Wicked

Wicked: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Twenty-two year old Ivy Morgan isn't your average college student. She, and others like her, know humans aren't the only thing trolling the French Quarter for fun... and for food. Her duty to the Order is her life. After all, four years ago, she lost everything at the hands of the creatures she'd sworn to hunt, tearing her world and her heart apart.

Ren Owens is the last person Ivy expected to enter her rigidly controlled life. He's six feet and three inches of temptation and swoon-inducing charm. With forest-green eyes and a smile that's surely left a stream of broken hearts in its wake, he has an uncanny, almost unnatural ability to make her yearn for everything he has to offer. But letting him in is as dangerous as hunting the cold-blooded killers stalking the streets. Losing the boy she loved once before had nearly destroyed her, but the sparking tension that grows between them becomes impossible for Ivy to deny. Deep down, she wants... she needs more than what her duty demands of her, what her past has shaped for her.

But as Ivy grows closer to Ren, she realizes she's not the only one carrying secrets that could shatter the frail bond between them. There's something he's not telling her, and one thing is for certain. She's no longer sure what is more dangerous to her-the ancient beings threatening to take over the town or the man demanding to lay claim to her heart and her soul.

Honestly, this was my favorite Jennifer L. Armentrout book! I haven't read all of them… only the first Lux book and both of the Dark Elements books, but for me this one definitely tops those! It was somewhat different because those were young adult and this was new adult and I think that's actually what I liked most about it. It was a little more mature than the others and the plot definitely intrigued me more because I love New Orleans and really just Louisiana in general. 

I had my own predictions with what was going to happen with this book. Then I realized I was just predicting what I wanted to happen! I am not super into the Fae, which is what paranormal entity we are dealing with in this book. I think the book gracefully deals with it and doesn't shove a bunch of Fae mythology down your throat like some books try to do. The main characters were hilarious. I loved every single thing about Ren except for the whole "sweetness" and "hun" thing. It just didn't do anything for me. Ivy was fantastic, the cover pictures her as curvy but I really didn't hear her described as curvy very many times in the book. There were plenty of references to her red frizzy hair, though. 

"Who in the hell is Merida?"

One side of his mouth kicked up again. "The chick from the movie Brave with-"

"The frizzy red hair. Got it. Thanks"

Why 4 stars? I loved the plot - it was amazing and I was never bored. I feel like it had too many similarities to her other books, though. By that I mean that Ivy, Katy, and Layla seemed to resemble each other in many ways. I understand that JLA wants to have strong female characters, which isn't at all what I have a problem with. They are too similar in their personality! I literally feel like you can take sentences from either of them and paste it into her other novels, and you wouldn't even know the difference. That is a huge problem with me. For me, I want to be able to know the characters so well that you can read a sentence and totally know what character from the book said that, you know? One thing I will say is that Tink is an entirely new kind of character and I've never seen anything like him before! I hope she keeps writing new characters like that into her novels. 

"You wouldn't lie to me, would you, Tink?"

"No." He grinned. "You have Amazon Prime"

According to the end of the book, the second book is set to be published in summer 2015. Right now, there isn't even a cover so I'm not sure if that is still the case! Regardless, I'm super excited for the next book!