My Wicked Enemy

First in what I hope will be an ongoing storyline about Demons, Witches, Mages and Magehelds. A bit dark at times and Jewel could have skipped the menage scene but overall a fresh take on the paranormal. A great read!

I really enjoyed 'My Wicked Enemy', right up to the point fairly near the end when our heroine added a second man to her bed. This seemed an almost entirely gratuitous and pointless scene for the overall plot and didn't fit in well with the idea of one-man-one-woman that the rest of the book suggested and overall with the sexual content of this kind of book. After that scene I rather lost faith in the book and I imagine this might be a criticism from other readers. Apart from this scene the overall storytelling was very good in this book. Carson Philips, a young woman, is on the run after discovering her guardian has murdered someone. She is accosted by an unknown but rather handsome man who tells her that it's his job to kill her because she's a witch. She doesn't know the first thing about this and eventually Nikodemus, a four thousand year old fiend, realises she's telling the truth. Carson has escaped from the evil mage Magellan and has taken an important artefact with her which Magellan needs for a dodgy ritual to gain the power of a fiend for himself. Nikodemus has to get Carson up to speed very quickly with the strange world in which she now finds herself. Carson and Nikodemus continually have to dodge people trying to kill them, mostly fiends who are bound to their mage-masters despite being desperate to be free. As Carson's fluctuating powers begin to increase she finds that she has an unusual ability to rescue these people from their mage-bindings. But can Carson and Nikodemus keep themselves safe from all those trying to kill them, and can Carson survive all the events that happen to her? Overall this was a good read with a love story which was generally believable, particularly the parts where Nikodemus realises he is going against cultural rules and breaking taboos with his relationship to Carson. Of course the above-mentioned three-in-a-bed scene rather killed the romance side of the book for me (clearly I'm a traditionalist) but apart from this the story worked well overall. Carson was a rather weak and inept character at times, at others she seemed strong if rather impetuous. Nikodemus was a little hard to get to know, despite hearing most of the story from his viewpoint, but some of the side characters were interesting and added spice to the story. I just wish the author had left out THAT scene. Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

In the world of Wicked Enemy, demons really do exist and so do mages and they are mortal enemies. Demons, the `Kin', once earned their evil reputation with their ability to possess humans, but now it is the mages that are true evil, lengthening their lives by using black magic fueled by deaths and enslaving demons to do their bidding and robbing the 'fiends' of the vital psychic connection between `Kin' - bringing these `Mageheld' demons the anguish of psychic starvation caused by the inability to feel their fellow fiends. Though the book has only scratched the surface, the world building of Mages, the Mageheld, the Kin society, the power structure of the warlords with their sworn fiends, and the psychic connection between the demons was truly interesting. Killing runaway Witch Carson is number four on demon warlord Nikodemus' to-do list. But Nikodemus quickly discovers that Carson is not the powerful witch/mage of her reputation. When he first meets Carson she is a clueless, helpless, magicly crippled victim of their common enemy. But even though Nikodemus decides not to kill Carson, she is still hunted by her former mage boss' mageheld demon henchmen who are sent to kill Carson and regain an important Talisman that's she's stolen. As Nikodemus joins forces with the damaged witch to nullify the threat of the powerful magical object, there is something about Carson that will make Nikodemus want to break every taboo -- until suddenly, sleeping with the enemy sounds like a very good idea indeed. While the world and the characters in My Wicked Eneny were great, there was just something off with the love scenes. Nikodemus' mindmelding partial `possesion' of Carson had potential for uping their joining into a soul-deep connection, however Nikodemus' thoughts - and we don't get Carson's - were centered pretty much on the demon kink of `doing it' while shifted into demon form and the fantasy of his alien body joining with `a' human and not with Carson in particular. Add a startingly unlover-ly word amid the peppering of curses in his `love talk' - which up to that point did up the intensity and edginess of the scene - and result just wasn't very romantic. Another scene later on was a weird sexual healing between Carson, Nikodemus and a pyschicly reconnected demon which avoided being a full ménage, just pairs with a third mental participant, but again no romance. Out of the bedroom, and the attic, the story was great. Nikodemus is immediately compelling, as he struggles with instincts that draw him to this forbidden witch and lead him to protect Carson instead of killing her to remove the danger she presents to his demon race. The struggle for the Talisman and its reprecussions, the confrontations between mages and demons, and Carson's contribution as she acquires formidable power and learns to wield it, supply plenty of action to go along with some powerful and dangerous secondary characters: Durian, Xia and Iskander. Jewel already has the Xia

I bought it on a whim, and ended having to push Gena Showalter down a space in my book shelves (which I order from LOVED to liked) once I was done. Carolyn Jewel creates a whole new world with Fiends, their enemy Mages, and one mixed up witch lost in between. The book was funny, can't put it down entertaining, and completely and refreshingly original. I'll be waiting for the next in the series, His Wicked Witch, out next summer. 5 STARS! Jack

Carolyn Jewel creates a new series with My Wicked Enemy. I have to admit the back of the book and the title made me feel like this book was just going to be alright and lost in the paranormal romance series. I was wrong. Jewel creates two characters that are unlike the typical hero and heroine. Nikodemus is an old as dirt Fiend who swears, curses, and wants to kill Carson and Magellan. You have to understand in this series Mages/Witches/Magekind are bad news. They enslave Fiends and take away their good will. It's a war of good and evil, except everyone's in the grey a little. Carson is a witch who's been locked away from her power and now can't `pull' magic. So she's useless as anything but a battery to other Magekind and harmless to Fiends. Carson witnesses a murder at Magellan's house and her innocent naivety comes crashing down. She runs away and straight into Nikodemus who swears she's on his to-do list today, fourth one down, "Kill Magellan's Witch. Carson's character is filled with flaws physically and psychically. Through the entire book the reader is rooting for her survival and hoping she can come out on top. Nikodemus' character is definitely old-fashion good, but it takes the entire book before they actually get together. All around the plot is new and different then you're average vampire/werewolf romance and I'm looking forward to the next book. I hope she blows this series up big and expands on the Fiends who have already been introduced. Put Carson and Nikodemus on your to-do list!