Review of Summoned by Rainy Kaye Releasing March 28th, 2014

Authors are just jacking up my preconceived notions of what my favorite genres are.

I mean it!

Jacking them up.

I think I like horror, suspense, and thrillers. I end up liking all of those, and mystery, romance, YA, New Adult, Hell pretty much anything, as long as the characters have a pulse and I can really get into their heads for a while.

It really sucks when you thnk you know yourself...and you so don't

Anyhow...

I'd like to introduce you to Rainy Kaye who is flippin' awesome as a person, and is blazing hot as an author. I am hoping to interview her sometime in the near future. It's going to be epic! Anyway, she's got an awesome book that is coming out on March 28th, 2014, and yours truly got an advanced peek at it.

That's right!

And it rocks!

Here's what it's about:

Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally. Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker.

Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond. He just knows resisting has never ended well. When he meets Syd—assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can’t tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn’t the type to tolerate secrets.

Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl’s ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him.

What did I like about Summoned:

Everything!


But let's break it down.

Characters: If you're looking for a character that will melt your heart, Dimitri ain't it. So get your mind away from that idea right now. He's definitely not likeable. You almost can't help it. Heck, there's no reason to like him, after all, many scenes contain him killing someone in order to fulfill a wish by his screwed-up master, Karl Walker. And this is where Ms. Kaye shines. Dimitri is a pretty rough guy, but the people who "own" him are more reprehensible than him. This makes him likeable.  In addition,  he is very complex and rounded. Syd is fantastic. She's a tad nuts, in a good way, and she has Dimitri's number throughout the book I believe that a lot of readers will love these two. There both so fully-realized, as characters, that I felt that I knew them. Lastly, Karl and Silvia...Karl and Silvia...hated them. Hated them a lot. But I was supposed to. They aren't good people. So that rocked too! 

Setting: Arizona. What else can I say. I live here. It was the last setting I would have thought for a book about a genie, but it works. It totally works. Rainy Kaye brought it all together for me. Since I live here, if she could bring it to life for me, she can definitely do it for you. Even the parts that happen in other cities like New Orleans made me feel like I was here. This is not the strongest part of the story, but I live in Phoenix and it felt very real to me.

Uniqueness: This is the best part of this story. The best part. This story has uniqueness in spades. I was so thankful at the end, that I had gotten a chance to read this book. Seriously? A genie named Dimitri who lives in Phoenix, Arizona and is bonded to a family starting with Karl Walker, his current master, and then eventually Silvia, who will inherit him? Inherit him? Cool! This was such a cool idea that there will be hundreds of authors that will wish they had thought of it first, but is uniquely Rainy Kaye! 

Mystery: If this had been just a story about a genie fulfilling the wishes of a sociopath, I'd have thrown my Nook out the window and been done with this story. But it's not. All of this wish fulfillment is going somewhere, and if you play along, you might just be surprised at where this stroy is going. I'm not going to say anymore. But you're going to get blind-sided a couple of times. 

Altogether, Summoned is a book that I would recommend to a lot of people. But definitely not everybody. It is extremely well written and an extremely effective and effecting debut novel. However it does come with this warning 

Note: SUMMONED is not a romance. It contains strong language, naughty scenes, mature content, terrible wishes, mystery, discomfort, explosions, and an apple.

So check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you. If My Little Pony is your thing, Summoned won't be.