A Book Obsession..: Review: Wickedly Powerful by Deborah Blake

Review: Wickedly Powerful by Deborah Blake

, by Kt Clapsadl

Wickedly Powerful by Deborah Blake

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…

The only thing more fiery than Bella Young’s red hair is her temper. She knows that a Baba Yaga’s power without strict control can leave the people she cares about burned, so to protect her heart—and everyone around her—the only company she keeps is her dragon-turned-Norwegian-Forest-cat, Koshka.

But when Bella is tasked with discovering who’s setting magical fires throughout Wyoming’s Black Hills, she finds herself working closely with former hotshots firefighter Sam Corbett—and falling hard for his quiet strength and charm.

Sam may bear the scars of his past, but Bella can see beyond them and would do anything to help him heal. Only before she can rescue her Prince Charming, she’ll have to overcome the mysterious foe setting the forest fires—a truly wicked witch who wields as much power and even more anger than Bella…

I really enjoyed Bella's character in this book, and how she was very different than her other two Baba sisters. In fact that's one of the things I appreciate the most about this series. Each Baba has their own very unique voice and personality despite all their similarities. In Bella's case, she's more middle of the road between the two others. She's not as aggressive as Barbara, and not as easy going as Beka. I found her to be a good balance to the other two. That of course doesn't mean she doesn't have her own baggage. Far from it. In fact I think she had more baggage than the other two and that's saying something. However, that baggage made for an interesting character development as she learned to trust herself again. In fact, the theme of this book seemed to be emotional/scarred pasts and baggage. And while that may sound like it would make the book gloomy, it did the exact opposite. It made the book a journey of healing for all involved, and I really enjoyed every moment of it.

As far as the romance, unfortunately unlike each of the Babas being unique, I didn't find the main conflict between Bella and Sam to be so. Sure, when it boils down to it, Sam and Liam were very different, and Sam especially came with a scarred past like I mentioned. But the one thing that got me was that in both books the conflict that separates the pairs is the hero's need to follow the letter of the law rather than the spirit. Perhaps I shouldn't be quite so picky as the rest of the book was more than enjoyable. I just wanted a new "black moment" for the thing that drove them apart.

Getting back to the good stuff, not only did I really enjoy Bella's character, but the plot had me hooked as well. The ladies have faced some nasty troubles in the past, but I have to say this one takes the cake. Not only did it make this book rather intense, but there are a lot of far reaching implications that will be kicking off the next part of the series featuring the Riders. So all in all, WICKEDLY POWERFUL is a very enjoyable installment, and I can't wait to see where this series goes next.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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