Wickedly Powerful (Baba Yaga #3) by Deborah Blake

Bella is one of the three Baba Yagas in charge of the United States.  When she feels an urge to head to the forest in Wyoming, Bella is originally unsure if she is there to investigate the missing Riders, or to deal with the sudden fires that are occurring.  Growing up as a Baba Yaga in training was hard for Bella and she found that never really fit in with humans and therefore now enjoys spending time by herself with her companion Koshka, a dragon disguised as a cat.  The stakes her high but despite all Bella has to do, she finds herself distracted by the handsome but deeply scared, former hotshots fireman Sam Corbett.  If that were not enough, when Bella finds Jazz, a runaway teen living rough in the forest, Bella realises that she cannot just leave the girl to fend for herself. Can Bella somehow handle it all?

By now, the Baba Yaga series has become pretty predictable.  When Bella meets Sam and Jazz, there's never any doubt that all three of them will end up together living as a family. It's always only a matter of how it happens.  That beings said, when Bella's fellow Baba Yagas show up to look for her, I was expecting  Deborah Blake to bring on the awesome.  I feel very much at this point that we were due, particularly given that this book was written largely by the numbers.  Unfortunately, to say the big showdown was anticlimactic is to be kind. Blake didn't bring the epic and seemed rush to wrap everything up in a neat little bow, so that she could move onto writing about the Riders.

I liked watching Jazz and Bella bond; however, I wished that the bond had not occurred over the fact that they are both orphans and come from a history of abuse.  I suppose at least for Jazz, there was no other way to have her living in a forest withput adult supervision.  The issue for me is that suffering is used too often as a shortcut to characterization.  The same issue occurred with Sam, with his PTSD, survivor's guilt and scared face. I never felt like I got to know Sam as a person and he really became was his loss and fears.  The only good thing I can say is that while woo woo was used to cure Sam of his lung damage and scars, at least Blake had Sam acknowledge that dealing with his PTSD was going to take some time.

The antagonist is Brenna, a former Baba Yaga the queen had forced to retire.  We met Brenna in Wickedly Wonderful; however Blake did a good job of explaining to readers where Brenna's anger stemmed from and her history with the Baba Yagas.  If you have not read any of the other books in this series, you will not have any trouble following along with Wickedly Powerful. Brenna, is not pleased to have been forced to retire and she is further enraged that this means the loss of the Water of Life and Death, which slows down the aging process of the Baba Yagas and strengthens their powers. As her hair begins to go grey and bones begin to creak, Brenna is driven to kidnap the Riders and torture them until they lose their immortality so she that she can become what she once was - powerful.

Veiled Magic by Deborah Blake

Donata Santori is a witch working for the police – one of the future supernaturals that are publicly known to the general population. But even with her useful ability to speak to the dead doesn’t make her very popular with her fellows.

Just when she’s starting to get out of the basement and be trusted one of those ghosts comes to her with a mission that not only risks that newfound trust – but also her life. There’s a painting that holds not just all the secrets of the paranormal races (which the Inquisition Cabal would love to get their hands on to push their crusade) but also a lost race… which may be even more destructive than a renewed inquisition.

This book is a very classic Urban Fantasy – very much in line with all the classic points and elements of a basic Urban Fantasy

And that sounds like a bad thing – but I like Urban Fantasy. I like classic Urban Fantasy. If I didn’t like all the hallmarks of a basic Urban Fantasy then I wouldn’t be a fan of that genre. The key is both what is added to that template and how well done that template is addressed

I do like Donata, the protagonist. Again she is a very classic Urban Fantasy protagonist who ticks a lot of boxes but does it well. She’s a witch, which in this world means lots of ritual magic and utility spells but not much in the way of throwing lightning. She’s also a cop (therefore involve in investigation) and knows enough martial arts to be useful in a fight and not be a damsel. She’s active and dangerous without being super-powerful and story breaking. I really like how she asserts herself when defying both the authority of the Council and her disapproving family (and certainly her two male cohorts) but does so without the classic suicidal sass that is so common to the genre (Honestly, I am tired of raging protagonist raging at authority which should squish them so many times over but never ever does). And she has conflicts with her family but does love them and seems to be blessedly free of the almost compulsory tragic past. I also quite like that the romance was only briefly the cause of men fighting each other

I mentioned that she can hold her own in a fight though it is slightly frustrating that her two male cohorts are so much more physically dangerous than she is – it’s such a trope and when the supernatural are involved it’s so unnecessary. Why can’t the woman be the one with physical super powers and the man be the one with support magic?

Wickedly Wonderful (Baba Yaga #2) by Deborah Blake

Beka Yancy is the youngest of the three North American Baba Yagas.  Her mentor has recently retired to the Otherworld and Beka finds herself dealing with an environmental disaster that leaves her mystified.  Not only are the selkies and merpeople dying but the fish have disappeared from the ocean leaving the local fishermen all struggling.  Beka has vowed that she will solve this problem but despite a number of dives, she has absolutely no clue what is happening.  If that were not enough, Kesh,  the prince of the selkies and a local fisherman named Marcus are both vying for her attention.  Beka doesn't know which way to turn and even starts to wonder whether or not she is cut out to be a Baba Yaga.

I originally picked up this series because while the Baba Yaga is a very old myth, she has not appeared in many fantasy novels.  I was very excited to see what Blake would do with this awesome witch.  Unfortunately, in Blake's Baba Yaga series, the Baba Yaga, is simply a name for a powerful witch and many of the things that make the Baba Yaga, the Baba Yaga are missing from this series.  No longer is the Baba Yaga an old crone, no longer does she fly in a mortar and pestle and no longer does she live in a cabin which is made mobile by chicken legs.  Even the dragon chudo yudo has been turned into a Newfoundland dog.

Wickedly Wonderful is essentially a paranormal romance; however, while the romance between Marcus and Beka features largely in the story, it never overwhelms the mystery of why the ocean has become polluted.  Beka is steadfast in her search and never stops working towards her end goal, even though she is constantly battling with the taciturn Marcus, who is not found of hippie people. Because of the way that Wickedly Wonderful is written, we know from the beginning who is responsible for the pollution and his motivation and simply wait for Beka to figure it out.

Beka is very different from Barbara, the protagonist in Wickedly Magical and Wickedly Dangerous. Barbara, being older than Beka, is very confidant and sure of her magical powers.  Beka spends much of Wickedly Wonderful doubting her abilities despite constant assurance from Chudo Yudo.  Beka is supposedly so insecure because she was raised without any positive reinforcement from the retiring Baba.  My issue with this is that Beka is almost a 30 year old woman and while she might reasonably have some doubt in her abilities, I think it went a touch too far.  There is also the issue of Beka's naiveté. Everyone who interacts with Kesh for instance, almost immediately says that they don't trust him, yet Beka has several meals with him and even makes excuses for his behaviour.  Beka only questions Kesh's behaviour when he gets into a testosterone pissing match with Marcus over her. I like that Beka declared that she is not a commodity to be owned but I would have liked her to question Kesh's motives more, particularly after learning that Kesh was on the outs with his family. Beka just seems to keep making the same moves though it is not progressing the case that she is investigating and I found that to be extremely frustrating. 

Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga #1) by Deborah Blake

Three children have gone missing from the little town of Clearwater.  Sheriff Liam McClellan has been searching for some kind of clue as to who took the children and if the kids are dead or alive but no matter where he looks, he finds no answers.  When Mary Elizabeth Shields goes missing, her desperate grandparents send for the Baba Yaga.  Barbara Yager arrives in her Airstream, with her companion dog/dragon Chudo-Yudo.  After making a the typical request that Mary Elizabeth's mother perform the three impossible tasks required for the aid of the Baba Yaga, Baba gets to work on the case.  Baba quickly finds herself drawn to Liam, even as she does battle with an Otherworldly creature to save the town of Clearwater from environmental damage, the Otherworld from destruction, and to save the missing children.

I began the Baba Yaga series with Wickedly Magical, which has absolutely no hint of romance.  It is on the strength of that book that I decided to read Wickedly Dangerous.  Had I known that Blake would turn the Baba Yaga into a love story, I never would have picked up Wickedly Dangerous.  It feels quite a bit like a bait and switch.  I went into Wickedly Dangerous expecting a wilily protagonist, who is grumpy, awkward but yet extremely powerful.  What I got is a Baba Yaga who spends much of her time lamenting the fact that she doesn't possess good social skills, doesn't fit in because she isn't quite human and is obsessed with Liam.  Baba is barely competent in the investigation. Despite all of Baba's whining about not fitting in, the people of Clearwater take to her immediately, which is weird because small town people are normally a little resistant to strangers.  It's only when some of Baba's herbal medication backfires due to interference of the evil protagonist  that they become suspicious. 

I quickly became frustrated with Baba mooning over Liam.  Despite the fact that her life is in danger, he seems to be all she can focus on.  I had trouble believing at times that she is supposedly a very long lived supernatural.  I couldn't stop my frustration at the repeated commentary about how good Liam's T-shirt looks on him or the brown flecks in his eyes. Yes, focus on the hot guy while your life is in danger, that's just the most appropriate way to handle things. If this had just been Baba, it would have been bad enough but Blake includes Liam's perspective, so there is a ton of internal monologue about how frustrating Baba Yaga is and his fascination with her amber eyes and long dark hair. This naturally leads to the will they or won't they be a couple scenario because Baba Yaga's life is one where she travels around when called and Liam, having lived in Clearwater all of his life, is reluctant to leave.