Marked by P.C Cast + Kristin Cast

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 306


From the cover: Enter the dark, magical world of the House of Night, a world very much like our own, except here vampyres have always existed. Sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird as just been Marked as a fledgling vampyre and joins the House of Night, a school where she will train to become an adult vampyre. That is, if she makes it through the Change--and not all of those who are Marked do....

Zoey Montgomery is your average sixteen year old girl with a best friend, Kayla, that never shuts up. Her almost ex-boyfriend is a royal pain in the butt, with his drinking and smoking....most definitely not what she is looking for, and to top it off she's getting some weird kind of flu. When, crap, there's a dead guy or undead guy, however you want to look at it, standing next to her locker. Suddenly, she is Marked by the cresent moon tattoo of the vampyre on her forehead. She is to become a vampyre, one of the undead, if she survives the Change that is about to occur in her body.

So, she has to leave her world behind, but it's not much of a loss--not since her mother married the step-creep, and quit being her mom. Zoey's Grandma Redbird has been Zoey's guiding light. The secrets of the Cherokee have been pasted to Zoey, and she believes in their magic. If anyone can help her, Grandma Redbird can. As Zoey enters her new high school, The House of Night, she is granted a new life with a new name, Zoey Redbird. She has finally found a place where she might fit in, with new friend, Stevie Rae and her friends, and maybe even a new boyfriend, Erik Night.

Zoey is not the average fledgling, and her changes happen before they should, like the bloodlust that she is unprepared for, the way her mark suddenly fills in, and the tattoo that begins to spread across her body as an adult vampyre might have. Neferet, her mentor and High Priestess of the Goddess Nyx--Goddess of the Night, slowly realizes that great power may rest in her new charge. But there are others not eager for Zoey's acceptance, wanting her to be an outcast, on the outside looking in. Will Zoey survive the massive changes her body needs to be vampyre? And, maybe it's just her, but there seems to be something not right at the school, what is her gut trying to tell her?

Marked by P.C. Cast + Kristin Cast is the first book in the House of Night Series published in 2007. It is excellent YA urban fantasy. I would highly recommend this book for teens and adults alike. The Casts create a new world where there have always been vampyres, and the People of the Faith, the religious sect that Zoey's step-father belongs to, fear what they cannot understand. Open your mind and enter a new world, the world of House of Night where anything is possible. You can check out all of P.C. Cast + Kirstin Cast's great novels @ http://www.houseofnightseries.com/.