Wednesday, October 18, 2017

#Fantasy #Review - Call of the Wilde (Immortal Vegas, #8) by Jenn Stark

Series: Immortal Vegas # 8
Format: Kindle, 339 pages
Release Date:  September 5th 2017
Publisher: Elewyn Publishing
Source: Amazon
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Hello darkness, my old friend…

Still recovering from an explosive family get-together, Tarot-reading mistress of the House of Swords Sara Wilde isn’t ready to return to the war on magic. Then the Magician of the Arcana Council uses her to summon an ancient Greek deity for his own devious purposes, and Sara’s suddenly up to her elbows in oversized egos and millennia-old conflicts. Conflicts that imperil the delicate balance of power between the most formidable mortals on earth and the gods who wait beyond the veil.

To keep both gods and monsters where they belong, Sara is forced to put out the first call to arms of the four Houses of Magic since the fall of Atlantis. Unfortunately, that call brings ancient enemies into the open and reveals truths about the Council–and the Magician himself–she would have preferred not to know. Worse, a brutal resurgence of violence rocks the Las Vegas Connected community and has Sara questioning everything she knows about her closest allies, while a nagging interest from Interpol evolves into a far more insidious threat. Sara’s done her best to become a team player, but with friends like these…

Better pray it’s a wrong number when you get the Call of the Wilde.




Call of the Wilde, by author Jenn Stark, is the Eighth installment in the Immortal Vegas series. This time around, Stark decided that Sara hasn't had enough on her plate. Nope. This time she takes the entire freezer and dumps all of its contents on Sara's shoulders. If you follow this series closely, and I hope that you do, Sara has had an extraordinary adventure up to this point. Sara is a tarot card reading artifact hunter of some renown, who has become the head of the House of Swords. Oh, and she's apparently Immortal now as well. 

But, there's nothing like meeting your own bio-mother, aka Vengeance, aka the Denounced, and barely surviving against her and your nemesis Gamon. (Yes, the author does actually reveal her real name later in this story and it blow you away to learn who she really was, and how she and the Hermit met.) But, I digress. As the story begins, Sara is supposed to be on vacation with her on again, off again romantic interest Armaeus. Better known as the Magician of the Arcane Council. There are times I really, really can not trust him, and this is one of those times.

At the urging of Armaeus, Sara finds a way to bring a certain Goddess through the veil. Sowelcome to the series Hera! You are the newest hopeful for the Arcane Council as the Empress? If you thought that was all I was going to talk about, oh you are in for a rude awakening. As I've said before, Stark doesn't like Sara to have any sort of down time. Why have any down time when you can come under attack four times by an unknown source that later is revealed to be the fourth house of human magic, the House of Wands.

The House of Wands is a curious collection of warriors who have hidden themselves away from the rest of the world for centuries, and now have decide to find out whether or not Sara is the real deal, or just a fading star that will soon blink out. If that weren't enough, Sara is betrayed, Interpol is hot on her tail because of said betrayal, and then there are the Gods who decide that they have been on the other side of the veil for far too long. Sara attempts to bring all four houses together in London to seal the breach and stop the Gods. 

On top of all that Sara has been through since she started working for the Arcane Council, she still struggles to catch up to the world of magic that she has become a prominent figure in. Not only a prominent figure, but now a figure who has a huge bounty on her head from all sorts of people. A figure who may be as powerful as any member of the Arcane Council, possibly even strong because of her parents. Sara is far from a Mary Sue character, or one of those TSTL characters either. She does stand and deliver time and time again, and in this story, standing up causes a really curious cliffhanger ending. 

I love this series, I do, don't get me wrong. I will read it to the end if that's what it takes to discover Stark's end game when it comes to Sara. But, my weakness is that Sara is so far behind the eight ball, and really seems like she doesn't want to understand her part in what is happening all around her. Her refusal to take her leadership of the House of Swords is perhaps my biggest issue. Remarkably, Sara does have General Ma-Singh, and Nikki Dawes around to keep her focused. And, maybe, just maybe, Sara will discover what her abilities are capable of doing as she gets closer to the Devil, and the secrets he holds in his hands. 

This is, perhaps, the first cliffhanger ending in this series. Sara is really in a pickle, and it will take a major magic trick to escape as everyone seems to be eager to get their hands on Sara and discover what she really is capable of. Author states that Running Wilde will be the 9th installment, and will release this December. See you then!





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