review by Megsly

*Warning: possible spoilers ahead.*

Branded follows 20-year old Jessica Bailey, who is a teenage run away who never sleeps. She can usually reach almost 100 hours with no sleep before her body starts caving in on her. The reason she doesn't sleep is because she has night terrors, extreme night terrors. In her dreams, she finds herself locked in a room, awaiting trial. An angel she calls Adam, with gray eyes (which is apparently indicative of whether or not they are fallen or not? More...

The story and the characters definitely kept me reading.

I purchased this book on a whim--I love to read the work of local authors and jumped at the chance to help support a local up-and-coming when I saw this book at a bookstore near my office, in Seattle. I read every day on my way to and from work on public transit, and sometimes, while reading this book, I'd almost forget where I was! Once, I almost missed my stop!

The story is compelling, the scenery and set-building very full without dragg More...

>>>WARNING SPOILERS (SLIGHT)<<<

Initially I was really into this book. I loved Jessica's character. The premise intrigued me. The writing was decent. Then Alex happened.

I did not like Alex, at all. He was too chipper. Too eager. At least, he is in the beginning. He and Jessica fall in together way too quickly for my piece of mind. I mean, Jessica hasn't known him a day and already she's okay with him walking in on her in the shower. Not only that, but he thinks its okay to invad More...

C.J. from Book Nerd and Proud
http://booknerdandproud.blogspot.com/

3/5 stars
This is another free book by an independent author I had downloaded in the Kindle Store. The story line was about angels was creative. In this world, angels weren't beautiful or perfect, but instead, they were scary beings who would decide your fate after death.

I must admit the characters weren't memorable. Twenty year old Jessica Bailey is the main character of this book, and she's definitely had plenty of problems in he More...

A girl, forced to stand in for people as judgment is placed by a board of angels, half condemned, half exalted. She feels the brand and bears the mark of wings from these nightly occurrences. While the storyline is promising, and it did pull me into finishing the book, there are a couple points that make me want to give this book a 2.5 instead of a 3.

First off, the author portrays angels of light as wimpy timid things who allow most people to be dragged down to Hell even once they were declared More...

Jessica Bailey is tormented. Every time she falls asleep, her nightmare begins. The first chapter got me into reading the book. It was different. It started where most books end… on judgment.

However, after a couple of chapters, the story goes downhill. FAST. The author tends to overelaborate on everything, leaving nothing to the imagination. There are a few pages full of just descriptions of surroundings, and feelings. I gets boring fast when every detail is explained and explored.

The book fee More...

Okay, so if you want a different spin on angels, this will be the book for you.

But ye be warned, it also goes downhill very quickly, unfortunately. Spoilers ahead, so if you want to preserve the book's story, I'd watch out.

So Jessica is a girl who constantly has nightmares where she stands trials for the sins of others in front of a council of angels. Every time she falls asleep, she dreams this scene, over and over again. She has scars in the shape of wings on her back and a brand on her neck More...

This book is based on a really interesting idea, and after the first chapter or two I was set to like it a lot. Alas, it foundered. The main character is a tortured individual whose life is steeped in the supernatural - not exactly the kind of character you would imagine would be interested in shopping at the mall or painting her toenails. The idea gave the author a great opportunity to explore some deep, philosophical questions about religion and humanity, but she shied away from it. There was More...

Based on the description of the book, it sounded incredibly interesting and hit all of my interests: tortured protagonist, creepy dreams, and of course ANGELS. It started out very strongly, with a great description of the terrifying dream the heroine must experience every time she falls asleep. It's very unsettling and the way it's written makes you realize how awful it would be to dream something like that every night and you understand why Jessica has been fighting sleep for so long. It's good More...

The premise of this book was really exciting. I loved the beginning when Jessica is counting, I love little quirks like that in characters because it makes them seem so much more interesting. But as soon as the "love interest" is introduced this little idiosyncrasy of hers is gone. No more counting, not even telling us how many hours she'd been awake. I dislike when an author gives a character a quirk but abruptly stops it and no longer continues to use it to further the character development. H More...

I came across this book on authonomy and enjoyed both the premise and the beginning, mostly because the story line is original. Angels that aren't the fluffy, love-obsessed wimps that we're used to seeing these days, but strong, scary beings with serious power, and a young girl, Jessica, who every night she goes to sleep is put on trial for another person's crimes. The story line is different, intriguing and definitely pulled me in.

But that's pretty much it.

The further you read into the story, More...

This book was not the stereotypical YA book about angels, and definitely in a good way.

Jessica has lived on her own for a while because, since she can remember, she has been plagued by horrible dreams of angels. She stays up for days at a time just so that she can avoid being sucked into her crazy subconscious. In her dreams she is guided down a hall by an angel with gray eyes (meaning he is neutral)who she has named Adam, to a council of angels to judged. The council consists of half exalted ( More...

Somehow I was expecting a completely different story, perhaps one of the formulaic plots that seem so prevalent in this genre, and am so glad I was wrong. Taylor's angels are not what one would consider to be the norm - they are scary, they are judgmental, they torment Jessica nightly in her dreams to the point where she foregoes sleep to avoid their horror. Alone and deemed crazy, she tries desperately to escape her fate of horror filled dreams believing she cannot possibly have contact with ot More...

I'd like to give this more than 2 stars, but I can't see it when I compare this book to some of the other "angel" books I've read.

Basic premise is that Jessica has been haunted by terrible nightmares since a young age. Her nightmares are really more than that, however. In them she stands trial before a panel of angels on the behalf of others, and upon their decision, she suffers the pain of these souls' ascension or worse, damnation. Oh, and she wakes up with proof of it. Enter Alex, the perfec More...

Yeah I read it over summer. I liked it, even do the book has it flaws.

*Here is the spoiler I wrote in Croatian, times ago.
(view spoiler)[Jednog lijepog sparnog dana, ja krenula prekopavati flickr za radovima fanova za Hunger Games. I došla ja do jedne darovite cure koja je napravila prelijepi kolaž sa citatom knjige Branded od Keray Taylor. Citat je predivan (iako se nalazi na kraju knjige) a mene je zanimala knjiga zbog činjenice jer je cura napisala da knjga ima svojih mana ali da ju i dalje obožava.
Nije ju (hide spoiler)] More...

So I did enjoy the story in this book, but I am not sure I liked how it was executed. The idea was fantastic and very original. I am not sure if this was the writer's first book, but the flow of the book was off. There was so much build up and not enough character development to fill the pages. While I liked there characters in the book okay...I didn't feel like I knew enough about them to love them. There was so much room to get you emotionally involved with the characters but since you didn't More...

The Good:
Branded has a very interesting premise: angels are not the glorified beings they're hyped as. Instead, they are the cause for the main character's torment. Neat.
The story line is decent as well. It kept me guessing until the end. It's not all that predictable (except for the romance bit) and the author keeps some semblance of suspense up until the very end.

The Bad:
For one thing, the ending seems very rushed. Taylor manages to cram the entire resolution of the story into pretty much a pa More...

MICHELLE'S REVIEW:

I shall start by saying, why has no publisher picked this book up yet???!!!! I was looking around Smashwords trying to find myself some reads and I came across 'Branded' , so glad I did:D

What a refreshingly original story. I would have read it in one sitting if I hadn't been sitting at my computer on my not so comfy chair. Started last night, finished short while ago.

There are in my personal opinion a few little things that need to be tweaked in this book, but once tweaked..wow More...

This book was ok. I really liked Jessica as a main heroine and Alex was your typical swoon worthy love interest. There was some insta-love going on, but it wasn't to bad for which I was grateful. It got worse towards the end of the book. Alex was completely, unquestionablely devoted to Jessica. He never had a freak out or break down moment, but took everything in stride attending to Jessica's every need. It was sweet, but incredily unrealistic and I found myself losing Alex's voice-the one I had More...

I had heard some great things about Branded since it was released, so I picked it up on ebook. I was sad to say that while I enjoyed the enticing plotline, overall, Branded was not a favorite for me.

I think it really came down to instant love in not only one but two situations. There are two boys who almost instantly fall in love with Jessica. There was no development before and afterwards I felt like the relationships between them didn't develop at a pace that I would have liked. I wanted more More...

This is a fantastic series! It is very original, frightening and captivating! I love stories with angels in them, wether good or bad. This is a story of survival, love and loyalty! The life this poor girl (Jessica) leads is only a half life. She never wants to fall asleep and will do anything to stay awake. When she does fall asleep she is carried away to the judgement of someone who has passed and she takes the branding for them. She is scarred physically and emotionaly from this experience. Sh More...

I was going between 2 and 3 stars, but 2 star, "It was okay", it is.

I enjoyed this more than I wanted to, but too many things irritated me. This book was free, also, on Amazon, so I don't feel as let down by it.

The Bad:
•Repetitive sentences. Sometimes in the same paragraph. It seemed Taylor (author) wanted to get across an idea, but forgot she said it the same way just 2 seconds ago. Happened often.
•"Oh, look! This thing just happened! How strange!!! I bet this isn't important, I will brush it o More...

"Branded" has an interesting concept - still in the realms of the fantasy world but refreshingly different. A major plus for this one is that the protagonist doesn't have sex on the brain, which gets a little boring book after book.

The narrative is simply written and pleasantly undemanding, which makes for a relaxing read. The protagonist and other characters are well-drawn and believable without being over-described.


Unfortunately, the appalling punctuation and the frequent typing errors ruine More...

This was such a good story, very different take on angels. I loved the characters; I felt they were well-developed. Jessica is a twenty-year old woman who has to go through judgments on behalf of others who have recently passed, whenever she falls asleep. The story is about her trials, her trying to create and maintain friendships and relationships while dealing with these strange "nightmares" that leave her branded with an X and wings. I liked Alex, her main love interest. He was sweet, patient More...

Jessica is not your "normal" girl. Ever since she was 5 she had nightmares about angels, except her nightmares were real. Every time she fell asleep she was put in a trial for someone who has died based off of what they have done in life, they are either condemned or exalted. The council is made of 5 exalted angels and 5 condemned angels. Most of the time Jessica had been in the place of someone who was exalted, and had an "X" branded in the back of her neck, problem was she always woke up with More...

Based on the synopsis,I figured this book would be different...boy was I satisfied. The concept of a innocent young woman standing trial for crimes/deeds she didn't commit seemed like an intriguing story, and I was absolutely taken aback by the different perspective angels were portrayed. It took a hard left from the usual, "angels are beautiful creatures of love and compassion that don't deal out but heal it," instead allowing them to be quite the opposite at time.

Another thing that drew me to More...

I don’t think I have ever been more pissed off with a book…

so theirs the guys, I mean what makes a perfect book other than a love triangle? Apparently this is what all authors think.

and its a load of bull fucking shite, so yeah i don’t agree.

In love triangles I always seem to have one guy I really want to be together with the girl, and then the other just ruins the book for me by getting in the way.

1st guy is Alex, and my swoon was in full view when he entered a page, he's the nice one that y More...

An awesome and captivating story! This was a different take on the "Angels" story, than other books that I've read, and that was fantastically refreshing. (even if somewhat dark and scary at times) You can all read the synopsis by the author, but I will say this story doesn't disappoint. Sure, there are a few editing mistakes, but no one is perfect, and i didn't find it as distracting as other readers apparently have. If you're going to critique that, then perhaps you're reading the wrong genre. More...

I've heard a lot about Keary Taylor in the indie world and I've been anxious to read her work. The storyline for the Fall of Angels trilogy sounded amazing. I was not dissatisfied in the least bit.

This is an impressive story that is intricate and complex but not confusing for the reader. It is unique and not the same old song and dance about angels. I really enjoyed having such a unique story in my hands.

I enjoyed the characters immensely. Alex seems like that knight in shining armor every girl More...

Branded follows the story of Jessica, terrified to sleep because when she does, she's judged. She stands trial before the angels, both good and bad, for the souls of the dead. She's lived this life since she was five, and she was eventually committed by her own mother because her parents couldn't deal with her problems. Independent and afraid of opening up, Jessica knows she must eventually sleep, and when she does, she'll be judged again and face the branding of the angels.

Holy original plot! B More...