It all started with a locket...

I could picture it shining on some young lady's neck, part of an epic story full of romance and a Prince Charming who didn't turn out to be an overbearing, soul-sucking jerk.

3.5 stars. Wicked as They Come is not going to be a book for everyone. I understand why some people are completely enraptured, while others are not feeling the love. This time, I am happy to report that I fell closer to the enraptured side. Uniqueness is such a rare thing in fiction (it's al More...

4.5 stars

She shouldn't have really taken the locket. But when twenty-five year-old nurse, Letitia Paisley Everett finds an antique locket in the house of one of her recently deceased patients, she's intrigued. Inside is a portrait of a man. Slipping it over her neck that night she falls asleep, only to wake up later, naked, (with the locket still around her neck), lying on a stone in the woods. Standing nearby watching her is the man whose portrait was inside the locket.

"You're here," he said si More...

Read my review here...

http://badassbookreviews.com/review-w...

or below.....

3 cups fantasy
2 cups paranormal romance
1 cup steam punk
1 tablespoon of historical fiction
1 teaspoon contemporary
A dash of time travel

Mix all together at once, add a touch of magic, a gorgeous alpha male, a woman learning to stand on her own two feet, and you’ll have Wicked as They Come. I LOVED this book. I’ve been hesitant lately giving 5 stars since every time I give 5 stars, I want it really to be a step above all othe More...

I have been known, on occasion, to read too much into a book. It's very rare that I'm just going to let a story wash over me. Sometimes it's just because I'm interested in how the author created her universe. How did she select this period? Where might she have got that idea? Is there any connection to this other idea over here? It's how my mind works, in the identification and following of patterns. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

This tendency can either help or hinder my enjoyment of the More...

"I would burn down the world for you," he whispered fiercely. "Your world or my own. I would rip down the entire city with my bare hands without a second thought. I don't need to taste anything else, I don't need a comparison. "

Wicked As They Come is magical beginning to an intoxicating new paranormal romance series, I can't wait to dive into the next one. My only disappointment with this novel is that the next book will not follow Letisha and Criminy, but it will switch to another couple, thou More...

Wicked As They Come has the following endearing features:

1. The ever-useful love triangle clutch,
2. insta-love,
3. slow beginning syndrome,
4. unnatural and stiff dialogue,
5. contradictory characters,

...and the list goes on.

What I liked:

1. Putting aside how dull it was for a second, the beginning was very, very exciting to read because I kept feeling it would somehow lead to more. I instantly loved Criminy and how the story had a slight Alice in Wonderland feel to it. I was even sympathizing with More...

This review posted on Guilty Pleasures

Recommended Read


WICKED AS THEY COME is a refreshing blend of paranormal, urban fantasy and romance, consisting of words so beautifully crafted I could hear carnival music in my head and could clearly visualize the sights and sounds of the Caravan in vivid technicolor. I was transported to another world, a modern day world consisting of wonders of days gone by, steampunk elements, bludanimals, clockworck pets, vampires, a strong yet wounded heroine, quirky ye More...

3.5...It's definitely creative. There's adventure, bludcreatures, and spiffy gadgets. There were many longing glances from Criminy and I wish the romance would have been stronger. Criminy's POV would have been nice. Leticia's character started out strong then there were times she felt a little flat. Still, it was an enjoyable story with a good ending.

Thinking, thinking, thinking.

***** edited for full review *****

Wicked as They Come combines sub-genres (science fiction, steampunk, and urban fant More...

If you didn't think it possible to fall in love with a gypsy king who has magic tricks up his sleeve and drinking blood on his mind, then allow me to introduce you to my newest fictional obsession, Criminy Stain.

He's a cunning predator one moment and a perfect gentleman the next. He's lively, charming, charismatic, and romantic. He's also ruthless, possessive, bloodthirsty, and dangerous. He's a well-rounded, well-developed character and I feel like he was made just for me.

Unfortunately, he's g More...

***********
Steampunk, pnr with explicit sex and lots of blood (but not too gory). No typos, minimal cussing (if any), no profanity. Nicely done! ツ
***********
This is book 1 of the Blud series. It is Delilah Dawson's debut novel and one of the better paranormal romances I have read this year. I also liked the shorter sequel The Mysterious Madam Morpho. Here is my review for the sequel.

Spoil-free synopsis:
One day in contemporary Alabama, Letitia Paisley Everett (her POV), a hospice-care nurse, fi More...

There are certain times when I get the reading blues. Everything I read I fine boring or fails to excite. But then a book comes along and shakes you up and helps you jump start your reading excitement again. I recently finished such a book and if not for Fiction Vixen’s review, this book might still be languishing in my monster TBR pile.

Wicked as They Come is the debut by Delilah Dawson. When I first saw the title, it reminded me of one of my favorite spooky movie from the 1980’s, Something Wick More...

Thou shalt not steal. No, seriously, thou shalt not. Just look at Tish Everett, she was just minding her own business, visiting her dying grandmother, moaning over and over about the break up with her control freak of a boyfriend and then one day she somewhat accidently steals a locket from an old house and before she knows it, she is transported to some phantasmagoric land where she is forced to join the troupe of a grotesque paranormal circus to avoid being eaten by vampire bunnies. Yes, vampi More...

Set between two worlds our Earth and Sang- a world where objects have a strong steampunk flavor with clockwork, mechanical animals, vampires and humans living side by side in a dangerous world where prejudice against those who are different and everything maybe out to get you- like the vampire bunnies!


An author has to play it just right to pull off the parallel world plot and Deliah S. Dawson does just that by giving the reader a rich world in Sang. From the cute little animals we see in our w More...

Tish is a home nurse for hospice and since one of her patients passed on she's there sorting through her things. The family is selling all her antiques in an estate sale and Tish happens upon a beautiful locket. In some wierd way it calls to her, so she steals it. But once she opens it she teleports and winds up naked in a field with the sexy man she saw inside the locket who introduces hisself as Criminy Stain.

“I was startled when I saw him there, leaning against a birch tree. Seconds before, I More...

Wow, what a unique and interesting book! Part UF, part PNR, part steam-punk all set in a strange world where there are Bludman (basically a vampiric race) along with Bludbunnies, Bludmares, Bludstags and Bludrats...creeeeepppy!!! Humans in this world are called Pinkies and they're a a downright rude and prejudice group of people! Then again, if you are being eyeballed to be someone's next meal, no matter where you go, i guess that might "harden" a person!

Sang, the name of this world, is crazy.. More...

4.5 stars - Tish, thinks she's still dreaming when she wakes to find herself naked in the presence of an oddly compelling man in a top hat, Criminy Stain, who just so happens to be the man pictured in an usual locket she's just acquired. She finds it hard to believed that she is actually in another world where there are lots if critters who think human blood is a yummy snack and that she's there because opening the locket triggered a spell to bring Criminy the perfect woman he's been waiting for More...

“I would burn down the world for you," he whispered fiercely. "Your world or my own. I would rip down the entire city with my bare hands without a second thought. I don't need to taste anything else, I don't need a comparison.”

Everything I heard about this book totally blew me away, even those totally sexy quotes made me swoon over this book. One thing for sure is WICKED AS THEY COME is a very different book, and categorized in a genre that I don't read very often, Steampunk. WICKED AS THEY CO More...

UPDATE :

DNF for now. I will hold this one for a while. I like the world that so much like Alice in the Wonderland meet League of The Extraordinary Gentlemen. I love how Criminy Stain remind me of Bones. But I have issues. Especially with the heroine and the first POV.

********************************************************************



From the blurb alone :
Tish Everett has just left an abusive relationship to find herself and take care of her dying grandmother. When she inadvertently steals an a More...

PJV Quickie: A very different take on the usual Paranormal Romance, ‘Wicked as They Come’ was unique and I was quickly sucked into the world, but something about the romance wasn’t as scintillating as I would have liked.

Review

The premise of this novel blew my socks off. Alternate dimensions, people are sucked into the world when they are sleeping, in a coma or a vegetable. The alternate dimension could compare to the 1700s-ish – but they have a slight problem with vampires. They call them the Bl More...

2.5 stars ... maybe
Okay. So this one kind of disappointed me, because I was expecting great new things from it and it turned out to be more or less the same paranormal vampire thing – it’s just that in Sang, where the story takes place, vampires are called Bludmen. Fancy.
My main problem with the book was the heroine, she started out okay, but then she just becomes boring, and I gradually stopped caring about her. The love triangle didn’t help (HATE THEM SO FREAKING MUCH) especially because both More...

As reviewed on Read Our Lips:

This was a great book (amazing, love it, need to reread soon =D ), it´s Steampunk and a new take on both Bludmen (vamps) and Alternate Universe that i never thought of before.
Tish finds a locket (or takes, to be honest) that she just can´t resist but put on herself, and as soon as she falls asleep, she´s in another world where the mysterious Criminy Stain is waiting for her. He´s a Gypsy King, ruler of the caravan, and believes that she´s his soul mate. But back hom More...

This one isn't like anything I've ever read before. The plot is outlandish, but fun and entertaining. A well written, image filled, and easy to read book, that kept me glued, at least at the beginning. A jumble of different genres, Steampunk/Witchpunk, Fantasy, Vampirism, and Romance, makes this one difficult to categorically define.

The male protaginst is not your run-of-the-mil hot brooding alpha male lead, you get with most bodice rippers. A mix between Willy Wonka and Merry Poppins, with a d More...

This was incredibly unique and surprising. Leticia is a home care nurse coming out of a long-term abusive relationship and she is not looking for anything serious. But someone else is. Someone is looking for someone just like her. She is strangely drawn to a ruby necklace she finds at an estate sale of a deceased patient, and without really understanding why, she steals it! That night she wears it as she falls asleep, and she wakes up in a strange magical land.

She is found by a caravan gypsy ki More...

If you ever wondered what would happen if Alice fell in love with the Mad Hatter or Dorothy stuck around Oz with the Wizard, this book can give you a hint of what that would be like. In Wicked as They Come, Delilah S. Dawson writes a fantasical, seductive tale of adventure, and love set in a bizarre and dream like realm. I LOVE Criminy Stain and his wild world of Sang.

Ms Dawson's prose is ordinary, but the world building is highly imaginative and I often wished she lingered longer on details an More...

This book is probably closer to 4.5 stars (if that were an option) but alas I gave it a 5. I thought the world of Sang was extremely original and full of perilous adventure that included biting bunnies and not so innocent deer. The characters were wonderful and outlandish particularly the Gypsy King Criminy Stain with his circus caravan full of carnavillero misfits!! I absolutely LOVED Criminy, he's definitely as Wicked as they come; perfectly suited to scare the crap out of you one minute, enth More...

This book is a paranormal romance. The world was interesting with all of the animals being turned into bluds, so there are vampire bunnies and vampire deer and vampire horses, etc. There is a lot of prejudice against the bluds and that was portrayed.

The hero, Criminy Stain (terrible name but I pretended the author was going for Crimson Stain aka blood) is awesome. He is a romantic and created a necklace with a magic spell to find the perfect woman for him and bring her to his world. He is a mag More...

My FAVORITE book of 2012 thus far!!

Yeah, those of you who follow me closely know I wouldn't throw that out there lightly, but there it is! I'd heard good things about the series but I wasn't in the hugest rush to read it. Man am I SO glad I got around to it!

Delilah Dawson introduces us to a new world through the eyes of Letitia Everett (aka Tish), a nurse who spends most of her time tending to patients in reality, including her terminally ill grandmother. That is until she stumbles upon this in More...

OH OH OH FOR THE LOVE!!! Can I give this fifty bajillion stars?! Please?! It's something new and fantastic and brilliant..

Oh Criminy had me at Hello, Love.

This book drove me insane because I really should have loved it and just... didn't.

I'm not generally a romance reader, so maybe that's part of it (although I do indulge from time-to-time). And I prefer my fantasy to be almost reality (urban fantasy) rather than dreamy Wonderland-like fantasy, so maybe that's another part of it. And I seem to be having issues with Steampunk which so far has impressed me with a lot of awesome images and a few good ideas, but little actual readable work. A few piec More...

The cover caught my first interest, I really like it, second was the title. Like it as well.
When I read the discribtion I thought this could be another vamp story as usual, still gave it a try. and I am so glad I did.

The story starts in our world and time, when letitia the narrator finds a locket in a estate sale of one of her former patients. Through the locket, which was enchanted by criminal stain, she end up in sang. A parallel world to ours full of blud creatures. while there her locket ge More...