The Summer Marked by Rebekah L. Purdy Pages: 304
Published by Entangled Teen on September 22nd 2015
Series: The Winter People #2
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy & Magic
Source: eARC from Publisher
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 the Winter People series. I really enjoyed the Winter People last year and I was really interested in seeing what was going to happen next. If I recall correctly, The Winter people ended in kind of a nicely wrapped up place. Salome was living happily ever (right now) with Gareth, so I was interested to see what was going to happen next. I don’t think I even knew there was going to be a second book when I read the first one because it wrapped up so well.
But man, oh man was I wrong. The continuation of The Summer Marked flowed so freakin’ perfectly from the end of the Winter People. Salome is plunked right in the middle of a war of the ages (or rather, seasons.) The Summer Marked really seemed to pick up the pace of the first book. There is constant movement. I really liked that about the story because, since I already knew the characters, I was able to easily become swept up in this new escalation of tensions with the summer court and the winter court. That winter queen is a real B!
I also loved that The Summer Marked is told not only from Salome’s point of view, but also (though not split 50/50%. Salome gets a little more page time.) from Kadie’s point of view. At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to love Kadie’s chapters. I remember being kind of indifferent to her in the first book and at the start of this book she started to get jealous best friend syndrome and that irked me. But I totally changed my tune. Watching Kadie in the Winter court, and even with Ettiene, had me feeling for her, and liking her way more than I thought I would.
I absolutely loved the description of the winter court. And by love, I mean was equally fascinated as I was openly horrified. The Bone yards and the display at dinner with the music and the “dancing” girl were pretty deplorable. But Rebekah does such an incredible job painting the picture for the readers that you will not be able to stop reading. There are so many other things that I loved about The Summer Marked. Like the role that Salome is playing and she doesn’t even know it. And like her horse that is so adamant about defending her (youknowwhat…View Spoiler »). The Summer Marked is a great continuation to the Winter People. It was just as good, if not better than the first book. You have hooked Ms. Purdy! I really do need more right now Rebekah!
Just as good, if not better than the first! @BookBriefs #reviews The Summer Marked by @RebekahLPurdy @EntangledTeen Click To Tweet
kindlemom1
I’ve seen this series around lately, probably because of this release and I agree that it does look really good. Glad you liked this sequel!
Suze
Great review! The series has been on my wish list for some time now. I love the covers.
Lekeisha
I still need to read the first book, so I just skimmed this review. I hope to enjoy it!
Lisa @ Lost in Literature
Ahhhh this series sounds SO GOOD! My co-blogger, Becca, is really enjoying it as well. I think I’ll have to break down and read it. So many books… lol! 🙂