The reason it takes me a week to read a book that I literally can’t put down is because I read it twice.
When I read Slippery Creatures, I wanted to say, this is what it looks like when an author levels up. I refrained, but I’m not going to wait til book three to say it: this is what it looks like when an author levels up.
The Will/Kim dynamic isn’t one I’ve seen her write before. Especially with Phoebe and Maisie taking such an integral part; especially given that it gets three books to play out. She takes her time in setting up the layers of trust and conflict, and it builds up as beautifully as anything could. I like books that build. I tend to use “slow burn” derogatorily because too often it’s stalling, and it’s not a good descriptor here either. But there’s a long, slow build over two books now and counting, all with satisfactory payoffs each step of the way, all with the fun, pulpy trappings of the genre, and it feels so deeply gratifying that I go speechless like Will, confounded and impressed.
The plot hustles, the characters twist and develop, and yet what sticks out to me is how much talking there is. Scene after scene after long scene after chapter of Will and Kim talking, a whole book of Will and Kim talking, in a way that feels like what a romance should be. I know an author’s got me completely when the conversation is even better than the sex. And it’s really good sex.
Oh yeah, and remember how Will was my favorite? Nope, Kim. Kim, Kim. Kim all the way. Although Phoebe nearly steals it, the secret heart of the book, lighting up rooms and sliding down banisters into brawls. Watching her and Maisie is like a book within a book, taking place under the boys’ oblivious noses. It’s a treat.
The book ends on more a promise than a cliffhanger, with more good things to come. Just the blurb has me tingling because it’s gonna go where I hoped. (Kim. Kim’s family. Kim’s demons.) I’m not gonna toss off a blithe “can’t wait,” because I can, and it will be so very worth it. Although I swear, if KJ Charles levels up again, it might do me in.
(Or, you know, this is just her average but it hits so many of my buttons I can’t tell the difference. Either way, pick it up.)