Lawson’s review of Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep
Paranormal romance released by Berkley 1 May 07

I had not realized how remiss the the duckies were when I did a little digging through the reviews and saw we have not, in fact, posted a review of Karma Girl. Which is a travesty (since I read it and it is quite cute) to be sure. Or at least something needs to be done, like oh, I don’t know, write a review. 🙂

Carmen Cole has finally hit the Bigtime. Bigtime, New York, home to the world’s best superheroes and craftiest ubervillians, the Fearless Five and Terrible triad. Carmen has been hired by The Expose, a local newspaper, to unmask the supers so the whole world will know. Carmen is an expert on unmasking heroes and villains after she catches her fiancee with her best friend. On her wedding day. Her fiancee happens to be her Southern town’s local superhero and her best friend his nemesis.

Carmen uses her intellect and puzzle skills to unmask one of the Fearless Five, just like dozens of other superheroes across the country, but then things go wrong. The unmasked superhero, Tornado, commits suicide causing scandal. Carmen gets demoted to covering the society column instead of unmasking the great superheroes.

Carmen doesn’t mind though, she feels guilty enough for causing Tornado’s death, but she’s back on the case of unmasking when the Terrible Triad kidnaps her and threatens horrible, radioactive death if she doesn’t come up with some superhero secret identities. While she digs again though she comes face to face with Striker, the sexiest superhero of them all, and she has to fight more than just her fear of radioactive death.

Karma Girl has got it all. Snappy dialogue, a kick ass heroine, sexy hero and great plotting. The only thing that put me off was the fact that it’s in first person. The first person only bothered me though in the passionate moments that Carmen and Striker have, but Estep did a great job of showing how Striker feels about Carmen even though we only get one point of view. Carmen and Striker have a great chemistry and give some idea of some serious steaminess.

There are even great classic comic book themes throughout the story. Carmen’s revenge on superheroes because of her fiancee, greed of the villains, fear of discovery by the Fearless Five and wanting to keep secret identities a secret. There’s some great tongue in cheek moments too, because it seems that superheroes, it would seem, could be easy to unmask, if you know what to look for. The general public, though, like keeping them superheroes rather than knowing who they are. The mystique and magic in what they do is more important, and Estep subtly puts that into the story.

The Fearless Five are a great group of characters, well drawn and realistic. The villains are more than two dimensional plot devices. There’s a great feeling of a comic book epic through the whole story. I think that Estep’s Bigtime could fit in a world with Gotham and Metropolis any day of the week, and maybe even come out on top.

Grade: B+

The Summary:

Someone has to pay for what happened to Carmen Cole …

Bigtime, New York is not big enough for both Carmen Cole and the superheroes and ubervillains who walk its streets. An intrepid reporter, Carmen’s dedicated her life to unmasking the spandex wearers, all because her fiancé turned out to be a superhero, and a cheating one at that – sleeping with none other than his nubile nemesis.

Exposing the true identities of the nation’s caped crusaders and their archenemies has catapulted Carmen from her sleep southern hometown to the front pages of one of the country’s biggest newspapers, The Exposé. Hobnobbing with modelizing millionaires and famished fashionistas is all in a day’s work for the woman hot on the trail of the Fearless Five and Terrible Triad. But when Carmen gets the scoop of her career, her life comes crashing down around her. And even Bigtime’s sexiest superhero, Striker, may not be able to save her …

Read an excerpt