Emery Nicolson‘s Something Wicked was promoed on Sadie’s Spotlight. And while I didn’t agree to review it for the tour, everyone who participated was given a free copy of the book.
Something wicked this way comes…
You’d think being the descendant of powerful witches would grant me the power to sort out my life, right? But you’d be wrong. I’m stuck in a rut, disdained by my family, and my romantic life is a disaster. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I have no magic?
When a cursed heirloom is stolen, I should stay out of it and leave the retrieval to those better equipped but everything seems to lead back to me…
With the help of an enigmatic bounty hunter, I may be able to clear my name and retrieve the artefact before death and chaos are unleashed upon my beloved city but doing so could cost me everything — including my life.
I generally enjoyed this. I liked Millie, liked that she stood up for herself, knew when to accept help and when to fight on her own. I liked the hero (he was suitably sexy) and the BFF who was loyal to the core. The writing was readable, with one exception (which I’ll address), and the world seems an interesting one.
I did think Millie made a few Too Stupid To Live decisions, which I could feel were just to move the plot along (which is making the architecture of the story a little too obvious). I really liked that it’s hinted at that the hero had been secretly in love with Millie for a long time. But I was super disappointed that this was never actually discussed. The sassy half-succubus BFF was actually kind of cliched, even if I liked her. All the BFFs in such books seem to be a little slutty and pushing the heroine to go have more sex (which is fine, but also super common). I thought the whole situation with Millie’s family was left unattended and that felt left out in the abrupt ending. And the reasoning for the villain’s obsession with Millie was pretty thin.
Last, the writing has a few formal quirks. I read an ARC, so it’s possible this will change. But I sensed it was part of the writing style, rather than editing errors to be caught in the pre-publication final edit. Things like this: “I already know there is no point in climbing back into bed for my brain is wide awake and buzzing. Thank the Gods it is Saturday and that I do not need to be anywhere…” The ‘for’ is anachronistic and the lack of contractions makes the sentence clunky. This runs throughout the book and irritated me. But that is, no doubt, a matter of preference.
For the most part I had fun with the story and would be happy to pick up another.
