Friday, November 29, 2013

Review: Wild Card by Jamie Wyman

Title: Wild Card
Author: Jamie Wyman
Source: Entangled Edge
Genre: Mythology, Urban Fantasy
Release Date: November 25, 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

It was bad enough that gods gambled with human souls, but Catherine Sharp’s soul just had to be won by the Greek goddess of Discord, Eris. As if working a dead-end tech support job didn’t suck the life out of her as it was. Now, Cat finds herself performing random tasks for the goddess in her free time.

But when Coyote, the Native American trickster himself, claims to have won her own soul in Mayhem’s weekly poker game, Cat wants in on the action. With five sneaky gods upping the ante, Cat needs to find a way to collect the winning chips that could save her soul.
Marius, a handsome yet irritating satyr with his own debt to Eris, might finally come in handy for something. If they play their cards right and work together, Cat and Marius may just get their freedom back. If they don’t kill each other—or fall in love—first.


How would you like to have your soul used as a poker chip - a very expensive one - but still a poker chip.  Catherine has managed to have her soul traded not once, but it looks like twice now, in a high stakes poker game of the gods.  Now, it's not just Greek gods we're talking about here, although Eris does play a very large roll, but gods from across the pantheons.  It was really cool watching the different dieties interact with Cat, Marius, and each other.  Of course no one, except the gods, is really sure that Cat's soul was up to begin with, but Cat and Marius have promised to help each other out - and maybe save them both from Eris in the end.

Cat was a fun character, but there was so much she never knew about herself - and boy was she pissed when she found out some of it.  She was a computer wiz with no social life outside her little techie sphere.  There were several times when Marius, the satyr, was ablt to completely steal the show from her.  He was suave, sophisticated, and a complete ass - in a humorous way (Cat may disagree with me there).  The story was exciting with the various gods all trying to test Cat and see what made her tick - almost like a little lab experiment.  I know, a little twisted, but what else to gods have to do.

The only part of this book that rubbed me a little wrong was that it screamed sequel at me.  So I hunted and looked to see what I could find.  I was enjoying the story so I figured why not read the first one first?  But there was none - at least not that I could find.  So I kept reading thinking maybe I had totally missed something.  They did eventually explain the past that was repeatedly referenced, but it was almost at the end of the book.  If I was the author, I would write a quicky novella about Cat's past with Daphne as a prequel - I really want to know more now!

And on a totally random side note: I loved this cover!!!

*This book was received in exchange for an honest review*


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