Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Wounded Vol. 1

SERIES: Little Goddess #2

AUTHOR: Amy Lane

PUBLISHER: DSP Publications

LENGTH: 200 pages

BLURB:

2nd Edition

Cory fled the foothills to deal with the pain of losing Adrian, and Green watched her go. Separately, they could easily grieve themselves to death, but when an old enemy of Green’s brings them back together, they can no longer hide from their grief—or their love for each other.

But Cory’s grieving has cut her off from the emotional stability that’s the source of her power, and Green’s worry for her has left them both weak. Cory’s strength comes from love, and she finds that when she’s in the presence of Adrian’s best friend, Bracken, she feels stronger still.

But defeating their enemy is by no means a sure thing. As the attacks against Cory and her lovers keep coming, it becomes clear that their love might not be enough if they can’t heal each other—and themselves—from the wounds that almost killed them all.

1st Edition published as Wounded: The Second Novel of the Little Goddess by iUniverse, 2006.

REVIEW:

I do love this series….

Wounded Vol. 1, is the continuation of the Little Goddess series, that started with Vulnerable. This series follows Cory, the Little Goddess, as she discovers her strength and power, in amongst the paranormal population of Northern California.

Goth girl and student Cory discovers that not all is as it seems working in a gas station overnight. She has her eyes opened to a whole new world, meets a vampire named Adrian, has her first kiss, first sex, and first love with him. Adrian is part of the fae community living at Green’s Hill, pretty much a paranormal commune, started by Adrian and the lovely elf Green. Cory is drawn in to this community, and falls in love with not only Adrian, but Green as well, Adrian and Green going way back as a couple. Green is a healing elf, healing through sexual contact, and is unable to be monogamous, as very few of the fae are. Cory is a bit baffled by this, but that’s ok…. So bad stuff happens at the end of Vulnerable, and they lose Adrian.

Wounded Vol. 1 starts a few months after Vulnerable ended, and we have Cory attending college in San Fransisco, with Benny, a werekitty who lost her man as well. Cory is not happy to be away, but wasn’t happy at the hill either. Green isn’t happy either way, he hasn’t been able to heal Cory’s emotional wounds (the title is very appropriate!), and doesn’t know what to do, so they all agree she’ll go to college. Of course nothing is as simple as going to college with this group, and Cory is attacked by someone she trusted. Nicky Kestrel, fellow student, avian shifter, and flunky of a bad guy. Cory is injured and the cavalry rides to the rescue. Green, Bracken, Max, and Grace head to San Fransisco.

So the big plot of this story involves a bad avian shifter, but also a Sidhe from Green’s past that turns out to have been involved in the shit storm that cost them Adrian. Emotions run very high, and there is much drama, and injury to Cory, both physical and emotional. This book has been broken in to two volumes, so this one ends somewhat in the middle of the story. I can see why this was done, it is a big book, and it is ended at a natural breaking point, but it felt a bit…. unexciting isn’t the word, uneventful isn’t right either, I don’t quite know what to say. How about it felt like this book had lots of build up but not a lot of resolution. Which is ok since we’ll get the second half in August with the resolution. But it made it harder to rate this one on its own…

The relationship side of this story was very interesting to me. I used to read the Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton, and in a small way this series reminds me of that one. Anita Blake gathered a group of men around her, that she gained power from. Cory sort of does that here, but not in the icky user way that Anita did. This is the right way to do it. Cory needs more support that she can get from Green, more attention, more love, more power, more healing. Green is shared by all of his people, Cory needs someone just for her. That someone turns out to be Bracken. A big beautiful elf, with huge amounts of love to give. He also has had a relationship with Adrian and Green, so he fits right in. Green is happy to have Bracken join his love to his and Cory’s, they all share the pain of missing Adrian. Unfortunately Cory also gains another man, unintentionally. I’ll let you discover that for yourself though. So everyone revolves around Cory, plain little Cory. She is baffled by this, afterall, she’s just a little human girl! Caught up in to a big story and a big world.

I first read this series starting in 2010, and loved them. I haven’t read them since, I do remember the characters and the story, but not the little details, so this is really a fresh read for me. I assume that these new editions are better, neither Amy nor DSP would put out anything less that perfect, but I’m not noticing any huge difference, since I didn’t have a problem with the original versions! As usual Amy does some fantastic world building and character creating. This is just such a cool version of our world, I really want to live there. I want to see Green’s Hill, see the long lean bodies of Bracken and Green, meet pixies and sprites, and see the grove that Cory created through love. I love that Cory is still trying to be a normal girl and go to school in spite of all the drama and change in her life. I love the characters that gather around her. I love Benny and Max. Amy gives us so much here, so many little things, big things, quiet lovely moments, and big scary moments. There is history with the fae folks, but a sense of contemporary as well. It’s a perfect blend and I loved it!

This is urban fantasy, or alternate universe, which ever you prefer, it won’t be for everyone. But it you have read any of Amy’s fantasy stories before you have got to give this series a try. If you read the original ones but haven’t in a few years like me, it’s time for a re-read! Here is my review of Vulnerable. I’m usually indifferent to covers, I read on a tablet and a Kindle so I don’t see the covers much, but I LOVE the new covers f0r this series! Bracken is just lovely…

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

DSP Publications

Amazon