Marked, by Sue Tingey
Published 2015 by Jo Fletcher Books

First read of the books acquired at FantasyCon 2015 is Sue Tingey’s Marked, book 1 of the Soulseer Chronicles.

It is the story of a woman, Lucky de Salle, who sees the dead and makes a living helping them pass on. Her best friend is Kayla, who she believes to be a ghost. When Lucky is asked to return to her old school to exorcise the spirits of two little girls it opens a new phase in her life. She learns there are more worlds than she thought there were and nothing she thought she knew is true.

Marked is the first book of a series and it very much feels like it. I got to the end of the book and felt as though I’d just reached the beginning. There is plot, in that Lucky has to work out what’s going on and what has happened to her best friend, but there are some false starts. Is is a ghost story? Is it a mystery? It’s not really either. The real plot is what choice will Lucky make when faced with a new world?

Lucky is a bit of a Mary Sue character and this is most evident in her relationship with Jamie (the angel) and Jinx (the devil). They are both very taken with her, which I don’t find wildly unrealistic as they both know she’s a demon princess rather than the mousy human she thinks she is, but I find it icky the way they coo about how sweet she is. It’s patronising and infantilising. At the end of the book this love triangle could go either way. It could devolve into Lucky having to choose between them and be all Mills and Boon. Or, it could open into a polyamorous relationship and it would be lovely to see that portrayed. In the demon world polyamory and a full expression of the variety of love is accepted, but on the other hand a high premium is placed on virginity. To my mind those things are contradictory. I hope Tingey takes the opportunity to explore less traditional paths.

It was an easy read and mildly entertaining. I’m aware that the things I don’t like about it are things that have irritated me much more in other books, so they’re not that bad. I think the thing is that it didn’t quite live up to its potential. But if you’re looking for something unchallenging and you like paranormal romance you could do worse.