You know, I think if I said, "Carolyn Jewel attended the Laurell K. Hamilton school of urban fantasy writing" and called it a day, most readers would probably get all the information they need from my review. Maybe I should add, "Not the early Anita Blake books, late-period Laurell K. Hamilton, and yes, that does mean what you think it means."

This is actually not at all what I expected from the first chapter of MY WICKED ENEMY, which I read as a sample. The writing is noticeably more polished in the beginning of the book, and has a kind of bleak simplicity that really drew me in. The heroine, Carson, is in a pretty miserable situation and I sympathized with her immediately. But after the exposition, where we get the lowdown on who the main characters are and why the mages and demons hate each other so much, the book really shifts gears.

Demons are all attracted to mages - mage blood is like demon catnip - so every demon who meets Carson wants to sleep with her. Some of them try to force her, some of them try to seduce her, but they all try. The plot makes sense and all, and it's fairly interesting, but it seems like the real purpose of the plot is to manufacture sex scenes. The book features a lot of graphic sex, and a lot of it is rough or kinky. Not saying that's good or bad, just fair warning.

As the book wore on I had a harder and harder time picturing the supernatural elements of the plot. There's a lot of stuff about magic - pulling magic, touching someone else's magic, channeling magic through someone else - and I got totally lost. I'm not sure what people can do with magic in this world, or what its limitations are. Without a really clear guide to how magic works, a lot of key scenes in the book made hardly any sense to me. I mean, I understood who won and who lost or whatever, but not the mechanics of how it happened.

It's also a big deal that the hero, Nikodemus, has both a human and a demon form, and at key moments shifts into his demon form. But we don't really find out what that demon form looks like...so I understood it was exciting and forbidden, but remained fuzzy on the details. If the author is going to go there, shouldn't she really, really go there? ( )

Lady Wombat says:

Lots of potential here, but the poor writing stands in the way of creating a compelling secondary world. Not much character development, and a lot of confusing gaps in the storytelling. I know from Jewel's regency books that she can write and plot much better than this, so perhaps I'll give the 2nd book in the series a try.

Way cool. I was a little worried when I started this book. I'd seen a few reviews which were less than stellar. Well...I don't know what book they read, but I really enjoyed "My Wicked Enemy" by Carolyn Jewel. It's got mages, demons, witches, and hot sex. And the premise of the book is a new (at least for me) take on the whole demon/mage thing. If I had to categorize it, I'd probably call it a paranormal, urban fantasy, contemporary romance. And a darn good one at that.

Carson is a witch who has no idea what she is. Nikodemus is a demon warlord who hates all magekind including witches. He can't believe his luck when he spots Carson alone and unguarded. It doesn't take too long for him to realize she's majorly messed up and so naive she doesn't even know what he is or that she should be scared of him. Hell, she even tried to kill a mageheld demon to save him! Now her magic may be about to kill her and he's trying to SAVE her instead of kill her. What's next? Falling in love? Uh...yes.

This novel is about magical slavery. Strong magekin (witches, warlocks, etc) can capture demons and force them to do whatever is requested. Trying to resist can actually kill the demon. Nikodemus is trying to get the demon warlords to work together (HAH!) to fight the mages before all of their kind are mageheld. But who will trust a demon who seems to be working WITH a witch?

Fascinating. With lots of directions for the author to head in and I can't wait to see what's next. The sex is really quite hot for a mass market paperback title and includes a scene of multiple partner sex (but not full blown menage). The tentative title to her next book in this world is "His Wicked Witch" with an estimated publication date of 'summer' 2009. ( )

didn't finish...not my type of book ( )

At first I loved it. Then I didn't. And then I did, again. The strength of this book lies in it's intriguing set of characters. Fans of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood will love the cast of badasses found here, especially Xia, the biggest, baddest mother of the group. This is also a very sexy book, with the temperature ranging from sizzling to scorching all the way through. The plot is a little basic -- in truth there isn't a whole lot going on -- and this definitely reads as the first book of a series; nevertheless, the entertainment value is high. I will certainly pick up the sequel (about Xia) next summer. ( )