Getting Wilde by Jenn Stark

July 13th, 2018 Kimberly Review 22 Comments

13th Jul
Getting Wilde by Jenn Stark
Getting Wilde
by Jenn Stark
Series: Immortal Vegas, #1
Narrator: Stephanie Bentley
Length: 7 hours and 37 minutes
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Source: Publisher
Purchase*: Amazon | Audible *affiliate
Goodreads
Rating: One StarOne StarOne Star
Heat Level: One FlameOne FlameOne Flame
Narration: 4 cups

Using her well-worn Tarot deck, magical-artifacts hunter Sara Wilde can find anything—for a price. And the price had better be right, since she needs to finance her own personal mission to rescue several young psychics recently sold on the paranormal black market.

Enter Sara’s most mysterious client and occasional lover, the wickedly sexy Magician, with a job that could yield the ultimate payday. All she’ll have to do is get behind Vatican walls… and steal the Devil himself.

But play with the Devil and you’re bound to get burned.

Pressure mounts for Sara to join the Magician’s ancient and mysterious Arcana Council, as militant forces unleashed by even darker powers seek to destroy all magic—including the young psychics Sara is desperate to keep safe. The Council may be their only hope. . . but it could also expose Sara’s own dark past.

From the twisting catacombs of Rome to the neon streets of Vegas, Sara confronts ancient enemies, powerful demigods, a roiling magical underworld about to explode… and immortal passions that might require the ultimate sacrifice. But oh, what a way to go.

No matter how the cards play out, things are about to get Wilde.

urban snarky magical SUSPENSE

The first book in the urban fantasy series Immortal Vegas, Getting Wilde by Jenn Stark introduces us to snarky, tarot card reader and magical-artifacts hunter Sara Wilde. Wilder is a character with potential and a good heart. I am still tentative about the series, but will continue.

Still on the hunt for urban fantasy, I decided to try the Immortal Vegas series when it released on audio. I like the premise of a tarot card reader amd magical artifact hunter. Sara is snarky, and a bit complicated. She has a dark tragic past and takes on jobs with the biggest payoff in an effort to help Connected children. These children have psychic gifts. However, Sara also seems to attract trouble and often jumps in without thinking.

The Arcane Council has Sara on their radar and want her to work with them, which leads to her current case. I enjoyed all of the paranormal elements and world-building Stark provides. There is a group known as The Sanctum who seek to destroy all Connected. The Connected are individuals with abilities, including Sara and her card reading. The action scenes and suspenseful storyline quickly pulled me in.

This is where things get a little complicated for me. We have the Magician and the Devil both intriguing characters in the storyline. There is some history here but we sadly we are left in the dark. I think it would have strengthened my connection to the characters, but this is only the first novel. The sexual tension between the Magician and Sara could at times be sizzling but was doused more often than not by Sara’s indecisiveness.   While I like snark and can handle some impulsiveness, I struggled with Sara whenever she was around these men.  Which is ashame really, because the story is action-packed and the world is interesting. I totally felt like I missed a book or chapters. I grabbed the prequel to see if that helps. Stark has given herself plenty of room for character growth..lol

Stephanie Bentley narrates  and was a new to me narrator. She does a really nice job both with pacing and voices. I thought she captured the emotions each scene brought forth and would gladly listen to her again.

The first thing to note is that the Immortal Vegas series currently has ten books published. Despite my problems with out feisty heroine, a series and loyal fan base are present. I recommend you read several reviews before deciding if this is for you. The prequel, One Wilde Night is currently free for Kindle.  As for me, I usually try to give a series like this three books before deciding and will be grabbing the next audiobook.

Getting Wilde by Jenn Stark introduces us to snarky, Tarot card reader and magical-artifacts hunter Sara Wilde. #audio #ImmortalVegas Click To Tweet
Photo of kimbacaffeinate
About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

22 Responses to “Getting Wilde by Jenn Stark”

  1. Sophia Rose

    I’ve read the prequel and then listened to this one. I still felt like I was missing stuff. And, yes, the behavior around the two men was driving me crazy. I’m still on the fence whether I’ll keep going because there were other things I liked about the stories.

    • Kimberly

      Damn. I bought the sequel. Well that makes me sad. I wanted to slap her. LOL. After listening to Sarah Fine’s newest UF with cards I will probably not pick this back up.

  2. Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight

    I’m pretty sure I’ve used these books for a book cover post or two, and I’ve always been vaguely interested. It’s frustrating when you’re left in the dark or feel like you’ve missed something, but it sounds like a series with potential!

    • Kimberly

      Well I figure with such a large fan base and so many books, it must get better but yeah rough start.

  3. Angela

    Very nice review. I have this book to read and have seen the series around. The prequel was so so… It didn’t at least to me give you anything to help with the series. It was quite a shocking opening prequel.

  4. sjhigbee

    What a really fair-minded approach! Three books is certainly giving a new author plenty of leeway to find their feet. Thank you for an enjoyable review – I came to the conclusion this one is probably not for me…

    • Kimberly

      I try to give these series until at least book three. I was on the fence about a few of my all time favorite UF series with book one.

  5. kindlemom1

    I’ve seen some mixed reviews for this and am still unsure of whether I should try it or not. Maybe I will wait for book two to come out and see what the reviews say then. Either way, it really does sound intriguing.

    • Kimberly

      Yep, but I will try the next because I was a mixed bag of feeling about the first Kate Daniel’s audio and look how that turned out!