Blood of the Wicked by Karina Cooper

I can be a sap sometimes, and I confess that a good love story can move me to tears. Blood of the Wicked, however, made me cry for all the wrong reasons.

Blood of the Wicked is the first in the Dark Mission paranormal romance series by debut author Karina Cooper. It appears that each installment will be self-contained and focus on a different couple. The setting is an alternate future: witches existed and were known to exist in the story’s past, and then when disasters struck the world’s cities, the witches were blamed for the cataclysms and are now hunted and burned. In New Seattle, built on the ruins of today’s Seattle, we meet our hero and heroine.

Silas is a witch hunter on the trail of a violent coven. To that end, he seeks out Jessie, the sister of one of the coven’s witches, Caleb. He finds her te... Read More

The Mysterious Case of Mr. Strangeway by Karina Cooper

I picked up The Mysterious Case of Mr. Strangeway (2013) because it was free at Audible a while back. It’s the prequel to Karina Cooper’s ST. CROIX CHRONICLES which is set in Victorian London and begins with the novel Tarnished. In The Mysterious Case of Mr. Strangeway, we meet Cherry St. Croix, an opium-addicted tomboyish teenage orphan who lives with a wealthy benefactor and sneaks out at night to earn money to support her addiction. She does this by being a “collector,” which is something like a bounty hunter.

This is the story of her first collection attempt. She must bring in a Mr. Strangeway, who is wanted for his various debts. As she tracks him down, she has to hang out in the s... Read More