Author: HP Mallory
Publisher: Smashwords
Release Date: July 2010
ISBN: 2940011812651
Book 1 of Jolie Wilkins Series
Book Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Rating: 5 Stars
The author of this book should be asking her readers, “Are you not entertained?!” and in response getting the sound of screams and cries asking for more of that wonderfully entertaining entertainment that she wrote in this novel.
Jolie Wilkins is your average run-of-the-mill psychic, at least she thinks so. She doesn’t know how truly powerful she is until desire dressed in slacks and a sweater walks through her door with the name of Rand. The gorgeous Rand turns Jolie’s life into an upheaval of messes, only they’re messes that would’ve been unavoidable at some point anyway because, as she soon finds out, she is the object of desire for many beings of the Underworld, dangerous or not.
Jolie and her best friend, Christa operate a small psychic business in Los Angeles after escaping what they deemed the boring miserable life in Spokane Washington. Business is going awry. One night, Jolie meets a ghost hanging out in her reception area, and he says that someone has sent him. Jolie is flabbergasted as she has never seen a ghost before. Her visions are sporadic and when the beautiful Greek godlike man Rand (complete with a sexy English accent) comes in one afternoon wanting a reading, Jolie’s heart flips and flops. He sets up appointments for three consecutive readings all on the same weekday at the same time. The first time she meets with him, she sees one small vision, but not enough to keep him coming, or so she thinks. He comes on all three meetings and on the last one, asks her to go to dinner with him. She accepts and he confesses to her that he is a very powerful warlock. Jolie can’t believe it at first, but he shows her a few things to prove what he is and eventually share a business proposition with Jolie in which she would have to travel with him to Chicago. After a few probing questions about the task she would face should she go, she agrees, with the promise of a lot of money to help her and her friend Christa out.
Once in Chicago, Rand, Jolie, and Christa spend a night on the town and enjoy themselves. The sexual tension between Rand and Jolie start from the very beginning, but become more heated while in Chicago. However, they have to get down to business. Rand had been hired to find out who killed a man named Jack, who was shot in the head back in the 1920’s. His ghost is the one that had visited Jolie at her shop. He was shot in the back of the head, so he never knew who killed him. Jolie’s job is to travel back in time via her mind and watch it happen. Only when she does, she sees who killed him and freaks out while in the vision and grabs on to Jack just as he is dying. When she wakes up back in the now with Rand and Christa, there is another addition to their party. It’s Jack the ghost and he is no longer a ghost. Jolie has brought him back to life and doesn’t know how she did it.
As it seems that the job is done, Christa and Jolie go back to Los Angeles with nothing more from Rand until one day a striking woman walks into the shop looking for Jolie. This woman was Jack’s daughter and is a very powerful witch. She invites Jolie to her house for a party, promising that Rand will be there. Jolie wavers for a bit and finally decided to go. She goes and meets a debonair vampire named Sinjin and is sitting with him on a bench learning things about the party and the beings present when Rand spots her.
He is angry and storms over to the two. He takes Jolie aside and lets her know that her coming to this party was not something she should have ever done. That coming to this party she has sacrificed any tie that she ever had to having a normal life. Everyone knows that she is very powerful now and word has spread like wildfire about her special ability to bring back those who have died. Bella, the witch who invited Jolie to the party, wants to claim her as her own and be her Protector, as they say in the Underworld. Rand will not have it and gets challenged to a witch-style duel, with the winner winning the chance to be Jolie’s Protector and teach her the ways of life for a witch. It is very intense and though very badly injured, Rand comes out the winner and Jolie is in despair as she learns that she has to move to England and leave everything she knew behind.
Upon going to England, life changes drastically. Jolie learns more and more about the Underworld and meets several interesting beings. The tension mounts and the real danger rears its ugly head, throwing Jolie into a world like nothing she could have imagined, even after learning of the existence of vampires, werewolves, and warlocks.
The descriptions of the various places are wonderful. I loved a certain few that are part of my fairy tale fantasies, especially a major description when Jolie gets to see the massive house and area that Rand lives in. It all sounds so extraordinarily beautiful and the precise choice of words were like music to my ears, I wanted to be in the book! Along with the descriptions, I love how the author used so many things from today’s world in her metaphors. I found myself cracking up, thinking, ‘that is definitely something I would say or think.’ Some of these metaphors were very odd, but in a way that fit with whole strangeness of the situation. Again, I really loved the metaphors, they made the story pop and I will remember so many of them forever as they were very relatable to me. Anyone reading this story will find themselves laughing very often.
The romance in this story is hot! By hot I mean, the tension is incredible and not with just one main set of hero and heroine. Let’s see, the heroine and several heroes. Hehe! But it isn’t distasteful in any way. It lets the reader know that the beings of the Underworld are very very attuned to their own sexual needs. The banter that goes on between several of the heroes and heroine is comical, in the sexual tension department. The paranormal creatures have no qualms speaking of the desires towards the heroine and she begins to tire of it, never knowing that she was worth it, or at least, never feeling as though she was worth it. After becoming the most powerful witch in the world, she assumes that’s just part of the gig. I found myself rooting for each one of the men at the various places in the book where they were strong characters. Though, the overall person a reader would root for would be the one who feels the most love toward Jolie and Jolie feels the most love towards as well. The author did a wonderful job describing some of the sexiest men that I have ever read in a book. Blend an English vampire who speaks with the dialect of the 1800’s, a handsome ghost who’s afraid of life, a flirty werewolf pack leader, a Scottish fairy with flowing locks of golden hair, and an angst-ridden warlock fighting his feelings. Keep your fans out! Sigh!
The situations in this book weren’t believable in the sense that they would ever happen in real life, but in the sense that they would happen in the urban fantasy world, totally believable. Also, all the conversations that take place, and the tensions between the characters are super believable. I have never read a romance novel that is written in first person and I have to say that I really liked it. Even though we didn’t get to see anything in any other characters’ point of view, the author did an excellent job conveying their facial expressions--the slump of their shoulders and any trait that could just almost give away what they were feeling, but still not quite, without letting the character seeing it happen. Strange, I know, but awesome! I’d say talent! I’ve heard a lot of people say that they don’t like books where all of the characters seem to be salivating over one main character…I had no problem with that in this book. Even though it seems as though every creature she meets wants her, the author was still able to make Jolie very humble, yet smarty enough to combat it. Given her situation, you can figure it out that it’s not just her that they want, though they all still want a piece of her. Don’t all men want someone they’re attracted to?
This book was such a fun and interesting read. I loved the new and fresh take on all the beings of the Underworld all while still keeping a firm grip on the ideas of these beings through myths and legends. It was very entertaining; I was laughing, despairing, and shaking my fist at different parts of the story. I became so involved with the characters as if I was there in the story with them, whispering in their ears to do this or that. I read this book in two sittings and could hardly function on anything else until I came back to it time and time again. I dreamed about it, it was so prevalent on my mind! I just have to say to the author, ‘Bravo, I’m oh-so-in-dire-straights hooked. When the heck is the next book in the series coming out!?’
Yes, you did sense a bit of attitude, but in my defense it was only in the sense of ‘I need to know more about these characters as soon as humanly…er, or Underworlderly possible!’
Thank you, H.P. Mallory for such a wonderful and fun book. I can’t wait for more!
(FCC: This book was free from the author/publisher for the purpose of obtaining a review.)
OH! And check this out! H.P. Mallory is holding a contest on her blog where you, yes you, could be a character in her upcoming novel, 'Toil and Trouble', which is set to release January 1, 2011. What an exciting contest. To enter go to http://urbanfantasyauthor.blogspot.com/2010/10/contest-become-character-in-my-next.html and do the tasks to get yourself entered.
