On Vox: Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep
Karma Girl
Jennifer Estep
Wow, I'm so behind on reviews. Oh well. *laze*.
Karma Girl is about Carmen Cole, a reporter who finds out her fiance is cheating on her with her best friend Karen on her wedding day. On top of that she learns he's a superhero and Karen, her now ex-best friend is his arch-enemy. Angry and bitter, Carmen exposes them both, then continues to expose other superheroes and villians throughout the country in her quest for what she considers karmic revenge. Eventually she ends up in Bigtime, New York. She's been hired as a reporter to expose the Fearless Five, Bigtime's resident band of superheroes who constantly battle their archenemies the Terrible Triad. This is where things go bad, and Carmen discovers there is a downside to what she is doing. Since she's persona non grata to the superhero community, Carmen has to rely on herself to fix her own problems, even though she feels a connection with Striker, leader of the Fearless Five.
This was a fun, sort of campy novel, using a lot of comic book standards - yards and yards of spandex, first and last names beginning with the same letter, powers gained by being dipped in nuclear waste that happened to be lying about in the open, and secret identities. I had a lot of fun reading it and recognizing the tongue in cheek references to comic books and superhero tropes. Superheroes and villians are common in this world and Carmen sees at least 5 on her way to work. They even have designated parts of the city that they protect. All of this is mixed to produce a chick-lit/romance/humorous story. Really easy to read, and hard for me to put down. Yes it does have some superficial characters and Carmen gets very angsty towards the end when she doesn't need to be (sigh, most annoying part of the book), but I could overlook this and found it enjoyable.
Excerpt to first chapter of Karma Girl
Review of Karma Girl at Dear Author. With amusing youtube video review that you must watch.
I'll be reading book two - "Hot Mama" which is out in November, and probably book three - "Jinx", out April 2008.
Originally posted on janicu.vox.com