Wicked Lucidity

by Mandy M. Roth

When Karri-Lynn O'Higgins is offered a small slice of normalcy, she goes for it. She wasn't looking for a relationship and she sure as hell wasn't looking to fall in love. Something about Riston Wallace calls to her on a level Karri can't deny. He's everything she wants in a man expect for one thing--he's a nice guy. What happened to her wish list? Tall, dark and deadly? He got the tall and dark part right. She soon learns that there's more to Riston than meets the eye. Much more. In a world where sanity is as relative as what defines evil, Karri finds herself being forced to come to terms with her past and her future. Rating: Contains graphic violence, explicit sex, and strong language. Not for the faint of heart.

Genres: Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Romance, Fantasy, Shapeshifters, Ebooks, Dark Romance

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 2005

About the author

NY Times & USA Today bestselling author Mandy M. Roth® loves 80s music and movies and wishes leg warmers would come back into fashion. She also thinks the movie The Breakfast Club should be mandatory viewing for…okay, everyone. When she’s not dancing around her office to the sounds of the 80s, she’s busy writing paranormal operatives and kick-butt urban fantasy heroines. Mandy lives in Oxford, Mississippi with her husband and three boys. She has sold over 2 million books. Mandy has published with Harlequin, Random House/ Virgin Books, numerous small presses, and has had an amazingly successful indie career. She’s had bestselling books in a multitude of categories and genres at Amazon, Nook, Google Play, Apple Books, and Kobo.

Reviews

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 4 out of 5]

she fights evil. paranormal evil and she's dying. she finds her mate at long last....he hurts her emotionally. miracle happens and she lives but it's a close call. she and her babies are saved by her friends. she returns to her mate....there is a hea ending.

[niki_reads_romance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome story!

Oh I completely loved Kars and RJ’s story! There were so many twists and turns, I never knew what was going to happen!

[DJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. Weird continuity through with storyline hopping about.
But I muddled through.

[Vanessa theJeepDiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karri-Lynn O’Higgins has embraced her crazy and she owns it. She wears her crazy openly and uses it to put her enemies in their graves. Karri is the team leader of a paranormal tactical unit. She is responsible for making sure that the things that go bump in the night do not harm innocents. She uses her abilities as a Dark Angel to draw the darkness to her and then within her to enable her to fight it. Karri had so much potential where awesome heroines are concerned. I loved her antics. She is the type of woman you want as your best friend, closest confidant, and your wingman.

I liked Karri’s relationship with her best friend Amber. Amber is completely oblivious when it comes to all things supernatural. Amber believes that Karri is just strutting her crazy when she talks about lycans, demons, vampires, and all the creepy stuff in the world. Karri who really does own her crazy is just telling her bestie the truth about everything in her life. Karri knows that Amber possesses magik and will one day have to come to terms with the fact that there is more out there than humans.

Here’s what didn’t work for me. Up until this point Karri seems like a tough woman who can take on anything. She is clueless when it comes to her personal life, specifically the romantic relationship with her destined from birth mate. She has to have everything not only spelled out for her but she needs a map drawn too. Her friend’s must be very explicit and overly elaborate in their methods of telling her that this guy who is familiar in every way humanly and inhumanly possible is familiar for a reason.

Then there is the mate. He has known her since the day she was born (he was even in the room the moment she was born) and was best friends with her father. There was a bit of an ick factor there for me. He never pursued her or took a sexual interest in her as an infant or a child, but still it hit me that he was the weird uncle that no one ever talks about or invites to family gatherings.

Wicked Lucidity is also filled with what I felt was unnecessary content. There is close to a whole chapter of a phone call between Karri and an illegal arms dealer. The dialogue reiterated that she’s walking the fine line where her lunacy is concerned, but otherwise it severed little purpose. The rehashing of Karri’s past weighed down the book and caused the pace to slow at times.

I have read and enjoyed several other titles by this author, so perhaps this one was just a miss for me. I will continue to read Roth’s work I did enjoy the previous ones that I had read.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wicked Lucidity wasn’t the story that I was expecting and yet it was. Karri has been looking out for herself since she was a little girl and had a rough time of it. As an adult she’s learned who she is and she’s hell on wheels working for the powers and bringing down the bad guys. Now she’s “home” to her new home to be with her best friend Amber. When she gets there Karri also gets to meet the “neighborhood” that includes Eric, his little girl Hillary, and Eric’s brother Riston. Hillary reminds Karri of herself and Riston? Well Karri doesn’t know what to make of Riston other than he brings memories of another man and another time to her, oh and draws her in like a flaming magnet!

I wasn’t sure where this story was going for a little bit. There was a point early on in the story where there were a lot of characters and a lot of background information being just thrown at the reader as if Karri and Amber hadn’t been friends already for years. It was slow going to keep it all straight. It was pretty easy to see where it was going as far as Karri’s mate. But I found that I felt awkward at times while Karri told her tale. Knowing that she was going on and what she was saying wasn’t really private. At the same time, I was a little ticked that her mate left her to have some pretty bad experiences and then when he hears about them, he’s not up front with her about himself now. Yes, Karri gets to kick some arse and gets her HEA. But it took a while to get there. I’m happy with the overall story and possibility of seeing more of the other characters in their own stories.

[Nikki Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kerri-Lynn 0'Higgins lives in her own wee world of fantasy, or so her friends, incl BBF Amber. They all think she floats through life barely in touch with reality. Little do they know. Kerri is anything but nuts but her life ain't exactly...normal. She was born part angel, part something else. She lost her mother early in life and her father due to tragic circumstances. She recalls the close bond she had with RJ, her fathers 2nd in command. But he dropped her off with a distant relative and never looked back. Little did he know he dropped her into a nest of vipers!!

She loves life and is skating a little too close to the edge of darkness for her team mates comfort.

When she moves to reconnect with Amber, she weirdly feels right at home and instantly bonds with the little girl who lives next door and the enigmatic Riston, her uncle. There is a who spaghetti junction of connections between her past and her present but she feels let down at the non appearance of RJ, she always knew that he was more to her than just her dads friend.

I loved this book. Sometimes I did get a bit lost as it felt like there should have been a book before this one to explain bits of the back story. However, I really enjoyed unfurling Karri's past and I just loved "her boys". Great characters and I really hope this evolves into another series like Psi_Ops/I-Ops.

[Titania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karri had protected everyone she considers hers and it is costing her her life. But she has nothing to live for since her mate has forsaken her, or has he? Author Mandy M. Roth has given us an action packed story in which we along with Karri find out what has been hidden for so long. I loved that Karri was honest but her best friend didn't believe a word she said, in fact thought she was delusional. But that did not stop the love either had for each other. I also loved the relationship that Karri had with her team. She protected them even if they were quite aware of all that she does for them. All that changes when Karri meets Riston. He is familiar to her but she doesn't know why. I love those moments when Karri finds herself doing things for Riston without even realizing it. It was wonderful seeing yet another person taken under her wing even as she finds herself under his protection as well. Riston knows that Karri is his but isn't quite sure how. I felt their pain as they both began to understand how each was wronged. Ms. Roth made their coming together real and believable. They needed to start from scratch and move past the pain of their respective pasts and pain. I loved seeing them regain the love and respect for each other. Ms. Roth combined their emotional journey with a fast paced story that is well worth reading!

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing story. I could not put it down. Karri-Lynn O'Higgins has had a very hard life. She lost her parents when she was 6 and lived through hell for the next 12 years. She has lost so many loved ones that at times you wonder how she can go on. She moves back to be near her best friend, Amber, who by the end believes in the supernatural. People, especially Amber, think that Karri can be a bit crazy at times. However, she meets a wonderful little girl who called her crazy beautiful and wants Karri to be her aunt. The day she moves back she meets Riston Wallace. At first something about him seems familiar but she cannot place where she met him before. I loved how they came together and wanted to smack him a few times for being stubborn and not wanting to listen and talk to Karri. This story can be difficult at times to follow but it ties together overall. It is a little like the main character when she goes from thought to thought. You think it is random but it is extremely well thought out. You hear and see memories she has and people she has met that tied her life together. I loved how Mandy pulled everyone together and would love to see her boys, Jean-Paul and Amber's stories.

[Dawn Dohey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a story about a girl named Kerri-Lynn 0'Higgins who was anything but normal and she didn't lead a normal life that being due to the fact she was born of Supernatural's very powerful Supernatural's .Due to the fact she grew up with her life laced with the tragic passing of her parents and and an even tragic and utterly horrible up bringing at the hands of her guardians one would question he sanity. Kerri-Lynn often loved life and took life threatening risk when on missions with her special ops team thinking of there safety before her own he skills were limitless.When she moves to a town to be with an old and dear friend things begin to change for Kerri and strange occurrences began to take place as her past the one she block begin to unravel and surface with a vengeance . Everything and everyone has some connection to her and her past but the one she needs and wants to remember her true mate some how won't come. As memories of her past and the need to block them don't help with the fact he is closer to her now even more then she knows all she has to do is open her eyes and see with her heart .

[Sharon Hatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karri knows rejection, her parents were killed when she was young, her mate abandoned her to monsters and never came back, and even her best friend thinks she’s nuts! But that has never stopped her from fighting the good fight even knowing her choices are speeding her down the path to her demise. RJ got lost, when his best friends were viscously attacked and killed by demons he manages to save his future mate (Karri was six) but not his friends leaving him guilt ridden, he leaves Karri with what he thought were family and threw himself into his work never knowing what she endured at their hands. To say Karri and RJ have a complicated relationship is an understatement and then some! Even when they find each other (although neither recognize the other at first) they still can’t seem to latch on to that whole made for each other, can’t be whole without the other thing. A truly enchanting story full of lovable characters you feel you know, love, light, hope and yes a bit of darkness too. Highly recommend it!!
**This book received in exchange for an honest review**

[Cilicia White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karri has known since she was child that she was destined to be something special and have someone to share her life with. When tragedy strikes Karri's life as she knew it changed and with it she changed. Years later after spending seven years away from her best friend she moves back home and meets a special little girl and her uncle Riston. Something about Riston pulls Karri towards him but she doesn't know what. Riston knows what ties them together but he won't say what it is. Karri stopped believing in love but love can't be stopped and she learns what love can do and it will take love to stop what is coming. This is book was not written to be a series but I find myself wanting to know more about the secondary characters especially Amber, Karri's BF and the rest of Karri's team.

I received a copy of this book for a honest review

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great title! Karri's friend wonders about her lucidity, unwilling to accept the truth Karri willingly shares. She is a protector of humans from things they only see in their nightmares. She has lived quite a life. Ms Roth weaves a tale of loss, strength, victory, loyalty and hope.

Returning to live near her long time friend, she meets someone who could lead her into a normal life--or could he? There is something familiar about Riston but she doesn't know him?

Every chapter provides more information and adds to the mystery. The people from her past, connections, obligations and dangers all finally come together. But is it too late? Has she finally given too much just when life could begin for her?

A page turner with Ms Roth's usually skill at stories told with humor and feeling. This is a keeper.

I was provided an ARC for an honest review.

[Laticia Overton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite book from Mandy Roth and that's saying a lot because I adore all her books. Karri and Riston's love story was everything you could ever want in a paranormal romance. I couldn't get enough of it, she blew my mind with her unique and creative prose. Her characters and plots were so well developed, I found myself wanting these characters to have their own books so I could read more. Karri and Riston were fun, sexy, emotional, and tough. A hero and heroine that were incredibly likable. Riston was yummy and Karri was smart, quirky, and feisty, I was really rooting for them. They were meant to be together and they were going to do whatever was needed so they could achieve that. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Roth has taken paranormal romance to another level.

[iliana G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given an ARC by the author for an honest review

Ok i am having a hard time here but i will start with the fact i liked the book greatly.

Now that this is out of the way let me say that this is one of the few books i have read that was so confusing and chaotic!

So many things happening and the character was so bat shit crazy that it gave me a headache.

Still it was damn funny and fast paced and at points emotional.

It captivated me from the first page to the last and it kept my interest on the story though at times there where huge holes there.

I would really love to see this turning into a series and reading more about the other characters in the book.

[Carla Sabatino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Stand alone story. I loved it. Theres a lot of backstory in this book but it's needed and helps to lay out the full story for what it is. You need to be a patient reader for this book. The true commitment of a mate, the dedication to ones true love, ultimate sacrifices.. The bravery needed to do what needs to be done regardless of the consequences. So much in this book but it's all one story and it's amazing.

Karri and RJ are amazing characters. It was alittle frustrating with how clueless she was and how RJ held back but when it's all revealed... the prize was worth the wait. True heroic love story from all angles.

[Selina Durio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this book, despite at times it being a little confusing. Karri ang Riston are a couple that have been bonded since her birth. After the death of her parents they are separated for about twenty-three years. The book gets confusing as the author describes those years apart from the heroines perspective and tries to eventually explain why RJ never interceded to assist her. The brightest spot in this story is Hilary. She has not only the innocence of a child, but the wisdom of someone much older.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Donna Hokanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normal is not an option
This is a very interesting and entertaining story line that there is no such thing as normal. It’s a good against evil with one good gal (Karri-Lynn) that could turn evil if she’s not more careful and because she doesn’t have her mate to help ground her. This is also a love story that has lots of twists and turns to getting it right. Angels, Demons, Vampire, Lycans and others are in this well written story. Fascinating world created by the author and a self-contained story.

[Denise Mcnamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully amazing book. I love Mandy's writting and she doesn't disappoint with this one. Kerri is a fighter for the good and struggles to keep the dark side from taking her. Riston hasn't seen his mate in almost 25 years and hasn't stopped looking for her. When they finally know who each other is not only does their tempers heat up but so does the bedroom. . This is a must read book and I'm looking forward to reading book two.

[Janette Lopez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea how I missed this wonderful book. So I have read almost everything Mandy has written I am one of those if she writes it I read it types. I love all her series but OMG this was amazing I never wanted to end. I need more in this series so PLEASE Mandy write more!! I want to read more about the other characters.

[Teresa Stirewalt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was on of Mandy's best books so far. I love most of her stories they hook me and drag me into the world the characters are living in and so kindly allowing her to share. She has become one of my most favorite authors and I look forward to reading many more of her books.

[Magdalena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was almost perfect. Lots of action, strong female lead with plenty of ass-kicking, and a sexy romance. What make this a three out of five for me was that the female lead seem to have a split personality. The times when she was acting like a crazed valley girl were really offputting.

[Jaycee Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book. Heroine was different, quirky and fun. :)

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn´t get through the first chapter, Kerri was too kick ass for me. I like my heroines capable, but not bragging about it.

[Christina Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fast-paced

[Runningrabbit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standard paranormal romance.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Review to come**

[Sonya Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

I really enjoyed the story of Kars and Rj. Waiting for book 2. We have to find out what Jack says right?

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing new start to the series! Awesome story! Can't wait for the next. Great add to the series! Keeps getting better and better!