMMER MARKED is the second book in author Rebekah L. Purdy's young adult fantasy series, The Winter People. Whereas in the first book the author sweeps readers into a highly atmospheric Winter-landscape brimming with unusual Fae creatures and dangers, this time around it is the Summer Court that we are taken to. No less danger awaits here, there's more court intrigue, magic, and very cool and unusual Fae creatures to explore, plus - Rebekah L. Purdy gives her readers plenty more swoon-worthy kisses to sigh over!
I love it when a second book in a series surpasses my hopes and expectations, and THE SUMMER MARKED achieved just that! It took many of the loose threads from book one and gave new, clearer direction and greater intensity to the story. The romance is definitely between two characters, the mystery behind the Faerie Courts is explained better, and there's an addition of some terrific secondary characters that really made the story stand out for me. I'm looking at you Darach, Adaba and Grisselle!
Told from dual points of view of both Salome and her best friend Kadie, the story is easy to fall into without any confusion. Each clearly has a mission. Salome's involves the Summer Court, her growing magic, and her connection to the Fall and Spring Courts. Whereas Kadie's mission is much darker in my opinion as she faces off with the Winter Queen. Salome, in particular, shows tons of character growth, and Kadie brings a whole dimension to the story, increasing the tension and danger up-a-notch.
As I mentioned earlier, the romance is very swoon-worthy with a clear direction leaving me sighing happily. Yes, there's plenty of obstacles standing in our couples way, but it is such a nice change to have the couple in the young adult genre open with their feelings and minus the angst - working with a like-mind goal. In this case, namely to take out the evil in the form of the Winter Queen
From the chilling realms of the Winter Queen's court and her deadly Bone Yard to the green magic of the Summer Court, I was once again transported into a realm where ghosts, magical horses, and creatures both good and bad peaked out between the pages, I'm so excited to see where the story continues and I can't wait for more in the series!
