Wraith (Zoe Martinique, Book 1)

by Phaedra Weldon

Wraith (Zoe Martinique, Book 1)

book data

62 ratings, 3.31 average rating, 15 reviews (more data...)

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published

June 5th 2007 by Ace Trade

binding

Paperback, 384 pages

characters

Zoe Martinique

isbn

0441014976 (isbn13: 9780441014972)

description

First in an excitingly different and new paranormal series.

Zoë Martinique has turned her unusual ability into a career. When she's Tr...more

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Wraith	1	7	09/02/2007 05:37PM

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 130)

All ratings | 5 stars (11) | 4 stars (15) | 3 stars (24) | 2 stars (6) | 1 star (6) | avg 3.31

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Elizabeth

Elizabeth marked it as to-read

11/30/08

bookshelves: to-read

Zoe Martinique has turned her unusual ability into a career. When she's traveling, she can't be seen which makes her an ideal professional snoop. Industrial espionage, surveillance, whatever.

But one night things get out of hand while she's outof- body. She witnesses a murder and a soul stealing, and discovers she has unwelcome company: Trench- Coat, a ghostly killer who can see and hurt her. Teaming up with a blue-eyed police detective, she tries to solve the case and improve her love life....more

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Dianna

Dianna rated it:

09/15/08

recommended to Dianna by: Wowbrary, I think. It looked dumb and silly. It was.
recommends it for: Anyone who enjoys mindless reading, but be prepared to put the grammar-police on hold.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Okay, take the paranormal mystery/romance formula:

(1.) Quirky, likable 20-something girl who sees herself as just average with unique abilities (astral travel in this case)
(2.) Something strange piques her curiosity, and against logic and advice decides to go digging on her own (in this case, I quote "oogy" feeling about a building)
(3.) when she gets in over her head (witnesses a murder in said "oogy" building), her friends/family come in and help "as long as s...more Okay, take the paranormal mystery/romance formula:

(1.) Quirky, likable 20-something girl who sees herself as just average with unique abilities (astral travel in this case)
(2.) Something strange piques her curiosity, and against logic and advice decides to go digging on her own (in this case, I quote "oogy" feeling about a building)
(3.) when she gets in over her head (witnesses a murder in said "oogy" building), her friends/family come in and help "as long as she stays put"
(4.) repeat 2 and 3 ad nauseum until mystery is almost unraveled
(5.) (anytime during number 4) Enter handsome man who knows nothing of the supernatural, inciting the libido of heroine (In this case, cop who is investigating murder, and get this, his partner just got shot... oh goodness...)
(6.) (also anytime during number 4) Enter supernatural man who may or may not be evil, also inciting same libido (there's a couple of these, one of which she indulges with)
(7.) mix up 5 and 6
(8.) Big event endangering everyone (including normal handsome man) where the maybe-evil supernatural man saves heroine
(9.) Repeat 3
(10.) Heroine begins asking herself if she's becoming evil because of what she did (both sexual and supernatural) with said supernatural man prior to and during the big event.
(Ending) Cliffhanger, but no one important dies of course. This is a "cozy" paranormal mystery/romance

This book follows the formula to a 'T'. It reads like it was written by that quirky girl you know with a fun imagination, but terrible vocabulary, grammar, and spelling.

Think: "If I'd of had a weapon..." and "I wonder who Jack is and why his mom married a dude with the last name Shit...". Every page has 2-3 of these type of eye-rolling sentences.

Ugh. Alright, I'll admit, the parts that made it a bad book (of the 'jack shit' kind, not grammar mistakes) also made it fun to read. I enjoyed it, and despite my better judgment, I plan to read the rest of the series. It's only one short novella and one more book, so it's not a huge waste of time (unlike the stupid 31-part IN DEATH series - Damn you JD Robb!!!). ...less

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Daelith

Daelith rated it:

10/17/08

bookshelves: 2008-read

Read in October, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Michele Lee

Michele rated it:

10/03/08

bookshelves: fantasy

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in October, 2008

recommended to Michele by: Ann Aguirre
recommends it for: Ghost fans

Zoë Martinique lives in a strange life. Her mom runs a tea/occult shop out of an old Victorian house, with the help of the ghostly gay couple that haunts the house and Rhonda, an urban fantasy cross between <a href=http://www.imdb.com/character/... Garcia</a> and <a href=http://www.imdb.com/character/... Sciuto</a>. A...more Zoë Martinique lives in a strange life. Her mom runs a tea/occult shop out of an old Victorian house, with the help of the ghostly gay couple that haunts the house and Rhonda, an urban fantasy cross between <a href=http://www.imdb.com/character/... Garcia</a> and <a href=http://www.imdb.com/character/... Sciuto</a>. And Zoë herself is a strange character, possessing the ability to shuck her body and astrally travel about the city at will. It's Zoë's career path, auctioning her services as a super spy off on ebay, that leads to trouble when on an out-of-body spy mission she witnesses a creepy, Vin Diesel look-alike kill and reap the soul of a vice president of a major Atlanta company. Worse the creep marks her somehow, binding the two of them together and sending Zoë on a life changing mission to save herself and others.
I have very mixed reactions to this book. To begin with it was very hard to get into. Zoë makes a lot of TV/movie references, she speaks directly to the reader often and her attitude is rather childish. Zoë's mother, the ghosts and Rhonda come off flat, and, honestly, annoying. The flow of the action, and therefore the tension, is consistently interrupted by Zoë's comments to the reader or attempts to be funny (usually with pop culture references) which nine times out of ten aren't. At one point, after the plot finally starts to be interesting, the flow is completely broken by a scene in which Zoë's "loving" mother holds Zoë at gunpoint and forces her to submit to an exorcism. I very nearly stopped there. Even though she's 28, Zoë's mother, Nona, treats her like child, even to the point of drugging her and physically restraining her to keep her from following the plot. Not only does this make Zoë seems even more childish, and disrupt the core plot, dragging it out more than needed, but the later references to Nona only acting out of love just don't coincide with her actions making the mother-daughter dynamic feel more like an abuser/Stockholm syndrome relationship.
However, there are some interesting ideas in Wraith. Primarily is the reoccurring theme of people using Zoë's body against her. She gained her power during a traumatic rape and even after she becomes comfortable with it over and over people capture Zoë's body while she's out running around astrally and use it as leverage against her in a variety of ways. Whether Weldon realizes she's layered this theme into Wraith or not I'm not sure, but I did find myself continuing, wanting to see Zoë overcome this problem as much as I wanted her to have beat off her original rapist.
The dynamic between Zoë and the two leading males in the book is also interesting, especially as unlike other urban fantasy books that stick closer to the romance Happily-For-Now ending this series seems poised to go into some very dark, rule-free territories that are interesting and new.
There's also something to be said for the plot itself, which has unexpected twists of mystery, centers around planes of existence rather than the ways the character exist and spans into a multitude of human races that are sometimes missing from other urban fantasy tales.
I'm not sure I can recommend Wraith at this point, but I can't exactly dismiss it either, making it one of the more difficult reads, and difficult reviews I've done in a while.
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S.D.

S.D. rated it:

11/07/08

bookshelves: urban-fantasy

Read in November, 2008

Zoe is a detective of sorts. Since she can travel out of body, she is able to spy on people without them being able to see her. The author has created a world that is sometimes difficult to follow. Wraith, corporeal, symbionts, phantasm, Abysmal, etc. Zoe has lost 24 hrs of her life and only has a recollection of a demon-type from the Abysmal who looks like Vin Diesel taking some of her powers and giving her some of his during a night of vague passion. Vin Diesel and a cute cop are vying fo...more

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Kim

Kim rated it:

09/24/07

bookshelves: paranormalfiction

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: paranormal lovers

This is just a fun paranormal, about a young woman who can astrally project herself and travel outside her body. Although some readers may be turned off by Zoe's inner commentary, I found her quite appealing, and her voice unique. I liked that she was a bit geeky, enjoyed food and ogling cute guys---made her easier to relate to than the typical paranormal heroine. I also found the supporting characters, including her mom, her friend who's a sort of techno-witch, and a ghostly gay couple, qui...more

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Holly

Holly rated it:

12/16/07

bookshelves: chick-lit, paranormal-fiction, urban-fantasy

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: paranormal fantasy fans

This was the Bridget Jones' Diary of paranormal fiction. It's a bit more on the romance side than I prefer, and the heroine's constant inner commentary about food, boys, and looks reminded me of a more heavy-handed Bridget Jones. It does have the distinction of being a unique and interesting paranormal fiction genre - the out of body Astral Traveler. She works as a private investigator of sorts, selling her services on ebay. There's a lot of action and plot but nothing to really stick with you l...more

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Schnaucl

Schnaucl rated it:

09/27/07

bookshelves: fiction, owned, read_2007, september, series, urban_fantasy

Read in September, 2007

The protagonist in this story is supposed to be 28 years old but she acts more like she's 13. I could deal with deliberately ignoring common sense, many protagonists in urban fantasy do that. But she's constantly wanting her mommy and while I understand the sentiment... she is 28. I also got very tired of the references to "tingling girl parts" and the far too often used "mental note:" I was annoyed enough that although I found the concepts and the plot interesting, I won't b...more

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Cris

Cris rated it:

09/28/08

bookshelves: contemporary-fantasy, esp, fantasy, humor, urban-fantasy

Read in September, 2008

I finished the book in the hope everything would be explained. It wasn't. I'm still confused about almost everything. And I don't care enough about any of the characters to continue reading the series in hope of some answers. (Not that I expect the author to provide any answers. She enjoys taunting her readers.)

Other than the lack of explanations I found the heavy-handed foreshadowing the most annoying aspect of the book. I really don't like Zoe very much.

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Slynne

Slynne rated it:

12/27/07

bookshelves: paranormal, urban-fantasy

Read in December, 2007

The main character was fun, entertaining and amusing. I like authors who can right with a sense of humor without beating you over the head with it. I didn't like the ending too much as I prefer a clear right/wrong and this ending wasn't that. I also didn't really like the phantasm/spectre/planes of existence descriptions too much. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed my romp through this book and look forward to the next book in the series.

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Gypsie

Gypsie rated it:

06/17/08

bookshelves: june-08, paranormal-romance

Read in June, 2008

I really liked this. I like the fact you can hear Zoe's thoughts and the complete nonsense that we all have in our heads. When thoughts run rapid when excited or nervous. I sometimes felt that I just wanted to scream at her to shutup, it was tiring but in a good friend kind of way. She is adorable and I want to see more of a triangle with TC and Daniel. The good and the bad. I look forward to reading Spectre!

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Kit

Kit rated it:

02/11/08

The main character just never grew on me. I kept getting too annoyed at her half the time to pay attention to what was really happening, and a lot of things she does seem extremely unrealistic to the situation described. Plus, by the end, it seems like the author was at a loss for what should happen next, and just threw a bunch of random nonsensical occurences together. Don't think I'll be reading the next one.

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Karl

Karl rated it:

09/28/08

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in July, 2008

A fine first entry in a new fantasy mystery series. The story focuses on the struggle between a female detective with special abilities and someone with similar abilities who wants to kill her.

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Joanne

Joanne rated it:

10/24/07

A little bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a little bit of Stephanie Plum, and some creativity. She will be writing more with this character.

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Elisabeth Augustine

Elisabeth rated it:

11/13/08

bookshelves: urban-dark-fantasy

Enjoyed immensely! Lots of action. Loved the relationship between the 29-year-old "heroine" and her mother.

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Booktryant

Booktryant is currently reading it

11/29/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

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slayra

slayra rated it:

11/27/08

bookshelves: books-in-english, urban-fantasy

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Amy

Amy is currently reading it

11/26/08

bookshelves: currently-reading, fiction, library-book, supernatural-romance

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Calvin

Calvin rated it:

11/19/08

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Diana

Diana marked it as to-read

11/17/08

bookshelves: to-read

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