Also by this author: Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga, #1), Wickedly Powerful (Baba Yaga, #3)Known as the wicked witch of Russian fairy tales, Baba Yaga is not one woman, but rather a title carried by a chosen few. They keep the balance of nature and guard the borders of our world, but don’t make the mistake of crossing one of them…
Though she looks like a typical California surfer girl, Beka Yancy is in fact a powerful yet inexperienced witch who’s struggling with her duties as a Baba Yaga. Luckily she has her faithful dragon-turned-dog for moral support, especially when faced with her biggest job yet…
A mysterious toxin is driving the Selkie and Mer from their homes deep in the trenches of Monterey Bay. To investigate, Beka buys her way onto the boat of Marcus Dermott, a battle-scarred former U.S. Marine, and his ailing fisherman father.
While diving for clues, Beka drives Marcus crazy with her flaky New Age ideas and dazzling blue eyes. She thinks he’s rigid and cranky (and way too attractive). Meanwhile, a charming Selkie prince has plans that include Beka. Only by trusting her powers can Beka save the underwater races, pick the right man, and choose the path she’ll follow for the rest of her life…
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Wickedly wonderful is the second book in Blake’s Baba Yaga series. This book follows the surfer girl Beka who just so happens to also be a Baba Yaga. It is so hard to tell with all those crazy kids who is or isn’t a mythical being.
So Beka is a water Yaga, it is her strongest element. Why not camp next to your strongest element right? So she is hippying it up on the California beach when unexplainable things begin to occur. Beka saves a baby mermaid. A net then wraps around her. The fisherman is pissed and doesn’t even want to be there in the first place. The whole family guilt thing. After that incident, the Silkie and Mermaids summon her. Mermaids are obviously half fish, half human. Silkies are seal/humans but in the sense that they can go full seal or full human, unlike the poor mermaids. Mermaids are always the bridesmaids.
Between Marcus (the fisherman), a silkie prince, her poor dog, and her inability to do much, the book flows along. It is a classic story of two men wanting a woman. Other than one wants to possibly kill her, and the other hates her. No big deal for a Yaga right? Right? I really enjoyed this book, much like the others, but for some reason it was just that little bit better. It may have to do with unlike the other two, Beka helps fellow paranormals? I think that it was the expansion of the world beyond just humans and Yagas. If you have the riders (which who knows what they are) and dragons then naturally there should be other beings. Overall a good book that I would read more than once.
Something that really bugs me about some of the reviews concerning this book. Yes they all have similar overall plot structures, but what romance doesn’t? Boy and girl meet, they dislike each other, they get to know each other, they have sex, something happens, they hate each other, they grow back together. I am not ruining a plot, you all know how it reads. So for instance one review said “why have a dog turned dragon guarding the E of L&D when it does nothing.” I would excuse this lack of attention if they had said they didn’t read the first book, but in the first sentence “I read the first book”. Well, that is the difference between reading and skimming in my book.
Before I end my rant, another topic a reviewer said was “why does their trailer have mercurial properties.” Well for those playing the home game, Baba Yagas of old had a house on Chicken legs. Yes it was a big house, creepy, and they ate people. The author talks about how over time the house morphed into a newer version, and the once mortar and pestle is now a vehicle. Imagine if Beka was driving down to the beach in a stone bowl.
While I don’t usually comment on the covers unless they stand out, I will about this one. Okay, so not the book cover but the audiobook cover. Now as you can see the book cover is darkish, and similar to the other two with dog/magic. The audio book however is pink, and honestly.. make Beka look a little too prissy compared to how she is. Here is the audio cover. It is likely not the author’s fault and does not affect the rating of this book, but look at it. This cover does not impart the badassary that is Beka. Now that I had a second to think on it, it’s also upsetting that her dragon isn’t on the cover. He plays a pretty substantial part in the book, protecting the elixir of life and death not withstanding.
About Deborah Blake
Deborah is the author of nine non-fiction books on modern witchcraft from Llewellyn and the Baba Yaga series from Berkley Romance, including Wickedly Magical (novella), Wickedly Dangerous, and Wickedly Wonderful, Wickedly Ever After (novella), and Wickedly Powerful, plus an urban fantasy, Veiled Magic.
Deborah lives in a 120 year old farmhouse in upstate NY with four cats, and runs an artists' cooperative shop when she's not writing. She believes in magic, laughter, chocolate, and wine. The order may change depending on the day.
