Seventeen-year-old Jake Rovert has never known the feeling of a broken bone or a lasting scar—he’s a healer, one of very few in the world with this rare gift.
Joining an elite group of Gifted Ones from his high school, Jake is quickly propelled into a life of secrets and training to enhance his gift. He becomes the healer they have been waiting for.
They didn’t expect him to fall in love. He didn’t expect to be forbidden to be with her. And no one expected him to risk it all to get her back.
K.L. Hawker is an Amazon Bestseller and the Canadian author of two young adult fiction book series, The Branded Trilogy and The Dream Keeper Series.
Fun Fact: Hawker's young adult series, The Branded Trilogy, was originally written for her teenage son who was not at all interested in reading anything but sports scores. Hawker set out to write an easy-to-read, dialogue-filled, action-packed novel that would engage him from beginning to end. The result was a trilogy that he read in just three days--a moment that defined success for Hawker. Now K.L. Hawker enjoys sharing her passion and dreams with readers from around the world.
Branded, the first book in The Branded Series, by K. L. Hawker is a fast-paced young adult novel with characters you grow to love, and characters that frustrate the living hell out of you. Either way, Hawker has created a memorable cast that will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next. Hawker does an excellent job of creating an intriguing world where some lucky (or unlucky?) humans discover that they are gifted with special powers. She expertly augments this central plot with the, at times, heart-wrenching romances of the central protagonists. The momentum builds towards a satisfying, feel-good conclusion without stealing that momentum from the sequel. K. L. Hawker's Stranded is sure to set off at a sprint from where we last left off, and carry on that momentum for another wild ride!
Loved this! Got it free and plan on buying the second in the trilogy. Easy read, well thought out story and characters--easy to become attached to these Gifted teens. I love the good versus evil story lines, and the only thing I'm upset about so far is that the final book in this trilogy is not out yet. I look forward to reading the second, but dread having to wait for the last one to be published!
BEST BOOK EVER! Im not the kind of teen that ussually likes to read, but this book may have changed that! This book is full of suspense & foreshadowing that keeps the reader hooked. Teens can easily relate to the events happening in this exciting book!I could NOT put it down!! Can't wait to read the rest of the triology!
This was a nice quick read, although there where some flaws the book was free so can't complain :) the story got more interesting towards the end so ill probably read the sequel STRANDED to find out what happens to the Gifted Ones next.
Although this book is considered "Young Adult", I do have to admit I did enjoy the story line. It was well thought out and honestly, who cares what the target audience is when a book is good?
Really awesome book, def. want to read the other books in the series. One of the only books hat I have read hat I couldn't take my eyes off of, since I'm not much of a reader.
The story line was amazing like nothing I have ever read! Yes it's about older teens but still a great book. Story is about a group of kids with a secret and about a bit who wants to protect his best friend even if it breaks his heart. I couldn't put this book down.
Really enjoyed the concept of this story! Things unfolded well and the story moved at a good pace. Love Jake's character and his descriptions of Anna. Interesting and entertaining read with a lovely romance.
K. L. Hawker has a winner in this book. The characters are real-to-life and the story is well-written. This is not only for the young as I enjoyed this and I am a grandmother. I definitely recommend this book.
Interesting concept based on school age children with special gifts - good versus evil. Well written but characters and storyline not strong enough to tempt md into the other books in the trilogy unfortunately.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Disappointing. I’m not sure why young adult books have such unlikely dialogues or are always so terribly unrealistic. I would imagine that this predictable story with everyone living happily ever after would be depressing to mere mortals with normal teenage issues.
Jake is thrown into this world of Gifted Ones, which I’m still not fully clear on what their purpose is, besides to maybe help humanity? He is in high school and has fallen in love with his ‘best friend’ Anna. Jake is then told that he cannot be with her because it will endanger her, since the Defiers, evil ones I’m assuming, will target her to get to him.
I’m not sure why, but I couldn’t get into this book. I thought maybe it was because it was written from a male POV, but I really don’t think that’s it. Maybe I am not enjoying really young paranormal books? I don’t really know.
Much of this seemed fairly superficial to me. Jake has known Anna almost his whole life. Then, he picks her up from the airport after she visits her parents in Africa for 3 months, and boom-he’s now in love with her. She has long legs now, and is all grown up in his eyes. There was nothing really horrible about this book. The editing was done well. The storyline seemed to drag for me, where I was skimming several pages at a time.
Before writing this review, I decided to read another book written from a male POV and I was able to get into it. So I’m not really sure why Branded didn’t do much for me. I read the reviews from Amazon, and most people gave it 5 stars, with just a few giving 4. The fact that I can’t pinpoint why I couldn’t get into this book is bothering me. I don’t really have much to say about it, so sorry this review is most likely not helpful! Usually I won’t write reviews where I can’t at least express why I do or don’t like something, because then I don’t really know what to write in the actual review!
With all of that said, I guess I would give this a 3 out of 5 stars. http://lkirk16.wordpress.com/2013/02/... Based on the Amazon reviewers, it is a must read. Based on my review, it’s a maybe read.
I liked the premise of this first book about the Gifted Ones, in some ways it reminded me of an American TV series called Heroes (where the characters have all got super powers) but by the end of the story I wasn't blown away by it at all. It's a YA read and an easy one at that but I felt the story was a little lacking.
In this fairly easy read we are introduced to Jake who turns out to be a Gifted One and Anna a friend that he's rather keen on that he's known from childhood. Like a lot of friendships, striving to become a relationship the path of true love never runs smooth. To be honest there doesn't seem a great deal of chemistry between the two main characters. It will be interesting to see where the relationshp between them goes in the following two books but I don't know that I'll be finding out. I'm not that interested in reading the other two, if this is anything to go by but never say never!
This was a free book on amazon. I read a chapter, and put it down, and then read another chapter several days later. I forgot about the book, and finally picked it up again. I almost stopped reading it, but forged on, and it took me getting to 39% of the book, before it started to get interesting. Two friends are brought into the new principals office, and told that they have special gifts, that are to help other people, and to fight evil. Jake has just committed to a relationship with his long time best friend, Anna. He is told he must break up with her in order to protect her from evil people, who will attack her, to weaken Jakes powers.