Review: Wickedly Dangerous by Deborah Blake

Wickedly Dangerous
(Baba Yaga #1)
Deborah Blake
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: Sept. 2, 2014
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating:

Known as the wicked witch of Russian fairy tales, Baba Yaga is not one woman, but rather a title carried by a chosen few. They keep the balance of nature and guard the borders of our world, but don’t make the mistake of crossing one of them…

Older than she looks and powerful beyond measure, Barbara Yager no longer has much in common with the mortal life she left behind long ago. Posing as an herbalist and researcher, she travels the country with her faithful (mostly) dragon-turned-dog in an enchanted Airstream, fulfilling her duties as a Baba Yaga and avoiding any possibility of human attachment.

But when she is summoned to find a missing child, Barbara suddenly finds herself caught up in a web of deceit and an unexpected attraction to the charming but frustrating Sheriff Liam McClellan.

Now, as Barbara fights both human enemies and Otherworld creatures to save the lives of three innocent children, she discovers that her most difficult battle may be with her own heart…

 

 

My thoughts…

Have you ever voted a book for book club, only to realize you made a mistake in your choice and immediately hide behind the book in shame? Well, that was this book for me. I thought, how cool to read a book about the badass Baba Yaga. Something that you don’t see all too often in novels. The members from my book club felt the same way because they voted for it. However, the idea is about where the good times end for this book.

I knew that there would be romance in it because of the synopsis, but I thought it would be written a heck of a lot better than it was. Immediately the two characters can’t keep their thoughts off of each other. The sheriff, sure, he’s human and young. However, Barbara is much older, wiser, magical, and has seen so much. Not to mention she’s there to do a job of finding missing children who were taken by a magical being. So why is she spending so much time thinking about the “steamy sheriff”? It really just turned me away from her in the story because she wasn’t this strong independent character, she was a hormone driven female.

I honestly was expecting this kick-ass story focusing around the Slavic folklore with the authors own twist. You know, because instead of her going around and stealing children, she’s out there rescuing and protecting them. However, that part of the story gets completely lost in the doe-eyed idiocy of sexual hormones. What was supposed to be an amazing story turned out to be a severely watered down fantasy about the infamous Baba Yaga. Even Chudo who is supposed to be an ancient dragon who’s been glamored to look like a dog while in the human world was lackluster. Even when he transformed into his dragon body, he still was no more than a talking dog. Which is very sad, because I thought he was going to steal the show. In the end I only made it halfway through the book before calling it quits.

One Thought on “Review: Wickedly Dangerous by Deborah Blake

  1. Oh no, sorry to hear this one wasn’t better for you.

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