Title: Karma Girl
Author: Jennifer Estep
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Bigtime #1
Number of Pages: 360
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Sent
Karma Girl was just plain fun to read! I loved that every town had its own superheroes and ubervillians. Carmen Cole finds out on her wedding day that her finace is a superhero and he has been cheating on her with her best friend, who happens to be her fiance's villain. When she finds out their identities, she does what any good reporter would do-she reveals their identities. She then spends the next year or so moving from city to city revealing superheroes and ubervillains identities. She doesn't want anyone to be hurt like she has been.
Carmen becomes famous and everything is great until she goes to Bigtime New York to reveal the identities of the Fearless Five and their arch enemy-the Terrible Triad. She discovers the identity of one member of the Fearless Five and it backfires on her and she becomes the public's most hated person.
After Carmen becomes Bigtime's most hated person, she is demoted on the paper to covering society events. They are boring, but she manages to do a good job with them because her work at the paper is all she has left. She is resigned to her life of seclusion until one night when she is kidnapped by the terrible triad. They want her to uncover the identity of who Striker is so they can get to him and the rest of the fearless five to control the city. If she doesn't do it, they threaten her with a horrible ending. Carmen though, has other ideas and works to find out who Striker is so she uncover the identity of the triad (she has found in the past that villains and superheros are linked together pretty closely) to stop them from revealing Striker's identity and keep herself from getting killed.
Through a series of events Carmen and Striker meet and I loved the tension between them. They are attracted to each other even though they don't want to be because of what happened to the member of the Fearless Five when Carmen revealed his identity. These two are one of my favorite paranormal romance couples. Carmen gives as good as she gets, and doesn't give up fighting even when the odds are stacked against her. I like how Striker helps her work through her emotions about what happened to the member of the Fearless Five who she revealed.
The secondary characters are wonderful as well. I liked how slow the Fearless Five was to accept Carmen even though they knew she was there to help them against the terrible triad. It was very realistic, and I enjoyed how it helped Carmen grow as a person and realize that even though her intentions about revealing superheroes and villains identity were to keep others from getting hurt, karma had a way of showing her what the consequences of her actions were.
There is just so much more I could say about this book, but I don't want to give everything away. Karma girl was enjoyable because the heroes were ones that I wanted to be friends with, and the villains were just plain fun to hate. I can't wait to read more in this series. Jennifer Estep has a way of making her worlds come alive and her characters becoming beloved book friends.
Favorite Quotes:
"But I burned for him, yearned to touch him the way he was touching me, longed to feel him inside me. My fingers probed and prodded and plucked, but I couldn't quite find a way to get through the thick leather that covered his body. "Damn superhero suit." I muttered.
I was falling in love with him. And I didn't know what to do about it. I thought about the puzzle, trying to make the pieces fit together in some sort of order. But the edges were too rough, too raw, too new. I couldn't make sense out of my feelings.
Curran Crush Meter: High
Martini Sigh Meter: High
Barrons Hero Hotness Meter: High
Rhiannon Kick Ass Heroine Meter: High
Finn Sidekick Meter: Super High
Sizzle Meter: High
