Author: Karina Cooper
Pages: 348
Series: Dark Mission
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Avon
Synopsis:
When the world went straight to hell, humanity needed a scapegoat to judge, to blame . . . to burn.
As an independent witch living off the grid, Jessie Leigh has spent her life running, trying to blend in among the faceless drudges in the rebuilt city. She thought she was finally safe, but now she's been found in a New Seattle strip club—by a hard-eyed man on a mission to destroy her kind.
A soldier of the Holy Order, Silas Smith believes in the cause: trawling the fringes of society for the murderous witches who threaten what's left of the world. Forced into a twisting web of half-truths and lies, he has to stay close to the most sensuous and electrifying woman he has ever seen and manipulate her into leading him to the witch he has to kill: her brother. Silas doesn't know that Jessie's his enemy, only that he wants her, needs her, even as he lies to her . . . and must protect her until his final breath.
REVIEW: 3 out of 5 stars
I was initially drawn to Blood of the Wicked from the cover – gorgeous!
Jessica Leigh is a witch in hiding, living off the grid and working in a strip club as a bartender; she has spent her life on the run or in hiding from the Holy Order, a group of Mercenaries who hunt witches. Her first instinct when she sees Silas sitting in the bar is to change her disguise and run!
Silas Smith is a witch hunter and has been ordered to find and exterminate Caleb Leigh, who happens to be Jessica’s younger brother. There have been a number of murders in the city with tell-tale signs that it is the result of blood rituals being held by witches, Jessie doesn’t believe her brother could be behind these deaths so her sole objective is to find and protect him.
When Silas first sights Jessie, he has no idea at all she is a witch; they are instantly attracted to one another and need to find a way to work together in order to find Caleb, both of course for their different reasons.
I found the world building to be interesting; witches have been blamed for an Armageddon of sorts and hunted and killed for almost 50 years, witches in this book are mostly portrayed as dark and deathly, Jessie seemed to be in the minority.
I would have liked to see or know more about Jessie’s power which was the sight of present, her brother of future; she was supposedly powerful but the only time she seemed to use her ability was to intrude on a meeting Silas was in attendance.
The different parts of the city had my mind reeling; I for some reason kept imagining a shopping mall with numerous levels – top being for rich down to the lower level slums.It was quite detailed.
I unfortunately wasn’t drawn to the main characters, I love my heroes to be alpha but Silas just came across as mean and nasty; from their fist meeting when he paid a man to confront her and especially his treatment of her when he found out she was a witch, he literally threw her away to be killed and yet she still tried to help him after his betrayal. I also thought it a bit strange that Jessie’s feelings and attraction for him would instantly be so strong when she knew what he was, who he worked for and the sole purpose for wanting her around.
The final confrontation was great and the true villain not who I would have expected, Caleb’s reasoning for power was weak; he was a coward and had no respect for his sister. The prophecies he had seen were interesting but no excuse for what he was doing.
As first novels go, this one was pretty good. The action was dark and gritty, the world is fairly complex without being confusing & the writing was solid.
Book 2, Lure of the Wicked will be released June 28th 2011.
This sounds fascinating. Too bad it doesn't quite get there. I hate it when heroes go overboard in being mean.
ReplyDeleteNew follower. Thanks for dropping by my blog last Friday Follow.