Rent Marked: A House of Night Novel (Book 1)

An interesting take on vampires, not totally new, but not totally and completely done too much either. We find Zoey Redbird leading a fairly ordinary teenage girl life in the beginning of the book. She has friends, a not-so-ex-boyfriend and parent troubles. Then her life is turned upside down when she is marked and thus must attend a special school for vampyre fledglings. I found the vampyres-living among us as a known entity interesting as well as the school. So fast-forward ahead and she's at the school, but not until she has more problems with her parents. Being Christian I actually thought I would have problems with the divide created between organized religion and the vampyres as evidenced by Zoey's mom and stepdad. But I really didn't. The world is honestly full of hypocrites and while I didn't smile at the way her parents were portrayed, it is actually accurate of a lot of religious people note I said religious which is not always the same as Christian - though I am not one to judge on that either - scared of what you do not know. So while there are pagan rituals and the like in the book, I saw them as a side theme - something that developed the story and the school better. I don't have to participate in the ritual to read the book. Nor do I have to be a vampyre : Once that was realized I relaxed and really enjoyed the book. A great coming of age story. Zoey is a likable character and I look forward to watching her grow more through the books. She's not perfect but she tries to think about all her decisions and make the best ones for her and for those around her. Something that not many people do anymore. So after all of that - I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA paranormal. It's just a good fiction read. The Cast's have created an interesting world with likeable and not-so-likeable people. It let me escape a few hours and the characters have stayed with me after I finished reading it. So to me that was a worthwhile book and I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in this series.

This book caught my attention because of the pretty cover. I read the back of it and thought it was a good premise. A vampire school. Let me just say that when I started to read it I could not believe how immature and juvenile the writing was. I heard that the authors wanted the book to sound as if it came from the mouth of a teenager but they failed. Instead it sounded like an adult trying too hard to sound like a teenager. There are Lessons in every chapter. Don't do drugs, alcohol is for losers,*******s are icky and so on. Did I mention that she gets the hottest guy ever, makes a powerful teacher respect her,becomes a leader of an exclusive club replacing the popular girl,becomes an all powerful being, in a month? Do not read this!!!! I finished it just because I could not believe how bad it was. I expected it to be better but it did not. Skip!