Book Review: The Mark of the King by Jocelyn Green

Lucy here with a review of

The Mark of the King, by Jocelyn Green

 

Can we pause for a moment and admire the cover?? How gorgeous is that! 

Right. Onto the review. I give "The Mark of the Kin" a solid 4 stars. 

I had a love/hate relationship with this book. I had no expectations (warnings?) when I started reading and LOVED it up until about the end of the first 1/4 or 1/3. It then dawned on me that this was NOT going to be a "standard" romance. I left it sitting idly on my Kindle for a few days before swallowing hard and diving back into it.

What drew me back? 

The description.

Slate grey clouds now drifted in the sky, veiling the constellations like wraiths.

Green, Jocelyn (2017-01-03). The Mark of the King (Kindle Location 934). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Mmm mm. I'm a sucker for description (I still vividly remember Laura Frantz's Courting Morrow Little's first page and the line about "the dust beneath her bare feet fine as flour") and wow does Jocelyn do description really well. Seriously. I felt like going to a southern bayou and finding a crayfish chimney to stand on just to feel it crunch beneath my heel as Julianne had. I could practically feel the humid slap of Spanish Moss upon my face as we traversed the muddy 18th century frontier. Could hear everything. Feel everything.

And that was part of the problem. I could visualise everything so clearly that the brutality of midwifery, greedy soldiers, backstabbing Indians (as portrayed in the book, not my personal opinion), and the lack of care from France was so, well, in my face. So raw. Refreshing, for a Christian book. But also uncomfortably so at times. 

A dilemma. 

Also...the romance. Great setup for romance, at least at the start. An arranged marriage. Between 200 men/women. Wow! Nothing like having to pick one's life partner in ten minutes or less. 

But the romance...wasn't. At least not how I've come to expect romances to be. Julianne's first marriage isn't her last (not wanting to give any of the plot away), and that second marriage is more of a thin candle than an bushfire romance. 

Still, there are gems such as this one:

“We all have scars, my beautiful one. They make us who we are, and if we let them, they bring us together.” His lips curved gently. “Now, let me show you how much I love you.”

Green, Jocelyn (2017-01-03). The Mark of the King (Kindle Locations 3258-3259). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.  

 Excellent advice.

In parting, I do recommend The Mark of the King but be prepared to sit down to a meal, not an ice-cream. Available here.

Lucy Thompson loves a good story, a hot coffee, and silence. Blessed silence. But with five children, a tool-wielding hubby, and numerous characters yammering away at her, that isn't likely to happen any time soon. :)

Come find me on Facebook. I'd love to make a new friend. :)
If, by any chance, you'd rather fancy a cowboy romance, then I have two on Amazon. Mail Order Surprise and A Cowboy's Dare. Enjoy!