LynneC’s review of Lure of the Wicked (Dark Mission, Book 3) by Karina Cooper
Paranormal/Futuristic Romance published by Harper Collins 28 June 11
I received this one as an ARC from Netgalley.
I was intrigued by the premise of the story. I didn’t realize this was the third in a series, but sometimes I like jumping into a series to see what it’s about. I didn’t realize that this is a series that should definitely be read in order, as an important character from the first book appears in the second, and because I hadn’t read the first, I didn’t know him or what I was supposed to think about him. It just added to the all-at-sea feeling I had from the moment I started this book.
You can’t say that Cooper didn’t try. Lure of the Wicked begins with two solid chapters of infodumps and information. In the first chapter, the heroine is striding about a luxury hotel room, pissed off with someone or something, filling the air with “as you know, Bob,” statements.
So I learned that she’s a “missionary” of the “Church,” a church that seems to have very little to do with religion, hunting down “witches.” I put all these things in inverted commas, because the words didn’t mean what I expected them to mean, as I discovered as I read further.
Moreover, I dislike the heroine. She’s an agent of sorts, a killer, an assassin. There are always problems with assassin heroines in making them sympathetic to the reader. I’m afraid Naomi and I didn’t hit it off on the right foot. The high-heeled-booted foot. This is such a cliché, that despite the fact that Naomi dislikes high-heeled boots, it kind of grates on me. But I forgave and read on. Agents shouldn’t be angry, they should cultivate a cool, analytical approach, or they will do something stupid. Naomi seems to be constantly angry. There is a lot of Nikita in this one, especially the original TV series. I can’t say if it’s like the new series, since I haven’t seen it.
Naomi does stupid stuff, I have to say. She keeps rescuing people in dangerous situations when she’s supposed to be posing as a rich client of this luxury spa that the hero runs. She ooks wonderful in designer clothes, but despises them. She looks wonderful in evening wear and she looks wonderful in old, tatty jeans, her preferred wear. She rescues people, shoots to kill, and knows exactly the right thing to do in a situation where everyone else is running around like a chicken without a head. So, naturally, I dislike Naomi. It is a bit of a relief to discover that she’s shit at breaking and entering. That is, she can do it really well, but she hasn’t prepared an exit line for if she’s interrupted, and she doesn’t really know what she’s looking for. Or where. So maybe action girl who isn’t as clever as she thought she was covers it.
What kept me reading is the hero, Phin (is it me, or are a lot of Phins turning up recently?) He has two mothers, as his parents are a loving female couple, and he is a neat freak. I love a man who isn’t afraid of his feminine side. He does fight and knows how to use a gun, but only when he needs to. Phin is smart and likes to think about things and, you know, actually work them out first. So although descriptions of him outside the generic “ripped” and “powerful” are sparse (apart from his curly hair, which is discussed a lot – I mean a lot), I could get on with him. I feel sorry that he is lumbered with Naomi, actually.
Naomi proves her lack of mental ability later, when a twist in the plot leaves her dumbfounded, whereas most readers will have sussed this one out pretty fast, or if they read the first book in the series, they’ll know it already. Not a deep thinker, our Naomi. Never mind, the lass means well. Even if it does take her almost the whole book to get there.
The plot? Don’t ask me. It was full of mothers and spas and sekrit organizations and stuff I have no idea about. Every time I thought I was getting the hang of this one, something new pops out of left field and left me floundering again. Despite the heavy emphasis on bringing the reader up to speed in the first couple of chapters, it doesn’t help an awful lot. Eventually I just went with the flow, and by the end, barely managed to lift a brow as yet another big surprise pops up. In the end, it’s an old trope, but I won’t spoil it by telling you what it is. Just that if you’re familiar with Nikita, you’ll get the idea of this one.
Now this is just me. There are a few authors I love in this field who write labyrinthine stories that don’t leave the reader wondering—Lynn Viehl comes immediately to mind. I’ll follow Viehl anywhere (except into YA – sorry, Lynn!) and I have Frostfire in my TBR waiting for a quiet afternoon, but Cooper doesn’t seem to have Viehl’s knack of making everything clear. Or of making you care about the protagonists.
There are a couple of super hot sex scenes that are worth the ride. I did enjoy them and I think they are done really well. Just m/f, but super hot and very involving. However, there is the sex equals love trope, which I’m not overkeen on. At one point later, Naomi does point that out to Phin, but he insists that he loves her. I didn’t see it, didn’t see how he could know he loves her instead of wanting her and being willing to let the relationship develop. In this instance, I did agree with Naomi. He couldn’t love her. He didn’t.
There are some great action scenes, and apart from a few odd turns of phrase, I find the prose clear and readable. “The thought made him want to insert himself into that easy niche of feminine laughter and kiss her until her breath fragmented in her chest.” The more you think about that sentence, especially with reference to Naomi, the less sense it makes. There are a few like that, where an editor might have asked Cooper if that worked in the context of the story.
Although there are quite a few scenes where the protagonists think about what they’re doing, why they’re doing this, I don’t really get under their skins. They have the right amount of angst in their pasts, in Naomi’s case perhaps a tad too much. But Naomi never does anything by halves (I mean that – anything! She probably uses four bottles in the shower). The action and the story seem disconnected by their feelings so that one element of the story doesn’t play on the other, the action merely pushes them into convenient proximity to each other. The witchy stuff seems kind of imposed, the paranormal element minimal. There is much more emphasis on the thriller side of the story.
The worldbuilding in this story is similarly patchy. This is post-apocalyptic Seattle, and the apocalypse in this case seems to have been earthquakes and natural disasters. But, apart from that, their world is our world, if you see what I mean. There are still designer clothes, guns you have to fire, jeans and cars you have to drive. No real imagination has gone into thinking about how technology might have advanced or even retreated, as a result of the disasters. If you delve too deeply, the world starts to fragment, so it’s best to see it as a convenient and vaguely interesting backdrop. Not a world I can wholly believe in, but had the romance been more engaging, I wouldn’t have cared.
For Phin, for the sex and action scenes and for the quality of writing, that brings my grade up a bit. But I can’t say I’ll be holding my breath in anticipation of Ms Cooper’s next book.
However, if you love this kind of book, a futuristic thriller, with lots of action and sex, and an intriguing hero, then you’ll probably enjoy this one.
Grade: C
Summary:
Naomi West was plucked from one prison and placed undercover in another: the gilded cage that is Timeless, New Seattle’s premier spa and resort, where owner Phinneas Clarke—the most seductive man Naomi has ever met—may be hiding a killer. She’s an agent of the Holy Order, trained to hunt the guilty and render justice. But while she’s tracking down a rogue agent on a killing spree, Phin is determined to uncover her most damning—and dangerous—secrets. Whatever the cost.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
