Wicked Game is a slow burner. The story focuses on a woman who sees visions and she’s trying to solve the murder of her friend, while putting the pieces together of the visions. Her friend’s remains are found a decade later and their friend circle is reunited and all suspect each other.

I liked the setting and main characters within this moving storyline. Each was well rounded and the overall storyline was believable. The ending was interesting and I could see how they set it up for a sequel.

I didn’t like the pace of the book. The first half was very repetitive and overall the storyline moved slow. The first 2/3rds of the book to me were very slow moving and I had to push myself until the story actually got somewhere.

★★★ I liked it enough that I’ll read the second one but I wouldn’t put it in my top favorites. ( )

The exposition was too long to keep the reader engaged for 150 pages. ( )

The exposition was too long to keep the reader engaged for 150 pages. ( )

It's a paranormal thriller as well as a romance...heavier on the paranormal. It's also a very long book and it was sometimes made even longer by the author...for some unknown reason... repeating lines verbatim in several different chapters. In spite of that small flaw...the characters are well developed and, even with its length, you just have to find out what was going to happen. There were lots of twists and turns and lots and lots of red herrings to keep the reader in suspense. Many times I I thought I knew who did it, but I didn't actually figure that out until nearly the end. I always have felt that If a writer can keep the mystery going until the very end then they have done their best job. Any mystery and suspense or thriller fan will love this trilogy...and this is only book 1. ( )

Wicked Game accomplishes the remarkable fete of being over the top, melodramatic at times, and utterly mundane and boring at other times. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot in between these two extremes.

I knew I wouldn’t like this novel right from the opening scene. It was a dramatic scene, but it was so overwritten with cliché and forced melodrama. Instead of creating tension, it made me roll my eyes. There are times to turn up the intensity, but the execution from the authors was lacking. The characters were bland. Some were vanilla, and others were not remotely likeable. At the top of the list of the unlikeable (or maybe it was just the silly name they gave him) was The Third. I mean, who would call somebody The Third? I didn’t find the protagonist, Becca, at all likeable and I found her reaction to rejoicing after learning she was pregnant after literally her first date with her old high school sweetheart beyond unrealistic.

The antagonist wasn’t so much a character as a cardboard cutout with no characteristics that resemble an actual human being. Bad guys are generally very difficult to get right, but this villain was especially poor. I can’t say there was much I liked about the novel and I would not recommend it.

Carl Alves – author of The Invocation ( )