“Wicked Appetite (Lizzy and Diesel #1) by Janet Evanovich
Synopsis:
For centuries, treasure hunters have been eager to possess the stones, undeterred by their corrupting nature. The list is long — Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, to name a few. Now the Stones have found their way to Salem, Massachusetts, and so has Gerwulf Grimoire, adding himself to this rogues’ gallery of power seekers. He’s an uncommonly dangerous man, with a hunger for the forbidden, and a set of abilities that are way beyond ordinary. Abilities that he feels entitle him to possess anything he might desire. That would include Elizabeth Tucker, the woman he needs to find the Stones. She’s freshly transplanted from New York City to Boston’s North Shore. With a new job as pastry chef at Dazzle’s bakery and an old house inherited from her Aunt Ophelia, her life is pretty much on track …until it’s suddenly derailed by a guy named Diesel, a rude monkey, and a ninja cat. Lizzy can handle the monkey and the cat. She’s not sure about Diesel. He’s offering up his own set of unusual talents, promising to protect her from Grimoire. The kind of protection that Lizzy suspects might involve guarding her body day and night. The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, greed, lust, envy wrath, sloth and gluttony. That pretty much covers everything that is wicked. Diesel thinks it also pretty much covers everything that’s fun. And Lizzy thinks Diesel and the Seven Deadly Sins cover everything her mother warned her about.
Review:
**2.5 stars**
Oh Boy...where to start with this. Things I did like? Some of the banter and more ridiculous situations that a side character (Shirley) ended up in. And the general premise of this book. What I didn't like? Pretty much anything else. Overall, the pacing and character reaction of discovery of something more paranormal is one of the biggest distractors to this book. It's very abrupt and not very realistic. Secondly-- the men.
hey're basically Thor and Loki-- except there's no real explanation of their backstory or any plot to give them sort of depth. Diesel (Yes, that's his fucking name) is the good guy because he's all tanned and blonde. He's just as commandeering and rude as his cousin, but less showy in a way? But don't worry, he's still overly confident and macho man. Just slightly more puppy doggy than his cousin. There's supposed to be sexual tension I guess, but it really doesn't come off that way, except for maybe the end, because we all know it won't happen for a specific reason named in the book. Also he's supposedly good at flirting but I just think he's a jerk?
Wulf (which is just a nickname from his even crazier name) is the bad guy because he's pale and wears all black and seems dangerous. He's a bit more cold than his cousin Diesel and supposedly wants a lot of power and to abuse it. But don't worry, he's still crazy hot. But you're not supposed to like him because he's less afraid to kill people. But Diesel isn't authorized to kill him? Or maybe he can't. But Wulf won't hurt Diesel because apparantly he also can't? I mean geez, even Loki at least had the guts and motivation to kill Thor. He's vaguely threatening. He supposedly is pretty dark and powerful, but we literally have no real demonstration on it nor do we have any explanation of his motivations, his story. Why is he looking for the stones (beyond the obvious). What lead him down this path? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Like...are we supposed to be divided on Team Diesel and Team Wulf? Wulf is definitely more aesthetically pleasing to me, but they're both pretty bland personality wise, and again...I guess he's supposed to be evil? Is it kind of fun that they're cousins and just roll their eyes at each other and compromise? Sure, it's kind of entertaining. Is it actually good character development? No. Boring. Then there's the main character Lizzie (literally had to look up both Diesel and Lizzie's names, even though they're the main characters, because they're both so fucking boring. Wulf may be ridiculous but I can at least remember him).
To borrow from Lizzie: "Geez Louise" So she wasn't hot growing up because she had a bit of a big nose, but she fell and broke it after college, so now she's got a cute nose, so she's now a hot blonde bombshell. Before that there's nothing that would've made her hot. She's supposed to be one of the best pastry chefs, but she's dumber than a box of rocks? I mean, she doesn't seem very intelligent anyway, and apparently her cupcakes are a special paranormal talent? She just decides "well, I guess I can't get rid of these people, so I just won't call the police." Everyone she tells or witnesses these guys just totally react like she does. Like.. I know they're ~magical~, but you wouldn't at least try to notify authorities of being stalked/forced to house a stranger at first? Like IDK. She just kind of takes everything as it comes. And isn't very competent. Like..IDK, if your weird magical cat tries to get you to stay, maybe heed the warning? Even I could tell it was warning her. Oh, and also she finds Diesel annoying, but apparently he's really good at flirting and hard to not desire, even though he's also totally a jerk (blegh). OH! and she thought she lost one of her abilities (never fully explained by the end of the book) and one of the ways she would've lost that is through sexual assault. And while she's a bit angry about it, even has to sit down briefly, doesn't really seem as traumatized as she should if she was potentially sexually assaulted while she was unconscious? Oh, and we know it wasn't Diesel (because he's obviously good) or Wulf because they need her powers to find the objects..so they wouldn't risk that. And we never really find out if the incident with her ability was just a fluke or not... Overall entertaining enough to read, but not a whole lot of action and the characters sucked.