Jennifer Estep

Bigtime — (2007-2008) Paranormal romance. Publisher: Someone has to pay for what happened to Carmen Cole... Bigtime, New York is not big enough for both Carmen Cole and the superheroes and ubervillains who walk its streets. An intrepid reporter, Carmen's dedicated her life to unmasking the spandex wearers, all because her fiancé turned out to be a superhero, and a cheating one at that — sleeping with none other than his nubile nemesis. Exposing the true identities of the nation's caped crusaders and their archenemies has catapulted Carmen from her sleep southern hometown to the front pages of one of the country's biggest newspapers, The Exposé. Hobnobbing with modelizing millionaires and famished fashionistas is all in a day's work for the woman hot on the trail of the Fearless Five and Terrible Triad. But when Carmen gets the scoop of her career, her life comes crashing down around her. And even Bigtime's sexiest superhero, Striker, may not be able to save her ...

Karma Girl

After Carmen Cole finds her finance in bed with her best friend, she makes the startling discovery — thanks  to the suits they are wearing — that they are in fact a superhero and an ubervillain. She snaps some photos of them with a handy camera and unmasks them both — thus launching her unmasking career. In Bigtime, New York, superhero battles level buildings on a regular basis. When you go shopping at Oodles-o-Stuff, you're likely to encounter superheroes, because they get special discounts in exchange for protection against superfights. It's a blissful three years for Carmen, but all good things come to an end, and her unmasking career ends in tragedy. However, certain ubervillains decide that she needs to take up her unmasking mantle once again. And they know who her next target should be. But, Carmen Cole is the master unmasker, and she has a plan...

The cover to Karma Girl doesn't really resemble today's comic books, but it has a sort of nostalgic appeal for the older, 6 color comics of yesteryear. The opening chapter was just a tiny bit rough. The events seemed rushed and tried to deal with all these angsty themes of heartbreak and betrayal with the same breezy voice that characterizes the rest of the book. However, that was the only rough point. Even in sad parts further in the novel, the writing is smooth and transparent.

And need I say hilarious? I have not had so many laugh-out-loud moments with a book since I read Huck Finn. It helps if you know a little comic book trivia. Jennifer Estep creates the most hilarious sexy dream that I have ever read. And that's topped by the funniest sex scene I've read since Stephanie tried to get it on with Joe the Buick in one of the early Stephanie Plum novels.

Karma Girl, which deals with guilt, betrayal and — believe it or not — sin, has some surprising depth to it, as is true with any comic book. What's that you say? You don't think comic books have depth? Pick up a few issues. You may be surprised. And you may just become a fan. —Tia Nevitt
FanLit thanks Tia Nevitt from Debuts & Reviews for contributing this guest review.

Hot Mama

Settling down to read Hot Mama was like settling down to have a piece of book candy. (I didn't originate this term; I discovered it on Jennifer Estep's Blog.) You know it is going to be a fast read with lively, snappy dialog and laugh-out-loud humor. And Hot Mama did not disappoint!

It begins with Carmen Cole's wedding to Sam Sloane, the uberdude in Karma Girl. Carmen is happy; her dreams have come true. Therefore, this book is not about her. It's about Fiera (AKA Fiona Fine), Carmen's flame-wielding Fearless Five partner in crimefighting. Fiera is not so happy, for she still misses her murdered sweetheart from the last novel. Johnny Bulluci, this novel's uberhunk, is a direct sort of guy. When he sees something that he wants, he goes for it. And he wants Fiona Fine.

Complicating matters are two ubervillians and a rather ambiguous character named Johnny Angel, who is after revenge for the murder of his father, the previous Johnny Angel. (I found the whole idea of generational superheroes quite original.) The Fearless Five are out to stop a criminal duo, and the only thing standing in their way is Johnny Angel, who doesn't merely want them stopped; he wants them dead.

Fiona doesn't tug on the heartstrings quite as well as Carmen did. Carmen was so very lovable with her cutesy tee-shirts and scruffy jeans. Fiona is a snappily-dressed opposite. However, her story is sad and she is lonely, so she engages the reader in a very different way. One thing that got a chuckle from me was the amount of food that Fiona has to eat to keep up her fiery metabolism. You can almost read Jennifer Estep's wishful thinking: If only we could eat like this all the time and stay skinny...

Lulu Lo, the genius paraplegic, plays a much greater role in Hot Mama. The romance between her and Henry is an important subplot and she is involved in all the battles, mostly in a support role. Also appealing is Bella Bulluci who is the subject of the next book, Jinx.

It's probably not necessary to read Karma Girl in order to enjoy Hot Mama. Estep makes this book self-contained. The events in Karma Girl contain necessary backstory, but Estep was quite generous in giving you what you need as the story goes along. I think it is very safe to say that if you enjoyed Karma Girl, you will enjoy Hot Mama as well, and you will probably look forward to Jinx. —Tia Nevitt
FanLit thanks Tia Nevitt from Debuts & Reviews for contributing this guest review.

Jinx

Jinx focuses on Bella Bulluci, who was Fiona Fine's fashion designer rival in Hot Mama. Bella comes from a family of superheroes — both superpowered and otherwise — and she's quite frankly tired of the whole gig. She's had superheroes out the wazoo, especially since her family became closely affiliated to the Fearless Five in the previous novel. She has a power that is more of a curse, and it causes her endless embarrassment when the strangest things happen around her.

Bella isn't thrilled with a lot of aspects about her life. If she even looks at chocolate she gains about ten pounds, which she is forever trying to work off with brutal exercise routines. She hardly dares to eat in public for fear of her power rearing its weird head. And she's not really satisfied with the whole fashion designer gig, either. She has a secret ambition to be a museum quality artist. Therefore, she is quite the patroness of the arts.

In that capacity, she has brought together a clutch of society dames to plan the opening of a new wing at the Bigtime Museum of Modern Art. High-society types from all over the city had been pressed into donating pricey items, plus there's going to be a bachelorette auction and, of course, Bella is going to be one of those auctioned off...

If you've already read Karma Girl and Hot Mama, you can probably skim much of the backstory that is incorporated into the first two chapters. If not, it should be fun to read, and will set you up perfectly to understand the rest of the novel. Reading the previous books is not required, but they are every bit as fun as this one (Karma Girl being the funnest, in my opinion). The story really kicks off when Bella meets Debonair, one of the sexiest superthieves in Bigtime, whose fans include rabid members of the Slaves for Superhero Sex group. Debonair himself has this to say about SSS: "They're hardly an appropriate judge of character. They'll do anyone in spandex."

Anyway, Bella meets Debonair when he's caught stealing. He's an art thief with an interesting twist. As a superhero, he has a twist as well. And Debonair's Lair of Seduction is not all it seems.

More superheroes get unmasked here, including Granny Cane and of course, Debonair. Other ubervillains aren't as easy to guess as they were in previous novels, but neither are they difficult. That has never been a negative in my opinion; It contributes to the wink, wink, nudge, nudge humor of the series. Also, Bella has the most uncanny ability of catching people in the ... uh, act. Is it a superpower? I'm not sure.

These novels are paranormal romance, so the romance takes up a good portion of the plot. So do outlandish shemes, narrow escapes and outrageous luck, both good and bad. The heat level is scorching hot—about on par with Hot Mama, and much hotter than Karma Girl, where the sex scenes were mostly humorous.

Each of Jennifer Estep's novels has a theme. Karma Girl was an origin story. Hot Mama was about an established superhero. Jinx is neither. And that's all I'm going to say about that. The series is beginning to develop its own formula, so by the third book you know what to expect; the surprise is in the way the plot plays out. Like the previous two novels, Jinx stands on its own.

Jinx is a delightful morsel of a novel that you can probably devour in a night or two. It doesn't take itself seriously and because of that, it's downright entertaining. If you liked the previous two novels, you'll probably enjoy this one as well. If you haven't read the others and you like hot, funny romance with your fantasy, then these novels should be right up your alley. —Tia Nevitt
FanLit thanks Tia Nevitt from Debuts & Reviews for contributing this guest review.