Search - Wild Ride

I liked this book. It was darker then most Jennifer Crusie books, but still was lighthearted enough to please most of her fans. I had not read the other books by Crusie and Mayer but plan to. Even though two people wrote the book you cannot tell, their writing styles go together well. I liked the idea that the demons were given flaws and real personalities instead of just being some evil thing that was killed or locked away, and that they actually became characters that interacted with people in the book. It was a fun quick read and had enough paranormal events to satisfy me, but still was a fun romance that had a happy ending.

What a huge disappointment. I normally knock out a new Crusie book in less than a day.
Wild Ride would have been so easy to put down and never pick up again. I had to coax myself through it with lots of short breaks. The characterizations are shallow, the two viewpoint characters barely interact, their "romances" were unconvincing, and story was Dumb-and-Dumber-style silly. Can't swap this off fast enough.

I really enjoyed this roller coaster ride of demons and love. Mary Alice Brannigan (Mab) is restoring the old amusement park for a Halloween scream weekend. The parks main focus is maintaining the five untouchable demons (including the devil) that are encased in iron statues around the park. It is the job of The Guardia - Ethan, Glenda, Gus, Delpha and Young Fred - to keep the demons locked up and keep them from causing chaos. Of course, the devil has convinced one of them to help the demons escape. The adventures (and fights) are great and entertaining. Even the romance between Ethan and Weaver; and Mab and Joe are fun to read.

It starts as if in the middle of the story and you play catch up until you figure out what is going on. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Nothing new - demons wanting souls, romance between mismatched pairs, guardians fighting for the good for the good of humans - but a very catchy and entertaining back story.

It kills me that I can't give this book a good review because normally I love all Jenifer Crusie book. I took the advice of someone elses review on here that not to go in expecting the usual Jennifer Crusie / Bob Mayer work and still I came out disapointed. I stopped on page 80 because it just wasn't really interesting. Normally I give books until the 50 page mark to get good or interesting and this one just fell a little flat. I'm glad I borrowed this from the library yesterday instead of using a credit to get this one off of hold from my list.

It did sound like it would be good but like I said, it just didn't deliver. :(

Rule number one for this book is to not expect the usual Crusie or even the usual Crusie/Mayer story, which is not to say that this book isn't a lot of fun anyway! The authors try for a different (somewhat genre-defying) story in that Wild Ride really is about demons trying to take over the world. The romantic aspects of the book are relatively (compared to M&C's other collaborations) mild, but the story still draws you in. The characters ARE the usual Crusie/Mayer makeup, each one, including the demons, with believable personalities and sharp, witty dialogue.

I wish that I knew going into this book to not expect a typical mystery romance, so at the risk of dropping some spoilers (stop now if you want to avoid it!), I'll tell you a few things to expect. The hero and heroine each have their own love story, with their own individual HEAs. That's a unique plot structure, but it works as long as you're not shipping for the two of them to get together. Second, you really should expect some fantasy elements from this book, but it's done in such a way that even if you're not a fantasy fan, you can still dig the story.