Saturday, August 18, 2012

A Reader's Opinion: The Order by Marsha Megan Stokes

The Book

Peter's job as a Locator is to find extraordinary people—those with the Gift. The Gifted can sense and harness different kinds of energy and manipulate it in incredible ways. They have a heightened sense of the good that surrounds them, but they also more easily fall prey to the bad as well—to the Evil. As a new year at Grayson College begins, Peter is thrown into a whirlwind of terror, danger, and love. Will he be able to save a newly found Gifted One from the seductive influence of the Evil? Will he be too late? Or will he also fall victim to the darkness?

A Reader's Opinion

The author describes this book as "a paranormal romance set in college, written in YA style." As many of you who read my reviews know, I don't normally read or enjoy YA books. I always feels as though I should preface with a disclaimer because I honestly don't know what YA readers look for in a good book. Having said that, I found this one to be rather enjoyable. I found the idea behind the story unique. I don't know if that's because I don't normally read this genre or not, but for me it was unique and so the story held my interest. 

We meet a group of college students who possess "Gifts". Peter, the Locator is tasked with finding the Gifted Ones and bringing them into the fold before the "Evil" takes over their minds and destroys them. You'll meet a lot of characters in this book and where Peter and Rachel stand out as the primary characters, Donovan was my favorite. He seemed to be the most mature and level-headed of the group, which is probably why I connected with him the most. I thought his character was well-written and his personality distinct. Rachel didn't show up until a little later in the story and I think I would have enjoyed having a little more background on her. In fact, I hope somewhere in this saga we get more background on Peter, Donovan, and Rachel because I'd like to get to know them better.

About halfway through we start seeing more "action" in regards to the different "Gifts" that each of the members of this group possess and we also begin to see more individuality emerge. I liked the first main scene with Robert in his workshop--I found him charming in a brotherly sort of way and he made me smile. Amy with her bouncy attitude also made me smile. The "Evil" that they all work to fight against tries to seep into their minds, take over, and destroy them. I'll admit that I can usually figure out a book at least partway through, but I was surprised by the turn this one took at the end and it should make for a great second installment. 

Overall, I thought the author did a good job with her first book and created an enjoyable story with unique twists. It's a very clean and easy read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys something different.





2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the great review MK! I am so glad you enjoyed my work. I will consider that a great compliment because you aren't a big fan of YA. I couldn't be happier.

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  2. I usually try to just read in the genres I prefer because I always wonder if I'm really doing justice to a book in a genre that I normally don't read, especially since I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I enjoyed "The Order". You did a good job Marsha. :)

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