Armentrout's Wicked Ways

One of the new releases that I was looking forward to for a long time is Wicked by Jennifer Armentrout and I finally had the chance to read it.  This is the first in what is supposed to be a trilogy, with the next one slated to come out early in 2015.

I have to say that although I love Armentrout's writing, this one started off a bit slow for me.  It was dragging on and I was questioning whether I was going to continue...but only for a little bit.  After I persevered through,  the pace quickly picked up and a lot of action came forth!

This fantasy novel features Ivy, who is not your typical gal.   Along with others in the Order, she fights the fae who threaten human life and feed off of them.  Then there's Ren. Ren is a transfer from Colorado and totally into Ivy from the get-go, but she's a tough cookie at first and really wants nothing to do with him.  Her secrets are what are keeping her from getting too close.

Trouble in brewing in town when the fae are not the only threat and the entire Order must come together to prevent more destruction from happening...but will it destroy Ivy and Ren in the process?

Well, that's really what you're left wondering in this story because as it turns out, Ivy has more secrets (unknown to her) than we even realize initially.  She has more that even she realizes.  How will this affect her relationship with Ren?  How will it affect mankind?

After reading this, I am still left wondering why exactly it's called Wicked.  Ren calls Ivy wicked a couple times, playfully, but it still doesn't quite make sense to me.  I'm hoping with the next couple in the series that it will come together a bit and make more sense though.

I really enjoyed the bantering between the two main characters too.  Ivy has a sharp tongue and certainly doesn't let Ren rile her up too much.   In fact, he seems to like it,  which makes her even more determined to not like him.  There's obviously a good deal of sexual tension going on too.  Both characters are witty and quick with clever retorts, but under all of it are two people hiding and keeping secrets, whether they realize it or not.

Although this one started slow and wasn't a huge page-turner, in my opinion, I still enjoyed it and look forward to the series picking up and finding out what will happen between Ren and Ivy.