Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Jake Rovert has never known the feeling of a broken bone or a lasting scar—he’s a healer, one of very few in the world with this rare gift.
Joining an elite group of Gifted Ones from his high school, Jake is quickly propelled into a life of secrets and training to enhance his gift. He becomes the healer they have been waiting for.
They didn’t expect him to fall in love.
He didn’t expect to be forbidden to be with her.
And no one expected him to risk it all to get her back.
Jake is thrown into this world of Gifted Ones, which I’m still not fully clear on what their purpose is, besides to maybe help humanity? He is in high school and has fallen in love with his ‘best friend’ Anna. Jake is then told that he cannot be with her because it will endanger her, since the Defiers, evil ones I’m assuming, will target her to get to him.
I’m not sure why, but I couldn’t get into this book. I thought maybe it was because it was written from a male POV, but I really don’t think that’s it. Maybe I am not enjoying really young paranormal books? I don’t really know.
Much of this seemed fairly superficial to me. Jake has known Anna almost his whole life. Then, he picks her up from the airport after she visits her parents in Africa for 3 months, and boom-he’s now in love with her. She has long legs now, and is all grown up in his eyes. There was nothing really horrible about this book. The editing was done well. The storyline seemed to drag for me, where I was skimming several pages at a time.
Before writing this review, I decided to read another book written from a male POV and I was able to get into it. So I’m not really sure why Branded didn’t do much for me. I read the reviews from Amazon, and most people gave it 5 stars, with just a few giving 4. The fact that I can’t pinpoint why I couldn’t get into this book is bothering me. I don’t really have much to say about it, so sorry this review is most likely not helpful! Usually I won’t write reviews where I can’t at least express why I do or don’t like something, because then I don’t really know what to write in the actual review!
With all of that said, I guess I would give this a 3 out of 5 stars. Based on the Amazon reviewers, it is a must read. Based on my review, it’s a maybe read.
Lindsay's Book World 