Wicked as They Come by Delilah S. Dawson + a Giveaway

I'm sure a lot of you have already discovered Delilah S. Dawson and her Blud series. You may recall, though, that her contribution to Carniepunk was my first time reading her. I swore then that I would be tackling the series shortly. I desperately had to have more of this world! And now's the perfect time. Pocket has a brand new e short due out Jan 6 and the third Blud title, Wicked After Midnight, hits shelves on Jan 28.

Sick as I've been this Christmas holiday (as in sick the entire freaking time!) it hasn't kept me from tackling the TBR. And so on Christmas day I dove into Dawson's first Blud book, Wicked as They Come.

Tish Everett is a hospice nurse who spends her time making her patients' final days on this earth as comfortable as they can be. While she had spent a lot of time with Mrs. Stein, she never saw much beyond the woman's bedroom. The estate sale is Tish's first opportunity to explore the house. Though her recent breakup hasn't left her with much space or extra money for curios and what not Tish isn't going to pass up the chance to shop around for treasures like the locket she finds hidden in one of Mrs. Stein's old books. The locket turns out to be much more than a piece of nice jewelry, though. When Tish falls asleep wearing it, she awakens in a world very unlike her own. In this world animals feed on blood and vampires, or people very much like the vampires, exist. Criminy Stain is one of them. A bludman and a magician who heads up a traveling circus, Stain created the locket to seek out his true love. But when Tish sleeps in Stain's world, she returns to her own. The dual life seems possible until the locket is stolen leaving Tish trapped in Stain's world. Now the two must brave the many perils of this world in order to find the man responsible or Tish may never be able to return to her real life. 

While Carniepunk gave me just a taste of Dawson's created world, Wicked as They Come fully submerged me in it. And it was everything I hoped it would be! There are ghosts and vampires (bludmen) and crazy clockwork technology as well as magic and curses and all that fun stuff. There's a bit of steamy romance, enough, I think, to satisfy a true paranormal romance fan but not too much to overwhelm a reader who likes their romance to take a bit of a backseat to the rest of the story as well.

Each installment in the series seems to focus on a new set of characters, which I find particularly appealing as it leaves much more room for developing the world and a wide variety of characters. I cheated and read the sample of book two, Wicked as She Wants, and am dying to get to it now as it introduces a character from a whole 'nother part of Stain's world that's only alluded to in Wicked as They Come, as well as giving more "screen time" to a character we meet and get to know pretty well in the series intro.  (I'm not telling who, though you can always read the book's description on Goodreads to find out.)

Rating: 4/5

And now, thanks to the publisher, I have an extra copy of Wicked as They Come to give away, giving one of you a chance to start off this fabulous series and discover how wonderful it is yourself! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, January 13. US only please.


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