What do you think?
Rate this book
Marked Clean
A glowing Mark means guilt. Sanction. Disposal.
Tess Marlowe has spent eleven years learning what happens when the city decides someone no longer deserves to exist.
So when a Mark burns to life beneath her skin—hours after she uncovers evidence that the system may be choosing its victims before they ever commit a crime—Tess does what she does best.
She runs.
The Handler assigned to hunt her is Malek Stroud.
Her first love. Her oldest betrayal. The man who disappeared after her brother was killed and chose the very system that destroyed them.
Malek has spent years believing obedience keeps people safe. Tess’s file is the first one he can’t make fit. The deeper he looks, the more dangerous the questions become—and the harder it is to pretend the woman in front of him is simply another target.
With the city closing in and every scanner turning Tess’s own Mark against her, they’re forced into an alliance neither of them trusts. Eleven years apart haven’t killed the anger between them.
Unfortunately, they haven’t killed the attraction either.
Survival will take more than staying ahead of the people hunting them. Tess must decide whether she can trust a man who once made her choices for her, while Malek must decide what remains when obedience is no longer enough.
Because if the system has already decided Tess should disappear, keeping her alive may require them both to become everything it fears.
Tess Marlowe has spent eleven years learning what happens when the city decides someone no longer deserves to exist.
So when a Mark burns to life beneath her skin—hours after she uncovers evidence that the system may be choosing its victims before they ever commit a crime—Tess does what she does best.
She runs.
The Handler assigned to hunt her is Malek Stroud.
Her first love. Her oldest betrayal. The man who disappeared after her brother was killed and chose the very system that destroyed them.
Malek has spent years believing obedience keeps people safe. Tess’s file is the first one he can’t make fit. The deeper he looks, the more dangerous the questions become—and the harder it is to pretend the woman in front of him is simply another target.
With the city closing in and every scanner turning Tess’s own Mark against her, they’re forced into an alliance neither of them trusts. Eleven years apart haven’t killed the anger between them.
Unfortunately, they haven’t killed the attraction either.
Survival will take more than staying ahead of the people hunting them. Tess must decide whether she can trust a man who once made her choices for her, while Malek must decide what remains when obedience is no longer enough.
Because if the system has already decided Tess should disappear, keeping her alive may require them both to become everything it fears.
165 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 28, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
October 17, 2026
A fast-paced love story full of action, heartache, pain and healing. Together, Malek and Tess give me hope that love conquers all… even when the robots take over and we live in a digital world full of sigils and biometric identifiers… oh wait…
Gripping from the first paragraph, I couldn’t put this down and read it in one sitting in less than 6 hours!!! This dystopian romance had me angry, shocked, confused, smirking, relieved… it was a whirlwind of emotions that left me feeling like one of the seven dwarves!
A city that tracks your every move felt a little too close to home, and the world-building was sharp without ever slowing the story down. For eleven years, Tess had quietly kept a shadow ledger of the people the city had marked, recording who they were before the Mark made them dangerous in the eyes of the system… and the evidence she uncovered, of sentences approved before the crimes used to justify them, is exactly why she ended up marked herself.
Eleven years of staying one step ahead made Tess fierce and defiant, her grief for her brother drove everything she did, and she refused to be controlled, by the system or by Malek. As for Malek, he’s morally complicated in all the best ways. He chose the system once, and watching him choose her instead was everything. The first love who broke her heart… and I still fell for him.
You know something, for a self-proclaimed smut-slut, I didn’t miss the spice. Yes, there was heat and raw sexual tension which had me on tenterhooks, but it didn’t need to be wild and overly graphic. It was perfect for the tone of the book.
This is second chance romance at its most painful and most rewarding, and being hunted together turned their history into something new. Love that looks a lot like rebellion… I’m here for it. There were a few typos, but nothing that pulled me out of it. There was no need for the cliffhanger, though! Tess and Malek’s story is wrapped up beautifully, but the bigger picture? I am seething about that, and I need to know what happens. Tell me there’s a book 2?!
This is one for anyone who loves second chance romance with high stakes, readers who like their romance with a dystopian edge, and fans of The Night Shift who want to see what else Cassie Carter can do.
5/5 all day, and 2/5 for spice. Cassie Carter has done it again. Two books in, and she’s already an auto-buy author for me… gripping, emotional and completely addictive.
Gripping from the first paragraph, I couldn’t put this down and read it in one sitting in less than 6 hours!!! This dystopian romance had me angry, shocked, confused, smirking, relieved… it was a whirlwind of emotions that left me feeling like one of the seven dwarves!
A city that tracks your every move felt a little too close to home, and the world-building was sharp without ever slowing the story down. For eleven years, Tess had quietly kept a shadow ledger of the people the city had marked, recording who they were before the Mark made them dangerous in the eyes of the system… and the evidence she uncovered, of sentences approved before the crimes used to justify them, is exactly why she ended up marked herself.
Eleven years of staying one step ahead made Tess fierce and defiant, her grief for her brother drove everything she did, and she refused to be controlled, by the system or by Malek. As for Malek, he’s morally complicated in all the best ways. He chose the system once, and watching him choose her instead was everything. The first love who broke her heart… and I still fell for him.
You know something, for a self-proclaimed smut-slut, I didn’t miss the spice. Yes, there was heat and raw sexual tension which had me on tenterhooks, but it didn’t need to be wild and overly graphic. It was perfect for the tone of the book.
This is second chance romance at its most painful and most rewarding, and being hunted together turned their history into something new. Love that looks a lot like rebellion… I’m here for it. There were a few typos, but nothing that pulled me out of it. There was no need for the cliffhanger, though! Tess and Malek’s story is wrapped up beautifully, but the bigger picture? I am seething about that, and I need to know what happens. Tell me there’s a book 2?!
This is one for anyone who loves second chance romance with high stakes, readers who like their romance with a dystopian edge, and fans of The Night Shift who want to see what else Cassie Carter can do.
5/5 all day, and 2/5 for spice. Cassie Carter has done it again. Two books in, and she’s already an auto-buy author for me… gripping, emotional and completely addictive.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review