Ill Wind (Weather Warden, Book 1): Book One of the Weather Warden

This Paranormal Romance / Urban Fantasy is the first in bestselling author Rachel Caine's Weather Warden Series, and was the Vaginal Fantasy book for August 2012. Caine does a great job of introducing the reader to her world, which she fits reasonably and believably on top of our own. She sets up a very innovative and interesting juxtaposition of the free human Weather Wardens and the bottled Djinn while taking the reader on an adventure following the protagonist, Joanne. The plot is compelling with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. Inserted into the story are flashbacks that fill the reader in on Joanne's past and her relationship with other characters.Joanne is in a bad situation as she runs from murder charges. She is a break away from the "damaged goods" heroine, and is a breath of fresh air. The reader gets to bypass any internal dialogue about insecurities as Joanne gets straight to the action, except for a few scenes when she indulges her hint of narcissism with shopping. The supporting characters that she interacts with are unique and unpredictable, and I found myself hoping they would keep popping up so we could keep learning more about them.The ending of this book left a lot to get picked up in the next one, but it had its own satisfactory conclusion to everything important in this story. I really enjoyed this book, and have heard that the series just keeps getting better. I look forward to reading the rest of this series and more from this author.

This book has been on my "to read" list for a while now, and I finally got to it, it only took a book club to get me there, but I am glad I finally did read this. Honestly, when I first started out with this, I wasn't sure if I'd actually be able to get into it, but at some point the story pulled me in, I can't pin point where, maybe when David showed up, yeah that was probably it. The thing about this book is that it isn't really linear, we start off in the present and Jo is on the run, from something but we really don't know what it is. The story then goes into some flash backs, then to present, then to another flashback that doesn't necessarily fall into any particular order, but all the flashbacks eventually let us know who and what Jo is and why she's running. Jo is an interesting character, she controls the weather, and in the world of this book the weather seems more sentient than what we would think of it being, more dangerous than the 'real world'. She is likable, arrogant, easy on the eyes and every man loves her, or so it seems. David is a mystery and compliments Jo really well, his mystery isn't so mysterious but there are a few surprises in this book. Towards the end the action and pacing picks up and the story just is amazing. I really liked the writing style, even though the story telling took some time to get used to. There are 5 chapters in this book and they are massively long (compared to some other books) but I really do recommend this, it's an easy read and it promises to be a fun series.

Ill Wind is the kind of book I love to read: sassy main character, interesting fantasy aspects, a sprinkling of romance. Unsurprisingly, I inhaled the book, and really enjoyed it.In general I thought Caine's characterizations were brilliant. Jo is fun and independent, just enough girl power but not over the line into ridiculous. I adored David. There are a bunch of great side characters, Lewis, Star, Paul, and Bad Bob.The world building was just right for me. Enough detail to make things clear, but not so much that I feel like I'm wading through info-dumps through the first half of the book. There's a lot I really like about this world and I can't wait to read more.I was a little irritated about why all the Djinn were so circumspect when they didn't have to be. The cop out answer, of course, was that's just how they are, but I didn't really buy that. Why not just tell her what she needs to know? Arg!

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't enjoy the ending but I understand why it ended that way. I'm not going to write a plot summary since so many others on here already have. I enjoyed the charater development tremendously and felt for the characters. I liked how she created a new world using real things like weather and the atmosphere. I had never heard of a djinn but found them to be interesting after reading about vampires and other paranormal things. I felt Ms. Caine really explored her world and brought me as the reader into it. I can't wait to read the rest of her series. However I didn't like how quick the ending happened. I felt she needed to expand it and explain it more. I just felt as if she was under deadline to finish it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys the paranormal or fantasy based reality. It's a super quick read.

I'd read Caine's vampire novels and had been incredibly impressed so I tried this series.Wow. Wow. Wow!No, it's not the deepest thing ever, but it's deep enough (and certainly a lot deeper than most stuff on the shelves). It's funny. It's exciting. And as with the vampire novels, the world-building is spell-bindingly impressive. Here is a world I really can explore through six more volumes and not get bored!I'm ordering the others now. I can hardly wait to find out what happens next to these people and this world! This time, though, I'll make sure I clear my schedule so I won't be constantly telling myself, "Just one more chapter and then I'll--" and come up for air only when the last page ends. Chores don't get done that way. But the book, its characters and its world stay with you. Bravo, Ms. Caine!