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Review: Aces Wild by Amanda Carlson (Sin City Collectors #1)

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Aces Wild by Amanda Carlson // VBC ReviewAces Wild (Sin City Collectors #1)
Amanda Carlson
Published: June 2, 2014
Purchase: Amazon
Review source: copy provided by author in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Dhampire Nevada Hamilton has been part of the Sin City Collectors for three years. Her job: ‘collect’ those supernaturals breaking the law and turn them in for the appropriate judgment. Despite a shaky start on her first collection with a vampire, Nevada has had a pretty successful run. That all may change when she’s assigned, yet again, to collect a vampire. This time around she’ll have a partner in hellhound Jake Troubadour. That alone may be enough to make Nevada wish this were a solo job after all.

Jake Troubadour hasn’t been able to get Nevada out of his mind after their night together three years ago. It wasn’t exactly what one would call an evening of true love formed. Nevada claims she wasn’t exactly in the right state of mind and quickly left once she got her wits about her. They haven’t spoken to each other since. Jake’s definitely interested to see what Nevada has been up to, a sentiment he quickly rethinks when he comes face-to-face with the feisty dhampire.

One of my favorite storylines when reading romance is when there is already an established history between the main characters, and its blatantly obvious from the start that theres a history between Nevada and Jake. Although they do dance around the issue a bit before we get the full story, but with the undeniable chemistry between them it’s no surprise. The conflict between them is figuring out if they can work together with that history. Especially a history where what is thought of as ‘factual’ is being called into question. The mere proximity to one another brings up long suppressed emotions.

Nevada has changed since their encounter three years ago and there were moments in the course of the collection where Jake underestimated her, but she does know how to do her job and she does it well. Being a dhampire, Nevada was raised by her human mother. Her vampire side is almost completely foreign to her. All the skills and power she’s developed over the years has been through her own hard work and determination further showcasing her strength. I can appreciate all the hard work Nevada has done to become self-sufficient and successful.

The one issue I think befalls many novellas is the length. There were specific areas that I think would have benefitted from more information. I personally would have liked to learn more about Jake. We’re told he’s a hellhound and not much more than that. There were a lot of bits and pieces of information hinted at but not much expanded upon.

What I really liked about this novella is that, being the first in a series, Amanda Carlson didn’t weigh it down with too much world building. The readers are asked to accept that supernaturals exist and that humans do not yet know of their existence. We are asked to accept that there are collectors that apprehend wrong-doing supernaturals. The rest of the information falls into place as we read the series.

The whole idea of different authors contributing different stories told in the same world is something I’m excited about. I’m very interested to see Kristen Painter take up the mantle of the Sin City Collectors in the next book Queen of Hearts. I’m also hoping this isn’t the last we see of Nevada and Jake. I would be happy if Carlson decided to write another Sin City novella with the dhampire and her hellhound.

Sexual content: Sex

2 Responses to “Review: Aces Wild by Amanda Carlson (Sin City Collectors #1)”

  1. Sarah L says:

    I read this on it’s release day as I am a huge fan of Amanda Carlson and really enjoyed this novella. I agree despite it’s length it packed a punch and didn’t get bogged down with explanations at all. I’m really curious to read the next ones as they are all authors I haven’t read before but have on my tbr pile! It’s a great concept.

    • Amy says:

      I really like the concept too. I’m very interested to see how the differing authors maintain the overall world created in this beginning story, but shape it to fit their own writing style.

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