Review: Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Published on December 8th, 2014

Things are about to get Wicked in New Orleans.

Twenty-two year old Ivy Morgan isn’t your average college student. She, and others like her, know humans aren’t the only thing trolling the French Quarter for fun… and for food. Her duty to the Order is her life. After all, four years ago, she lost everything at the hands of the creatures she’d sworn to hunt, tearing her world and her heart apart.

Ren Owens is the last person Ivy expected to enter her rigidly controlled life. He’s six feet and three inches of temptation and swoon-inducing charm. With forest-green eyes and a smile that’s surely left a stream of broken hearts in its wake, he has an uncanny, almost unnatural ability to make her yearn for everything he has to offer. But letting him in is as dangerous as hunting the cold-blooded killers stalking the streets. Losing the boy she loved once before had nearly destroyed her, but the sparking tension that grows between them becomes impossible for Ivy to deny. Deep down, she wants… she needs more than what her duty demands of her, what her past has shaped for her.

But as Ivy grows closer to Ren, she realizes she’s not the only one carrying secrets that could shatter the frail bond between them. There’s something he’s not telling her, and one thing is for certain. She’s no longer sure what is more dangerous to her—the ancient beings threatening to take over the town or the man demanding to lay claim to her heart and her soul.

My Thoughts:
I had a hard time with this one.  When I first heard about this book I was so excited because I lately I am so over the typical NA formula.  Well Wicked threw in my favorite things fae and JLA so I thought this book would be a solid 5 star.  Unfortunately I had a lot of problems throughout the book and I am left really thinking that NA just might not be for me.

I know a lot of people who have loved this so don't just take my review and throw this book out the window.  My problems with it are all most likely just my own, but I'll explain why this didn't quite work for me...

First Ren.  A few years ago I would have been swooning and squeeing with the masses over him, but this time and day yeah not so much.  He was too perfect.  I don't need damaged beyond belief characters to fall in love with, but I don't need say all the right things, beyond gorgeous where every woman within a 100 mile radius tells you he's gorgeous, and in general too perfect either. I wanted Ren to be more.  Yes he was there for Ivy in every sense of the word and in every way possible and yes he did have a nice way of throwing her against a wall in the rain, but it all felt too perfect.  He always said the right things and he was just the all around nice guy.  I can see you are thinking I'm nuts and I should be head over heels, but I don't want too perfect.  I guess I just wanted Ren to be a little more edgy.

Ivy I liked.  She was a little too naive with Ren especially for someone who had experience, but I could live with that.  She was protective over her friends and took her job seriously.  I honestly liked her for the most part.  Ivy was my light at in the darkness for this book.  I liked looking through her eyes except for when she was looking at Ren.  I have to give her credit though she did stand her ground with him for awhile and give him a run for his money which was nice to see. All in all I was happy with her.

My biggest problem with this story though was the story itself.  I really liked the fae world that JLA has created, but there were so many holes and well the twist I saw coming a mile away and was really let down by it.  I think too much time was spent saying no no no and thrown in the readers face that it made the obvious too obvious.  I don't like where things ended and I can see a big angsty tug and pull arc in the next one.  I would have personally preferred the story to stay centered around what happened with the fae and the Order rebuilding.  I knew I would get a little angst since this is NA, but I did not expect to be fully thrown into another NA formula with just an added paranormal spin.  I don't mean to sound better because I actually really did enjoy the fae world, but it's hard to focus on that world with so many holes and angst hiding in the corner.

You might like this a lot of people did.  It's not bad by any means just not for me.  I wanted a tighter story and I feel like there were so many threads lose with this story and its characters.  I don't know if I will read the sequel because I don't want to read the fall out between Ivy and Ren.  It honestly took me 3 days to finish the last 3 chapters because I knew what was coming and I didn't want to read it.  I'm so sad that this one didn't work for me.

2.5 suns

Waves of Fiction 2015 Reading Challenge
-A book set in a college