Novella Review: A Karma Girl Christmas

A Karma Girl Christmas (Bigtime Superheroes #3.5)

Jennifer Estep

Kindle Book

It's Christmas time in Bigtime, New York, but society reporter Carmen Cole isn't in the mood to celebrate since her husband, Sam, has to go on a business trip and might not make it home for the holiday. But Carmen has plenty to keep her busy, since she moonlights as Karma Girl, a member of the Fearless Five superhero team. On Christmas Eve, Carmen, as Karma Girl, is assigned to guard toys, clothes, food, and more that are intended for needy children and their families. But an ubervillain also has his eye on the toys and plans to steal and then sell them to the highest bidder. Carmen will have to use all her empathic powers just to stay alive, not to mention make sure Christmas is a happy one for all the kids who are counting on her. It's all in a night's work for a superhero ...

A return visit to Bigtime at Christmas time to see how Carmen aka Karma Girl is getting to grips with being a superhero instead of uncovering their secret identities. This Christmas instead of snuggling up with her new husband Sam aka Stryker Carmen has to guard piles of presents for under-privileged kids…and of course it’s too tempting a target for the Uber-villians to just leave alone…

Carmen is a great character – warm and understanding, but with a piquant line of snark that stops her being too perfect. While most of the characters we’ve met so far appear at some point in cameo scenes or just in the background this is Carmen’s story and a nice catch up to see how she has coped with becoming a superhero. Her powers are fun to investigate and it was nice to see how she was able to handle the role without the rest of the Fearless Five around. Like the books, there are a lot of clichés in the story but you know it’s been included on purpose knowing you’d recognise them and enjoy them! My one criticism is that it is too short – I would love Carmen to feature as the main character in another full length novel!

Overall this is a very sweet story which reads like a cheesy Christmas special from one of you favourite TV shows – light, fun and full of seasonal cheer!

Recommended for fans of Lois and Clark and Christmas! 8 out of 10

Jinx (Bigtime Superheroes #3) Review

Jinx (Bigtime Superheroes #3)

-          Jennifer Estep

Kindle Book

Thanks to her unwanted superpower, fashion designer Bella Bulluci may be the luckiest woman in Bigtime, N.Y. But luck can be good or bad, and it seems like just as many embarrassing things happens to Bella as do positive ones. Like when a charity event that Bella plans get crashed by Hangman, a deadly ubervillain who's after a prize sapphire that's on display. Hangman almost succeeds in stealing the jewel for his evil ubervillain boss, Prism, but Bella's luck helps her escape with the sapphire – along with some help from the suave and charming Debonair. Debonair's not an ubervillain, but he's not really a superhero either. Still, Bella can't help but fall for him, despite her personal vow to have as little to do with heroes and villains as possible. But with Hangman and Prism still after the sapphire, Bella's going to need every bit of her luck power just to survive...

This is my third visit to Bigtime town and while I still had lots of fun, it didn’t sparkle as much as the first two visits. Partly is due to the nature of our heroine this time, Bella. Bella is prone to massive luck – both good and bad. This means massive amounts of physical disasters (from chandeliers breaking to spilling coffee and sandwiches everywhere) and some lucky escapes – these disasters never hurt her. She doesn’t control this luck – it just happens. And this means we have a heroine who for the most part is happier to just remove herself from tense situations, worries a lot and avoids making any pro-active choices. However, she does have a big learning curve and by the end I liked her a lot more.

Bigtime is still populated with numerous superheroes and uber-villians. However, it seems much easier to guess their secret identities now – maybe I just know what to look out for! It was great to catch up with Karma Girl aka Carmen this time around and to see how she is using her own superpowers now. There are some great visual set-pieces which scream comic book movie to me with some interesting twists and turns in the plot that keep you guessing. It was as exciting and joyful as the other adventures, but one element stuck in my throat a little. Bella is kidnapped at one point and ends up falling for her captor – despite the fact he won’t let her tell her family she is alright. Even if she is kidnapped for all the right reasons – she is still there against her will and the seduction stuck in my throat a little. However, this happens early on and is redeemed by some of his action later on. In fact by the end he comes across as quite sweet and insecurity – so much so that the kidnapping almost seems out of character!

However, this is still a light hearted romp through the superhero world with a nice romance and great world building. It’s always a fun visit – especially on a dull, wet November. For bring some sunshine and fun into your life, it’s difficult to go wrong with this series!

Recommended for fans of Carrie Vaughn and Lynsey Sands. 7 out of 10

Hot Mama Review

Hot Mama (Bigtime Superheroes #2) 

-          Jennifer Estep

Kindle Books

She can melt steel – and men's hearts ... 
By day, Fiona Fine is a successful couture designer, catering to the high society players of Bigtime, New York. By night, she's Fiera, a superstrong superhero who can create and manipulate fire with her bare hands. Fiera, along with the other members of the heroic Fearless Five, make life miserable for the ubervillains who want to take over the city. 
But Fiona's personal life isn't so fine. She still misses her fiancé, who was killed by ubervillains a year ago. But men admire Fiona's smoking assets, and she decides to get back in the dating game – especially after she meets Johnny Bulluci. But this notorious playboy has plenty of secrets to go along with his sexy smile. And, with two new ubervillains in town who are intent on raising hell, Fiona's love life might just crash and burn...

Fiona Fine is the leading fashion designer in Bigtime with a hugely successful business, beautiful apartment and a short temper. She also moonlights as Fiera one of the Fearless Five, a team of superheroes helping to keep the city safe from Uber-villains with schemes of conquest and destruction. Still recovering from the death of her fiancée the year previously she decides it’s time to move on with a fling with the newly returned to the city and devilishly handsome Johnny Bulluci. However, Johnny has secrets of his own…

Hot Mama is one of those rare books which is plain fun without taking itself too seriously. The world of Bigtime has superheroes with superpowers and secret identities, massive battles that destroy buildings across the city and uber-villains who fail to kill the good guys quickly despite the heroes perchance for escaping regularly. This means you recognise the world pretty quickly and even make some simple deductions regarding heroes and villains alter-ego a long time ahead of Fiona...something which can be a little annoying but is in keeping with the world. I liked Fiona – she’s not an easy person to get to know and is pretty opinionated, but she doesn’t have any shades of grey – she works for the good guys, she misses her fiancée and she can eat whatever she wants as she literally does burn calories off with her superpower over fire. A lot of the book is description of the amount and frequency with which Fiona has to eat so this is not a book to read if you are on a diet! J

The romance between Fiona and Johnny is steamy and fun. They are physical attracted to each other from the start, and manage to build upon that foundation as they get to know each other and work together. I felt there was some slight repetition with Fiona or one of her friends saying that her fiancée Travis would have wanted her to move on and be happy. Ok, we get it – she’s been in love before! But I liked the differences between their characters and the idea that Johnny’s secret although easy for us to guess, does create some friction in their relationship they have to resolve. While the relationship was nice, I have to confess I most enjoyed the action and superhero high-jinks. Jennifer Estep has a real flair for excitement and the fight scenes are never less than entertaining – especially with the heroes and villains falling into typical roles and catchphrases. This adds an extra layer of fun for the reader although it can mean that there are no surprises or twists to the plots  either. Overall, this is exactly what you think it is from the blurb and it delivers an entertaining few hours that will leave a smile on your face.

Recommended for fans of Darynda Jones and Jaye Wells. 8 out of 10.

Karma Girl Review

Karma Girl (Bigtime Superheroes 1)

-       Jennifer Estep

Kindle Book

Investigative reporter Carmen Cole gets the surprise of her life on her wedding day when she discovers that her fiance and best friend are sleeping together – and that the two of them are her town's resident superhero and ubervillain. Shocked and hurt, Carmen reveals their secret identities and then decides to devote her life to unmasking every superhero and ubervillain who crosses her path. A series of successful unmaskings lands Carmen a job at The Expose, one of the biggest newspapers in Bigtime, New York, a city that's full of superheroes and ubervillains. Carmen is in her element – until she gets kidnapped by the Terrible Triad, Bigtime’s most dangerous ubervillain team. The Triad orders Carmen to uncover the secret identity of Striker, the leader of the Fearless Five, Bigtime's most popular superhero team – or else they’ll drop her in a vat of radioactive goo. With that threat hanging over her, Carmen sets out to unmask Striker, but what she doesn’t count on is falling for the sexy superhero. But with the Terrible Triad lurking around, this is one story that just might be the death of her...

I’ve wanted to try a Jennifer Estep book for a while – I have Spider’s Bite and Touch of Frost on my TBR for ages, but so many people love these books I’ve been a little nervous about trying them in case I’m disappointed! So for my first book I started on her lesser known Bigtime Superheroes series – Karma Girl and can I say I had such a fabulous time!

This is a story set on a world where every town has its own hero and villain – most of them caused by exposure to various radioactive material or bites from mutated animals (we all know that guarantees superpowers!). Carmen Cole is on a mission to expose superhero and ubervillians secret identities – and she’s good at it, at least until one superhero takes it the wrong way and commits suicide. Now, she works the society beat – until the towns most evil villains demand she finds out the identities the Fearless Five.

Carmen is your typical Lois Lane reporter – tenacious, stubborn, clever and attracted to superheroes. When she first meets Striker, the head of the fearless five, sparks fly and there is a lovely antagonist romance between the two of them. I found the romance sweet without falling into the trap of insta-love. Her method of tracking down the heroes and villains identities is exactly how anyone who has read enough comic books would go about it – a great tribute for those who think a pair of glasses does not make a full prove disguise. J

This book has lots of yummy ingredients – a strong but vulnerable leading lady, and exciting yet familiar world, an alpha male with a secret, a fast paced plot with plenty of twists and turns. These ingredients mix together to make a delicious ice cream sundae with whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on top! I was in exactly the mood to be entertained and that is exactly what I got – so much so that I immediately purchased the next two books in the series and plan on reading the other books by Jennifer Estep as soon as I can fit them into my reading schedule!

Recommended for fans of Smallville and Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittridge. 8 out of 10

Black and White (Icarus Project 1) Review

Black and White (Icarus Project 1)

-          Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge

Publisher: UK – Piatkus

Jet, the darling good girl of the city, uses her shadow-power to battle the forces of evil. But her shadows also mask the fierce demons that only she, her mentor, and her former best friend - and now arch-nemesis - know about. Iridium is that former best friend: able to wield the power of light, she trained as a hero only to become one of the most infamous villains in the city - for what she feels are truly heroic reasons. Alternating between the present-day threat and their past exploits as friends, and later rivals, at the Superhero Academy, the novel brings these two women to vivid life, portraying the complexities of being a true hero in a world determined to categorise you in a neat box of good or evil - black or white.

First up, I’ve never read a book by either of these authors before but if this is any example to go buy I will be stocking up on Jackie Kesslers & Caitlin Kittredge back catalogue as soon as possible! The story rips along at a quick pace with flashbacks to Jet & Iridium’s early friendship and time spent learning to be a hero before their paths diverged into arch-enemies.

This novel has so many layers to enjoy – there’s a superhero action adventure with heists, secret identity’s and roof top action sequences. There’s a coming of age teen angst (in a similar style as Twilight but without the brooding vampire/emo connotations). There’s the story of what it means to be a hero and what it means to be human. Do people need heroes if there aren’t villains? (That age old question – what is Superman without Lex Luthor?) And do people need to ask for help or should it be there ready for them? These are quite deep thoughts but they don’t impose on the story or the characters.

The characters are great as well – despite the title, there are no Black and White characters. They are all painted in shades of grey (funnily enough that’s the title of the sequel!) with good and evil just extremes which doesn’t cover any one persons motivations. There is some beautiful imagery to this book -  from the way Jet and Iridium have opposing looks, characters and even powers – one with shadow powers and one with light – yet the shadow powers are the ‘good’ powers. I loved the juxtaposition of this and realised that superheroes are people too! Please give this book a try – it’s a great read.

Recommended for fans of Smallville and those who like their heroes with a bit a dark in them. 9 out of 10