Book Review: Marked in Flesh

Title: Marked in Flesh
Author: Anne Bishop
Publishing Date: 2016
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: B-
Sensuality: N/A
Book Disclosure: Rented from the library.

Marked in Flesh is the fourth book in Anne Bishop's The Others series.  When I read the first book in the series Written in Red, I was blown away.  I loved the world Bishop had created and the main character Meg's childlike innocence in dealing with the dangerous world she lived in was fascinating to read.  These books really ought to be read in order as they build off of one another. 

Marked in Flesh is about humans, and more specifically humans who belong to the Humans First and Last (HFL) movement putting in motion a series of events to wipe out the Others and take control of the earth.  (Right.  You puny and petty humans.  As if!)  Now, not all of the humans feel this way.  However, if they are not with the HFL they are branded "wolf lovers" and ostracized from human cities and establishments.  HFL goes so far as to attack the "wolf lovers" not only damaging their businesses but trying to murder them, as well. 

Meg is a cassandra sangue, which is a blood prophet.  She is human, but her blood is not considered edible by vampires or shifters.  She is considered "not meat" from the others.  She has visions about the terrible acts the HFL is going to bring against the Others.  In this book, Meg doubts that what she is seeing is true or how to prevent the HFL from carrying out their attack.

Meg's relationship with Simon is starting to change from one of friendship to taking it to the next step, except neither is sure of how to do that without offending the other.  You know how I love my romance and I am getting frustrated with these two tippy-toeing around the issue!!  Get on with it already, LOL!!  So that is driving me crazy.  It is one of the reasons I didn't rate this book higher. 

The other reason is that there were so many different characters in the book.  A lot of them had very similar names.  For example, I kept getting Joe and Jackson mixed up and they were both living in different towns.  I was getting confused.  I managed to muddle through it, but it detracted from my enjoyment of the story.  The other question I have, is where the author is going with this series.   I am not sure of the big picture, or what the endpoint would be for this series.