Wicked Game [Mass Market Paperback]

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Ciara Griffin is a con artist paying her way through college with her cons. Now however, she's trying to put that reputation behind her and start working a real job. Marketing intern to the owner of a local radio station, WMMP, sounds like just the ticket she's looking for. However, upon starting work, she learns her employers have a few surprises for her.

WMMP is floundering and Skywave, a giant communications company is trying to buy them out. WMMP has an eclectic late night lineup, covering each decade for about the 1940s/50s through the 90s and Ciara is in for the shock of her life when she learns a little secret the DJs are keeping. They are all vampires, permanently stuck in the years in which they were turned.

Ciara's has a brilliant marketing concept - revamp the station, changing the name to WVMP "The Lifeblood of Rock and Roll and have the vampires hide in plain sight, telling everyone they are vampires. After all, everyone knows vampires aren't real so no one will believe the truth. Unfortunately a local band of ancient vampires are none too keen on revealing their secret, ready to put an end to the radio station once and for all. Now, along with her new vampire friends, including one very hot DJ she'd love to get to know better, Ciara is neck deep in the Wicked Game to pull off the greatest con of her life.

Wow! Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready is a refreshingly original take on modern vampires in urban fantasy. From her unique concept on vampire society to the lively rock and roll radio station, this book is a breath of fresh air. The stakes are high as Ciara, and in turn the readers, learn why the radio station is so crucial to the vampires' survival. Add in not one but two groups of potential enemies in the form of vampire cult leader Gideon and The Control (a black ops military organization protecting good vampires and destroying bad ones) and tensions mount as circumstance grow more dire for Ciara and company.

I completely loved the idea of vampires stuck in their former "Life Time," making them unique from many other books out there, and even completely different from each other in the universe Jeri Smith-Ready has created. After all who can't appreciate the novelty of having a hippy, a Goth, and a grunger mixing it up with a classy 40's African American gentleman, a 50s/60s greaser, and a Rastafarian. Talk about lots of opportunity for amusement! As if that wasn't enough, I loved the characterization of the vampires, with more than one of them having developed some type of OCD behavior after their turning. I laughed out loud more than once over the antics. Watching a vampire trying to organize CDs and retrieving a whole container of spilled pencils being two of the more memorable scenes.

While all of the vampires and humans at WVMP are crucial to the story, the real star is Ciara. She has distanced herself from her con artist parents and is trying so hard to overcome her past. So it is rather ironic that the only way to save her life is to stage the biggest con she's ever tried. Ciara's heart of gold shines through even in the face of temptation and I can't help but lover her for her irrepressible spirit.

I so thoroughly enjoyed my extended visit to WVMP in Wicked Game and I can only hope Jeri Smith-Ready has more stories planned about those loveable vampires.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, April 2008. All rights reserved.

What would you do for a job?

Ciara Griffin has always lived for the con. Now she's trying to get her life straight and get a job in sales and marketing. A local radio station, WVMP, offers her a job, but there's a catch: the DJs are all vampires. These aren't ordinary vampires, however. Each DJ is stuck in the "Life Time" in which they died. Now a huge corporation wants to buy out WVMP. Will Ciara be able to play the con of her life in order to save WVMP? And what about her growing attraction to vampire Shane McAllister?

Jeri Smith-Ready is simply a master at creating vibrant characters, full of life! Ciara is a delight, with her old "con" nature tugging at her. Her wicked side constantly wars with her desire to do the right thing, making her all too human and very likable. Shane, too, has his darker side that he struggles against. Jeri Smith-Ready excels at showing growth in her characters as they encounter conflicts, both internal and external, and this is evident in WICKED GAME. Ciara and Shane will have to overcome their own inner struggles, as well as the threat of the corporate takeover, if they hope to succeed.

The tone of WICKED GAME is crucial to its success. The story has its darker moments as vampires are not portrayed as simply glamorous and sexy beings. No, Jeri Smith-Ready shows us their allure as well as their darker, blood driven side. However, there are touches of humor interspersed to keep the tone from becoming too intense. And who can resist a book that refers to humans as "sunnysides"?

WICKED GAME is a very clever twist on the vampire theme and one that left me hungering for a sequel. Jeri Smith-Ready has created a world populated with characters that I want to see more of. Regina, David, Jim... there are just so many avenues left to explore with all of these characters that I can only hope more books are on the way! If you haven't read a book by Jeri Smith-Ready, WICKED GAME is an excellent place to start as this is an author who consistently delivers quality stories.

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Ciara Griffin is a con artist who is trying to put the past behind her. Ciara parents were two professional swindlers who taught her everything she knows. But now that her mother's behind bars and her father has disappeared, Ciara just wants to be like everyone else. She performs one last con--a big one--to get her enough money to pay for college, and then decides to become an honest woman. It's with this in mind that Ciara goes to an interview for a marketing internship at WMMP (which sounds disturbingly like wimp to her jaded ears). It seems that Ciara's past makes her a prime candidate for the position, but before she can start the job the general manager gives her some required reading that might help her get to know her coworkers a little better--and help her decide if she can hack it (no pun intended). The required reading is a field guide to vampires. Long story short, vampires are stuck in the life time in which they died. Time is basically standing still for them, and it can be difficult to adjust to modern times. Each of the DJs at WMMP is so good at what they do because they are still frozen in the time period of the music they play. Like Monroe, an African American who died in the 40's and has a blues program, or Shane, a grungy rocker who died in the mid-90's with a penchant for Nirvana and angst.

Ciara is initially skeptical and dismissive--she was raised on scams and she knows one when she sees it. But when one of the DJs (Shane) proves just how real vampires are by biting her, Ciara comes face to face with the harsh reality that everything is not as it seems. And when the station is threatened from a buyout by a corporate giant (think Empire Records (Remix! Special Fan Edition)), it's up to Ciara to come up with another con to keep them in business. Revamping the WMMPy name, Ciara comes up with WVMP, the Lifeblood of Rock n Roll. She plans to out the DJs for what they are--vampires--and use this gimmick to convince listeners that this is why they're so in tune with the music they play. Her plan is a hit; at least until some other vampires decide they don't like having their truth broadcast over the airwaves. Suddenly Ciara, and the DJs, have more to worry about than preventing a takeover, they have to worry about keeping themselves alive.

Wicked Game was funny at times, but as a whole it just didn't do it for me. I just couldn't always generate the interest it took to read another page. In fact, I put it down several times while I read other things and only came back to it because I'm a person who finishes what she starts. I can't exactly pinpoint what it is that didn't work for me. I liked Ciara more than a lot of other romance heroines. I admired the fact that she knew when she was having a TSTL moment, and made the reader aware of it as well. It was a lot easier to tolerate than some simpering whiner who complains when bad things keep happening. And I liked Shane as the romantic interest, though I wished Ciara would quit stringing him along and make up her mind already. I think it's probably just that this book wasn't fast paced enough for me. Things moved slowly, and by the time there was a little action I couldn't really work up the motivation to care. Still, this book wasn't awful by any means. It had a lot of music trivia and some snappy dialogue, but it didn't balance out the uneven pacing and slow moments. I'd read another book by Jeri Smith-Ready, but I wouldn't pass this one on to a friend.