Wicked As They Come by Delilah S. Dawson (thoughts)

Wicked As They Come tells the tale of Criminy Stain and his enchanted locket that brings Tish into his world. A world that is only available to her when she sleeps but is like something that she has never experienced before. Criminy is like no one that she has ever met especially when he claims that they are meant for each other. And when she finds herself unable to return to her own world, she sets out on an adventure with Criminy that she will never forget.

Wicked As They Come was a fresh and original story filled with a world that brought about new reading experiences for me as a reader. I went into reading this book with high hopes as every review that I had seen was mostly/extremely positive. And while the world that the author created was extremely fascinating, I never managed to connect with the characters. It left me feeling a bit shaky about my overall experience with the book.

One of the things that I liked about the book was the circus atmosphere and the world that Criminy lived in. It was both unique and engrossing and I found myself wondering what the author would come up with next. The book was filled with killer "blud" animals and all of the humans lived walled up in a city that was supposed to protect them from the "bludmen". This was all very different than anything I had ever read before. The author also used different plays on names of countries and continents to tie the world that she had created to our actual world. It made it fun to read and find those references. Everything about Criminy's world I enjoyed and the world building was my favorite part of the book. That being said, I was never able to connect to either of the main characters in the story. Tish and Criminy's relationship was precarious from the start for me and I spent a good portion of the book trying to figure out how it would work. It was clear from the beginning that Tish was going to have to choose between her world or Criminy's and I didn't like either choice by itself (sorry if that is a bit spoiler-ey). I also felt that the relationship that developed between them went too fast for me to really root for them as a couple. I just never connected, plain and simple, which left me wanting more.

All in all, I can understand why so many others have loved this book way more than I did. And you probably should check out some of those reviews if you are on the fence about this book at all because my opinion seems to be in the minority. I just didn't love this book like I hoped that I would. I liked it enough though to give the second book a try at some point when it comes out. Hopefully, another dip into Criminy's world will allow for me to connect and love the world like so many others. And if not, then that's okay too :)

Bottom Line: Just an okay read for me.

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book for review from the publisher. Obviously, my thoughts on it are my own.

In other news, does anyone else have a hard time writing negative or even semi-negative reviews? I swear this took me over an hour to write and even then I'm not sure if I expressed everything that I wanted to. Ugh! If only we loved every book that we read :) I seem to have broken through my HUGE reviewing slump though and considering that I am now 12 reviews behind...it couldn't have come sooner. I need a review-a-thon or something. Happy Sunday!