Guest Review: Jinx by Jennifer Estep

Posted September 19, 2008 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Kris‘ review of Jinx (Bigtime Book 3) by Jennifer Estep.

Bella Bulluci’s big passion is the arts. Her big pain is being born into a family of superheroes. Of course, Bella might feel differently if her own superpower was one she could control –– supercharged telekinesis. In other words, static electricity. Bella knows that’s not a power – just a jinx. or at least get some use out of.

Instead, her power is one of capricious luck

During a gala fundraiser for the local art museum, Bella comes upon two things no Bigtime supergirl should be without: an ubervillain of her very own who plans to steal a priceless gem; and a dashing – if slightly shady – stranger named Debonair. He may have a reputation as a notorious playboy, but the real sparks are going to come from Bella, who’s finally going to learn just how well love and danger can go together …

This was really cute (some of it in that cheesy superhero movie kind of way). This was my first Bigtime book, I have not read the other two (Karma Girl and Hot Mama). There were references to things that happened in the other books but nothing so like I felt I was lost or confused.

Bigtime is like Batman’s Gotham or The Incredibles movie, a city with lots of superheroes and ubervilleins. This book has action and some of the cheesiness of superhero worlds and that was a lot of fun. Complete with cheesy names and powers. My favorite hero that was mentioned but did not see in the book was Halitosis Hal (I love that name, cracks me up), makes me wonder what his power is.

But it also has a good storyline and a nice romance in it. Bella has had enough of being involved with superheroes, it is too hard on the heart. She has the same problem as cop/firefighter/soldier’s wives and families, wondering, will your loved one come home tonight. She patched her father up over and over when he came home and one night he did not come home. So the last person she was to feel attracted to is a superhero, so of course, who does she fall for… a superhero.

It was interesting watching her character and what her “power” put her through. She has already passed that frustration with it and just coped. Living with having uncertain luck where things could go awesome, like the perfect parking spot, or horrible, like tripping over a nothing to spill your drink on a priceless rug. I think I would have cried more often in frustration. But that is just me and I do not have to live with that. Debonair was a nice character, he was very sweet and strong at the same time. I love that. I really liked the ending and how they worked things out.

Nice light read, if you are looking for a different lighter paranormal. I would give it a:

4 out of 5

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-book.

Read more from Kris at The Reading Spot.

1 Comment

Tagged: 4.0 Reviews, Berkley, Bigtime series, Jennifer Estep, Kris' Reviews, Paranormal, Reviews

Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep

Posted January 14, 2008 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 3 Comments

Hello everyone 🙂 I’ve been asked by the girls of Book Binge to join them on this blog which I’m sure is going to be great fun. I am not giving up on reviewing books on my own blog however, so we’ll see how I handle everything… I think it’s going to be interesting ^^;

So here are my first contributions to Book Binge 🙂

Karma Girl

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 …

The book starts with Carmen finding her fiancé in bed with her best friend 30 minutes before saying “I do.” Worst, she discovers that her fiancé is the town’s superhero and her best friend, the town’s ubervillain. Not really knowing which hurts more, the betrayal or the fact that the people closest to her couldn’t trust her, she discloses their identity in the newspaper she’s working for. For the next few years, she goes on a mission: discover and disclose as many identities as she can. Her hard work finally lands her a great job in Bigtime (a bit like NY), where she was asked to discover the identities of the Fearless Five, the town’s superheroes. However, her life and job lose all their charms when one of the Fearless Five’s member commits suicide after she reveals his true identity. At this point, she questions her motives, decides to give up on superheroes and ubervillains and is relegated to covering social events… Then enters Bigtime’s ubervillains, the Terrible Triad, who kidnap her and threaten her to find the identity of the remaining Fearless Five or else, they’ll turn her into a science project which will eventually kill her.

So my thoughts on the book? I enjoyed it a lot. Surprisingly, I liked Carmen. I usually don’t really like reporter characters, but Carmen wasn’t too report-y. She did get on my nerves here and there, but I could understand her motivation. In addition, she gave up on her mission when she learnt that she caused the death of Tornado. She didn’t cling to the “the public has a right to know” mantra. Also, she tried to find solutions and options to her problems, although I admit, self-sacrifice isn’t the smartest solution ^^; On the other hand, the hero, Striker – the leader of the Fearless Five, he was kind of meh. See, this book focuses more on Carmen, the main plot and the building of the world than the romance. As a result, the other characters introduced, including the hero, weren’t well fleshed out. We only got them in one dimension, which was unfortunate, but understandable.

My biggest issue with this book however is the predictability. As you read, you can easily guess who are the superheroes, the ubervillains and some of the events to come. It does not ruin the book, but it takes a bit of the enjoyment away. To her credit, Ms Estep did try to deal with the issue in the book; however, having the characters acknowledged the obviousness of the superheroes and ubervillains identities makes it even more obvious to the readers.

Basically, reading this book felt a lot like watching the Walt Disney movie, The Incredibles. The idea isn’t bad, the writing is good and the story, enjoyable; however, the predictability and the redundancy of the story (superheroes fight ubervillains, superheroes win, ubervillains go back to plot something else) might ruin the series in the long run. For now, Karma Girl is a good debut novel and a nice introduction to Bigtime; however, I wish it had focused a bit more on the romance.

3.5 out of 5