Two Halves by Marta Szemik
and
Marked: A Two Halves Novella by Marta Szemik
and
Marked: A Two Halves Novella by Marta Szemik
Marta Szemik’s Two Halves centers around Sarah, the
adult child a vampire father she has never met and a human mother who died soon
after giving birth to her when the hungry baby vampire bit her mother and she
bled to death. Raised by her aunt, she has fought the vampire side of her
physiology with serums made from orchids. She blames her father for the fact
that she had the vampire’s traits that made her kill her mother.
She is friends with Xander and Mira, a brother and sister
that have been in her life in their little town since she was small. They have
grown up together and she and Mira share secrets and stories like most friends
do. Xander sometimes looks at Sarah with eyes of a young male regarding a good
looking young female.
William is Sarah’s balance. His mother is human, his father
a vampire. William was raised as a vampire by his parents and taught the skills
he would need as he grew. He also grew to know he would eventually meet up with
Sarah and they would have a very specific destiny, one that would place both of
them in great danger and on a collision course with some of the most powerful
beings of the underworld.
Sarah dreamed of William, nightmares and erotic dreams both.
One of the nightmares awakens her senses and starts to show her a future of
fear, demons with glowing orange eyes, burning buildings, and other things. And
then she meets the man of her dreams, William, who tells her they have to run,
that the demons are after her. And as much as she is drawn to him, they cannot
come together because each time they try; they are electrocuted by a strange
force within their bodies. So they have to try to work together while wanting
to be more than friends.
Two Halves was a very good tale of vampires, shape shifters,
witches, warlocks, demons and conspiracies planned and conducted. William and
Sarah are very loveable and the plight of their love and not being able to be
together is very well done. Her descriptions of places was so clear, I could
see it in my mind without a problem. The story flows well from Sarah to the
shape shifters and back again, between the underworld and the forces lined
against them. The characters are well imagined and well defined; I was actually
caring what happened to them.
Two Halves is marketed as a Young Adult book and I can see that
teens and young adults would like the book. But it’s not restricted to just the
youth, anyone who likes a good fantasy story with a lot of imagination.
Marked: A Two Halves Novella
I picked up this novella after I read Two Halves because I
wanted to see what more was being told about the characters. This one is about
Xander, the shape shifter who is the friend of Sarah. The story is really a
prequel to Two Halves, telling the story of Xander and Xela, the witch.
Unlike witches, who are given their destiny at birth with the mark of either
the sphere of underworld or the water mark of the good keepers of the main
beings (humans, vampires, and warlocks), shape shifters are marked when they
make their decision on their path.
Xander is anxious to make his decision, he is very tempted
to follow Xela into the underworld because he has come to love her. But his
twin, Mira, is in love with Eric, a man who has a watermark and who knows they
have to make their own decision. Xander wants to make his twin happy but he
also wants to be with Xela, who promises him her love, her body, and to help
rule, all he has to do to gain the sphere like hers is kill.
I wish I had read this one first because it would have made Two
Halves a bit clearer. Yes, the novel will stand along without the
novella but the story of Xander, Mira, Eric, and the others in Marked
actually set the events of the novel up and explain some of the story in a way
that make things a lot clearer. I would love to see Marked added to Two
Halves in subsequent printings of the novel because it is so much a
part of it.
Review written for GoodReads Read 2 Review
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