Marked: A YA Dystopian/Post Apocalyptic Romance

Bridget E. Baker

Sep 2018 · Sins of Our Ancestors Book 1 · Purple Puppy Publishing

About this ebook

If one touch can infect. . . 

All Ruby Behl wants for her seventeenth birthday is a good career path match, and to kiss her best friend and long time crush, Wesley Fairchild. Unfortunately, the simplicity of teenage wishes evaporated a decade ago when the Tercera virus nearly wiped out the human race. Transmitted through touch, the slightest contact is prohibited in the safe haven community of Port Gibson. 

Then a kiss is deadly.

An innocent game of Spin the Bottle, a rite of passage for Port Gibson’s teens, provides the opportunity Ruby’s been waiting for, but when Wesley winds up Marked, Ruby realizes her first kiss may also be her last. Ruby races the viral clock to uncover long buried secrets about her dead parents, and her once cloudy future becomes clear. She’s the key to finding the cure, but is she willing to pay the price?

Kirkus said, "Baker’s prose is sharp and vivid, and she manages to immediately plunge her readers into the world of the novel. The story is swiftly paced and features some surprising twists and intriguing characters. Its combination of sci-fi, mystery, and teen romance makes for a compelling adventure.

A promising YA debut about a girl’s search for a future in the wreckage of the past."

keywords: series starter, end of the world, ya horror, ya science fiction, ya dystopian, ya post apocalyptic, virus, ya post-apocalyptic, dystopian, science fiction, ya dystopian, ya love triangle, first kiss, free coming of age book.

Ratings and reviews

Ruby isn’t your typical heroine. She doesn’t want to lead an army or rule a nation or even to be a beloved benefactress. She really just wants to figure out what to do with her life and to be noticed by her crush Wesley. But when Wesley is Marked—infected with a deadly, incurable virus—her quiet, behind-the-scenes life comes to an end. Thanks to her father’s journals, she knows she is the only person who might be able to save him, along with the rest of the Marked. Problem is, she doesn’t exactly know HOW she’ll be able to do that. But she has to try before anyone else dies. Unfortunately, her attempt at a solo mission is foiled by the impressive and annoying…and caring and handsome…Sam, who is determined to come along and help her. The farther she gets on her quest, the more secrets unravel, until Ruby wonders who she really is and what to do next. With her world upside down, can she focus on finding the cure? This book was full of twists and turns, surprising me several times. And I loved the character development, watching Ruby and Sam grow and change through the process. While there were lighter or more thoughtful moments to balance out the action, this story never dragged. Looking forward to seeing what happens next!

My only complaint is that I've lost a bit of sleep because I wasn't able to put this down. It really sucks you in. I found myself saying 'just one more chapter' until I passed out unable to keep my eyes open. I've bonded with the characters already and I can't wait to see where the next book takes them. I love Ruby's mix of stubbornness, cockiness and insecurity. She did a great job capturing the essence of a teenage girl in a volatile situation where she needs to make decisions that effect the outcome of many.

Wow! Just… wow! So to read this a bit of the way into a pandemic is probably better than reading it at the start of a pandemic. I think that made the read even better though, as it seems something that could actually happen. Our country could definitely dissolve into the state it is in in this series. Ruby is a teenager about to start her life as an adult in the sanitation industry. Not as in she will engineer sewage treatment plants or work on a garbage truck, but that she is part of the team doing the literal dirty work in her tiny settlement of Unmarked citizens. There aren’t too many healthy people left in the world. There is a strong division between the Unmarked, pure, uninfected citizens, and those who are the outcasted Marked individuals. Each sect has banded together. The Unmarked town where Ruby lives is still a functioning society with schooling and a government similar to what we are used to. The Marked is a wild, wild west of sorts, but run by perpetual preteens. The only way to survive the fatal illness is to take hormone suppressants to halt the growth of the children’s bodies. Otherwise you get three years, or less if the disease is accelerated. Can’t really say either life sounds too great. Ruby’s crush plays spin the bottle with their classmates and it lands on her. That kiss thoroughly wrecks her life. Looking forward to the second book to see where Ruby, Wesley, Sam, and all the rest end up. The first book was stuffed full of surprises, and not all of them great for these plucky teens and crumbled societies.

About the author

 Bridget loves her husband and all five of her kids (most days). She has a springy dog, backyard chickens, three goofy horses, two lions' head rabbits, and two demanding cats. Every day is a battle between playing with kids, riding her horse Leo, and writing. If her publication speed has slowed down, you can blame the kids and the horse.

She makes cookies waaaaay too often, and thinks they should have their own food group. In a possibly misguided attempt at balancing the scales between overconsumption and exertion, she kickboxes every day. So if you don't like her kids, her cookies, or her books, maybe don't tell her in person.