Friday 8 July 2022

REVIEW - WICKED - JOEY SANTANA BY KARINA ESPINOSA

  

Title: Wicked
Series: Joey Santana
Author: Karina Espinosa
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Fantasy
               Lycan, Shifter, Witch, Seelie

Release Date: 10th June 2022

BLURB from Goodreads
Once you’ve felt love, it’s hard to let it go.

The curse has been unleashed at the stroke of midnight and everything has changed. Everyone who once cared for me is now indifferent. And the one person who loved me unconditionally now hates my guts. I’ve never felt more alone before in my life.

Hiding out with the seelies has been my only option, but when truths unfold, even the seelie aren’t safe anymore. With nowhere to turn to and no one to trust, I find an unlikely ally who amidst it all, doesn’t hate me.

Putting myself first for once, it’s a race against the clock to break this curse and free myself from this torment while the supernaturals deal with their war against the humans. Nothing is what it seems and nothing will ever be the same again.
 

Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK

REVIEW
I love the cover as it has Joey and a wolf, her wolf or maybe Reed in wolf form. Either way I love the cover and it would definitely make me pick the book up from a bookstore shelf to learn more about it! I bet it looks amazing in physical form with the rest in the series!

So, this book picks up literally where the last one ended. The curse has come into effect and anyone and everyone that had any type of love for Joey now no longer feels that way. I think it seems even worse when you realise how many people felt any type of love for her are really indifferent towards her. Reed has gone from declaring his love one second to thinking she’s a hindrance and back to the attitude of she shouldn’t really exist anymore, basically the way he feels about any bitten wolf, even one bitten by his father. Speaking of his father, Elliot Stone, the Alpha, the one who bit Joey, well he is now quite indifferent towards her, now to him, she is just another member of his pack who seems to get herself into a lot of trouble. Elliots second in command, Valentina, mother of Emilio who was always rather indifferent toward Joey and the “problems” her existence created is somewhat openly hostile with no one to really keep her attitude in check. It’s not a great time for Joey at all.

I could talk forever about this book and series, but I don’t want to ruin the last book, and all the revelations and loose end tie ups for fellow readers so I am trying my best not to. Joey is living with the Seelie, apparently, they want to help Joey. However, the Seelie are a complicated race and rarely help anyone unless it somehow benefits them. Well guess what, it turns out the Seelie Queen needs both Joey & Maggie to get something she really wants back for herself. Joey soon realises the seelie are not being totally up front with her and decides to live independently from all races. Joey gets herself a job and with a little help from an unexpected source, gets her own apartment. The unexpected source of help turns out to be a friend, Joey didn’t expect, but one that ends up being a great and useful one. I could have almost hoped for a romance with the new friend if I hadn’t been desperate for another romantic conclusion for her. Poor Joey also ends up with another possible suitor who is most certainly an unwanted one from Joeys side. Joeys doesn’t want to be anyone’s play thing, no matter who they are!!

Characters I still loved were of course, Joey, Reed, and Eugenie. Ones that I grew to love more within this book were, Levi, Cordelia, Fiona and Atticus. The writing style made the book such a compulsive, addictive and really fast read for me. Its not often I can actually read a book in just one go. I usually only read at night time, its “my time” my relaxation & escapism but I managed to squeeze in a bit of day time reading so started reading this one early, then continued as long as I could, then read the rest of it in my “night time” reading time. In fact, I ended up finishing reading this one after midnight. There was no way I was waiting until the next night to read more!!

My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book and the series (as it’s the final one) were Wow! And I totally loved it! I read it in one go! And that I’d love there to be even more about Joey, the other characters and the world it is set in.

Summing up, I totally adored this series from the very beginning and honestly, I hadn’t thought I would. The reason behind this thought process was because I had loved the Mackenzie Grey series so much, I thought there was no way, ever that that the author, Karina could create another shifter female I would wan to read about as much as Mackenzie but I truly ended up loving Joey and all the issues she had to deal with too. I love a strong female character led book and this author is brilliant at creating them. If you love, the (in my opinion) great strong female lead creators such as Kelley Armstrong and Patricia Briggs, then I recommend you read Karina Espinosa! 


 

 

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