Title: No Love Lost
Author: Rachel Caine
Series: Weather Warden #1.5, Weather Warden Universe #2
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Online
Year: 2013

A Weather Warden short story.

This short is the tale of David’s feelings and interactions with Joanne. It actually explains a lot of why he does what he does and makes the choices he makes throughout Ill Wind.

This is one of those quick, deleted scenes that you can find in a lot of series. It doesn’t really have its own storyline, but rather, adds to the overarching storyline of the main series. The thing that I love about these, and No Love Lost in particular, is that it gives you a glimpse into another character’s point of view. Here, it is David’s process of falling in love and his view of Joanne. Reading this actually helped me to form a much better, overall picture of Joanne as well.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Ill Wind
Author: Rachel Caine
Series: Weather Warden #1, Weather Warden Universe #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Roc Fantasy
Year: 2003
5th sentence, 74th page: “Must be a bitch, being enslaved and all.”

RIDERS ON THE STORM

The Wardens Association has been around pretty much forever. Some Wardens control fire, others control earth, water, or wind – and the most powerful can control more than one element. Without Wardens, Mother Nature would wipe humanity off the face of the earth…

Joanne Baldwin is a Weather Warden. Usually, all it takes is a wave of her hand to tame the most violent weather. But n ow Joanne is trying to outrun another kind of storm: accusations of corruption and murder. So she’s resorting to the very human tactic of running for her life…

Her only hope is Lewis, the most powerful Warden. Unfortunately, he’s also on the run from the World Council. It seems he’s stolen not one but three bottles of Djinn – making him the most wanted man on earth. And without Lewis, Joanne’s chances of surviving are as good as a snowball in – well, a place she may be headed. So she and her classic Mustang are racing hard to find him because there’s some bad weather closing in fast…

I’ve started this book twice. And both times I put it down because it was too good. Apparently, in my mind, that’s a thing – the first chapter was so good that I knew I would need to buy the rest of the series, or at least the next few books. And when I first went to read this, I didn’t have much money, so decided to make a more grown up decision. But as soon as I had a little surplus cash? I dived right into Ill Wind expecting the ride of a lifetime. And I wasn’t disappointed.

My biggest difficulty with this story was the length of the chapters. There are about 5 in this 300ish page story. It meant that I had trouble putting the book down and doing adult things like going to sleep, getting food, doing the work that I sometimes get paid to do… but, all in all, that really isn’t much of a complaint. I just had to be a little more aware and smarter about when I opened up this tale to start the next chapter. And really, I ended up reading it in almost one night (I read the first chapter a few days before). So ultimately, nothing much to complain about.

Joanne was an interesting female lead. Most of the stories I read have a heroine with a damaged past (check), a love interest that they can’t quite seem to trust, and an inability to have lasting relationships. Joanne only had the damaged past. Her sexuality and confidence in herself was entirely new to me. And I quite frankly, loved it. She was bold, confident and sex was something that she enjoyed, but it wasn’t a symptom of damage or mistrust. Actually, although it was a large part of her psyche, it wasn’t something that was dramatized in any way. It was just there.

The other incredibly unique thing about this story was the way that it was told. You are just dropped into the middle of her chaotic world and as the tale unfolds, you are slowly fed bits and pieces of her past. Actually, the tales of her past take up the vast majority of her tale, yet they are informing the future and the reasons for all of her decisions in the present. I’ve read other stories that do this, but not to this extreme. And I found that I really loved this incredibly different style.

Image source: SF Reviews