Grade: A-

Bam,

I know you weren’t all that interested in reading Wicked Deeds because it didn’t focus on the Valkyries. Well, dumb decision on your part. It may not focus on those crazy women we’ve come to know and (in some cases) love, but it does continue to focus on the Lore and the folks that make up the creatures of the Lore. And while I know you’re generally wary of series (except for a certain group of vampires that love to have extraneous H’s in everything they say, do and name) [Whord to your muthah. -Bam], Kresley Cole continues to impress with her Immortals After Dark series. I know you weren’t totally cahrayzee about A Hunger Like No Other due to Emma’s lack of spine and general annoying personality. While we didn’t review No Rest For The Wicked, I will briefly say that I was much happier with Kaderin as a heroine, but thought that Sebastian wasn’t nearly as strong as I had hoped.

Well, Wicked Deeds finally seems to get the mix right in all respects. The heroine is actually strong without being feisty, spunky or a Mary Sue and the hero, while being a total alpha, isn’t foolish enough to believe he can’t ever be wrong about something (or many things for that matter). And Ms. Cole continues to write buildup and actual sex with terrific heat.

The Plot: Our last foray into the Immortals series was a Lore version of the Amazing Race called the Talisman’s Hie. If you don’t recall what happened, I’m not going to rehash it here because there’s a nice recap during the first part of the book. That’s right, we go back in time (slightly) to the Hie and instead of focusing on Kaderin and Sebastian, we now get Mariketa the Awaited and Bowen MacRieve’s POV. Don’t worry; we don’t revisit the entire Hie; that would be a book killer for me. However, we do get an immediate look at the strength of attraction between Bowen and Mariketa, and their fight against said attraction it from the get-go. Of course, these people are speshul, so they’re not fighting it for the regular reasons. Bowe believes Mariah, his one love (yep, Lykae have that whole ONE TRUE MATE thing going on) died and it’s all his fault – mind you this happened about 200 years ago and he hasn’t moved on, let go of his guilt or his anger. In addition Bowe absolutely hates witches, all things witchy and wants nothing to do with a witch. Mariketa is a witch (shocker, that) who has a few prophecies hanging over her head (which, of course, being a witch, she believes all of them but doesn’t know quite what to make of them), one of which states that an immortal will recognize her as his ONE TRUE MATE and she’ll be taken from her Coven.

Bowe trapped Mari and some immortal friends in an ancient Mayan tomb in Guatemala during the Hie and by the end of the race they still haven’t escaped. With a name like “the Awaited” you know Mari is important to her Coven, so they threaten Bowe (and pretty much everyone else) into rescuing her. What ensues is another race – against time and the full moon. While Bowe’s cock is pretty much ready to jump out of his pants whenever he’s around Mari, he doesn’t want her to see him in his full Lykae state at the full moon. In addition, Mari’s Coven has given him a drop-dead (literally) date to have her safe and sound, so all of the immortals are racing across Central America trying to get Mari back to her Coven by the appointed time. While this seems to be a relatively simple plot, Ms. Cole spices it up nicely by closely examining both Mari and Bowe, their foibles, strengths and what ultimately draws them together. I will say that it was wonderful watching this all unfold especially since Bowe is convinced that Mari can’t be his ONE TRUE MATE ‘cause he’s already met her…and uh, killed her…sort of.

The kicker for me with this book is nicely summed up by the last few chapters, which I won’t reveal here. Suffice it to say that Ms. Cole makes it abundantly clear throughout the book that the women are the focus of this series, and they never take a backseat to the men, no matter how alpha they are.

The Heroine: Mariketa is pretty awesome. She’s unafraid of her sexuality, unafraid of the fact that she is totally fucking scary when she works magik (more on that in a moment), and yet is completely human. And yes, I do mean human. Mari hasn’t become an immortal yet (the Lore folks don’t hit immortality until the right age, and for Mari, it’s not 23), which is why her Coven is in such a dither. If Mari actually suffered a serious injury (and not the head-cut-off to kill an immortal injury, but more of the shit, I’ve been bitten by a cottonmouth injury), she could actually die. Also, when it comes to magik, Mari is a total fuck up. She either can’t do her magik at all or she makes shit explode. LOVE IT! She seems to be able to focus her magik on one person: Bowe. Mari has no idea why she’s called “The Awaited” and neither does anyone else. Mari has a fear of abandonment that’s pretty well founded – her father disappeared one day with no explanation and subsequently died, and a few years later her mother left her to go on a 200 year long Druid sabbatical, leaving her in the care of her Coven. Mari constantly feels like she’s a benchwarmer for others’ affections, which makes it difficult for her to fall for Bowe since he’s so sure he is tied to his long-dead love. But does all of this stop Mari? Nope. She’s strong enough to stay and face a challenge, but also to walk away when she should.

The Hero: Bowen MacRieve made his first appearance in A Hunger Like No Other and showed up again during the Talisman’s Hie to fight with Sebastian Wroth in No Rest For The Wicked. Bowe is a hot mental mess. He’s spent the last 200 years pining for his lost mate and believes that there’s no other for him. As a result he can’t understand his attraction to Mariketa, and believes he’s simply attracted to her because she’s pretty spectacular. Which is nice since that whole ONE TRUE MATE thing can be really annoying and Bowe begins to fall in love with Mari without the OTM forcing the issue. Also, Bowe absolutely hates that she’s a witch, and blames a nasty witch (rightly so) for nearly destroying his entire family. What works for me are Bowe’s lightbulb moments that happen during the course of the book. At one point during the cross-Central America trek, Bowe realizes something about himself: he may have wasted the last 200 years doing nothing but being a miserable bastard. I actually loved this revelatory moment as it said so much about his bullheadedness, while at the same time exposing a painful realization that he has alienated pretty much everyone around him. But the nice thing about Bowe is that he takes it in stride and realized that changes are needed and he can handle it.

The Secondary Characters: No, the book didn’t focus on the Valkyries, but Nucking Futs Nix has a nice role in delivering bass-ackward wisdom. I honestly hope that she gets her own book, and that Ms. Cole manages to do it without jumping the shark. Mariketa has managed to make some good friends in her relatively short life; Carrow, her best buddy in the Coven, is hilarious and totally outrageous. Rydstrom, the once-king of the Demons, who serves as a sort of moral compass for Bowe, has a complex backstory involving his brother Cade, which I’d love to read as well.

Shuzluva Says: It’s pretty clear that Ms. Cole has a ball writing strong, engaging women. While some of the more colloquial moments may date the book, I feel that they nicely emphasized Mari’s living in reality while Bowe was living in a physical and emotional wasteland. The interaction between Mari, Bowe and the entire cast of secondary characters is a powerful device in the book as it helps move the story along while revealing more about each character. While I was quite perturbed with the pacing at the beginning of the book and the revisit of the Talisman’s Hie, I found it to be a useful device in jogging my memory as to who and what all of these characters were. Of course, at this point, I need an anvil dropped on my head for me to remember just about anything. Ms. Cole does a nice job with the story’s resolution; and rather than tying everything up neatly with a bow(e) towards the final chapters, the story gets more interesting, more complex and more exciting. This gets an A- for me, and I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the next one. Damn, I think I may have to have an expansion on my keeper shelf.

Please buy this delicious book here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007 at 12:12 am and is filed under Books, Grade: A, Romance: Paranormal, Shuzluva's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.