Review: Dragon Marked by Jaymin Eve

Dragon Marked by Jaymin Eve
Series: Supernatural Prison #1
Published by Self Publish on 2019-12-16
Length: 288 pages
Reviewing Kindle from Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2022 Backlist Reader Challenge, 2022 Beat the Backlist

It's time for the dragon marked to rise...

Jessa Lebron doesn't have a lot to complain about. Her father is the alpha of their wolf pack, she lives in Stratford, a protected supernatural prison town, and her best friends, the Compass quads, are the strongest of the four races: shifter, vampire, fey, and magic user.

Yep, life is pretty much exactly how she wants it. Until the fateful day after her twenty-second birthday, when the mother who abandoned her, returns to the pack bearing secrets that change everything.

The biggest secret of all: Jessa is dragon marked, a designation that places her in grave danger.

For a thousand years, every supernatural child born with the mark was eliminated to prevent the rise of the dragon king, a fearsome ancient warmonger. In a bid to learn more about her fate and how to avoid the hunters, Jessa finds herself locked in Vanguard, the notorious supernatural prison. Thankfully she's not alone. Braxton Compass, the most feared of the dragon shifters, is right there with her. Together they'll have to survive long enough to free themselves and the other dragon marked.

Before the king rises.

Dragon Marked by Jaymin Eve is the first book in her series Supernatural Prison that follows Jessa Lebron and the Compass brothers. I originally picked this one up through Kindle Unlimited after I saw that it was being turned into an animated series on PeacockTV. I attempted to watch the show, then decided to stick to the books, and I’m glad I did. The books are an upper YA/NA urban fantasy, paranormal romance which is right up my alley.

Jessa Lebron’s life is turned upside down when her father reveals that her mother didn’t leave them because she wanted to but left to protect her and her twin sister. As a twin, the two sisters are dragon marked, an ancient curse that sentences them to death at birth. With the help of a powerful sorcerer, the Lebrons hide the mark and separate the girls. Jessa has lived her entire life thinking she was an only child and that her mother left them. Now she has to come to terms with not only being marked but a sister and an estranged mother.

Jessa has lived a fairly sheltered life within the boundaries of Stratford, a protected supernatural town that houses creatures from all the supernatural community. As a wolf shifter and daughter of the alpha, she can come across as spoiled and selfish to an extent. Her redeeming grace is her interactions with her estranged sister and her best friends the Compasses. I personally love her loyalty to them and how they encourage the best in her.

The Compasses are great. They are a quadruplets, and each brother represents a different supernatural: a magic user, dragon shifter, vampire, and fae. To be honest, I had a hard time telling the brothers apart, except for Braxton. Braxton is Jessa’s best friend and the dragon shifter. It’s pretty clear from the start that he is will become the love interest, and he is the only brother that is fleshed out enough to differentiate from the others. I kept getting confused who was who and had to go back to a quote I highlighted early on as a reminder.

So here’s where I take issue with the book. There is a plot underfoot to take Jessa’s dad out of the council, it also involves getting the Compasses out of the way. As a result, they wind up in the supernatural prison that the town is guarding and that they have, coincidentally, been searching for. As this is all going on, Jessa is finding out about her heritage as a dragon marked and what that means for her. The plot is murky, and at times jumps around a lot. I had a hard time following what was going on and the climax is literally the end of the book. Now I know this is a series, and the ending intrigued me enough to continue, but I really needed a more direct plot.

Overall, I enjoyed Dragon Marked. As I mentioned, the end really saved the book. If you enjoy paranormal romance/urban fantasy, I would recommend it.

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