I received this book via the author, Rebecca Chastain. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.
Series: Madison Fox Illuminant Enforcer,
Published by Mind Your Muse on 2014-08-18
Length: 293 pages
Reviewing eARC Rating:
Madison Fox just learned that her ability to see souls is more than a sight: It’s a weapon for fighting evil. The only problem is she doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing.
On the positive side, her money problems are over, she’s possibly discovered her purpose in life, and her coworker is smoking hot. On the negative side, evil creatures now actively hunt her, and deadly experiences are becoming the norm.
When she thinks it couldn’t get worse, a powerful evil sets up shop at a local hotel’s video game convention, and it’s got its eye on more than the gaming geeks: it is hungry for Madison’s soul. Madison needs to become an expert illuminant enforcer overnight to save her job, her region . . . and her life.
If Stephanie Plum fought evil with magic, it’d look a lot like this.
A Fistful of Evil by Rebecca Chastain was just ok for me. It’s about Madison Fox, a down on her luck woman who finds out she’s a bit special because she can see evil. Now she gets this awesome paying job working as an Illuminant Enforcer, fighting evil, and saving the city she lives in. It’s billed in the synopsis as being similar to Stephanie Plum….this was its mistake. You see I LOVE Stephanie Plum and all her crazy antics. I have loved her for the last 15 years (which is when I discovered her and Joe). So this book set high expectations for me and unfortunately didn’t meet them.
Madison is a good character, don’t get me wrong! She’s funny, quirky, more than a little stubborn, and she’s willing to do the work. She’s actually a character I could love if I hadn’t been expecting a Stephanie Plum. The problem is she just didn’t hold my attention. She was too fixated on the vet and the hot guy she works with instead of focusing on the fact that she can SEE EVIL!!! Not only that but she’s had this “problem” with seeing evil since she was a kid, but thought she was nuts for it. Now she just accepts it and does the job willingly. That was a bit hard to swallow for me.
Supposedly now that she is looking at the evil beings, the darkness as she used to call it, they see her where as before they left her alone. Again…NOT BUYING IT! Why would the evil leave her alone if her light is as pure as described? Why, now that she knows what they are, are they attacking her? Why did they not attack her before? I just didn’t understand this as it was a main plot driver.
So the plot revolves around Madison coming into her powers so to speak, understanding them and finally using them. This did make for a funny story at times, but at other times I was just bored. There’s a demon that has moved into town, now that he knows there’s a new enforcer and he makes all kinds of trouble for her. I’ll admit that I was surprised by the ending! I didn’t see it coming so kudos for that 😀
Overall the book was just okay for me. I wasn’t thrilled, I wasn’t asking for more at the end. It was just ok. If you enjoy paranormal, urban fantasy, I highly recommend it. If you’re looking for the new adult aspect though, it is lacking. Although this book wasn’t for me, I do plan to read the next one. Maybe now that the characters are introduced I’ll like it better? Who knows 😉
Final Conclusion:
Leave a Reply