Review: Forever Wilde by Jenn Stark (Immortal Vegas #6)

Forever Wilde (Immortal Vegas #6)
Jenn Stark
Published: Dec. 27, 2016 (Elewyn Publishing)
Purchase: Amazon
Review source: copy provided by the publisher in exchange for and honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 5 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free it does reference previous books. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, Getting Wilde.

The end of Aces Wilde found Sara Wilde fighting for the right to control the House of Swords, and successfully giving up her mortality to become one of the immortal. Now that Sara has decided to take responsibility, and been proven worthy, as head of the House of Swords, she needs to begin the arduous task of considering Anita Soo’s business enterprises. What she finds is that Soo was heavily involved in the production of technoceuticals (pharmaceutical drugs with a heavy kick of magic infusion); the very thing Sara has been fighting hard against, since much of the production requires the actual use of a Connected—namely children. That Sara’s findings also coincide with some of Father Jerome’s own discoveries, she knows there’s nothing coincidental about it.

When the Council then tasks Sara to search for, and bring back to the fold, the Hanged Man (who so happens to be Nikola Tesla), she begins to see the connection between his retrieval and her newfound enterprises. Despite the Hanged Man being pro-technoceuticals, The Magician believes he’ll ultimately be needed when the war on magic fully begins. But in the meantime, what secrets will be revealed to Sara in uncovering another member of the Council?

Forever Wilde gave me everything I’ve been waiting for in this series. The final tip that made this a 5 star as opposed to the 4.5 stars the previous books have garnered. The storyline is clear and concise. The ground it covers—with the technoceuticals, and the Connected children, plus more tidbits to add about Sara’s past, plus Sara’s new immortality—are all issues that have been covered in previous books to some extent, but revisiting them sets the stage for more clarity in understanding where we’ve been and where we’re going.

I enjoyed that Sara finding the Hanged Man was, indeed, the end goal, but doesn’t really present itself in that way until past the halfway mark. Instead the focus is on the build-up. Then when The Magician finally tells Sara she needs to find the Hanged Man you are clearly able to understand the web that Jenn Stark wove to get to that point. It was, honestly, fabulous.

Then there’s the character growth. A lot of that happens for Sara as she tries to figure out just what it is that she wants as her endgame. Where is being the head of the House of Swords leading Sara? What happens when Sara successfully shuts down the Dark Practitioners, and the disappearing of Connecteds? These were questions I, as reader, hadn’t really thought of until they were posed to Sara. I liked that there’s talk of future, and this starts Sara thinking of what is important to her.

This leads to some headway on the relationship between Sara and The Magician. They’ve had such a compelling dynamic from the start and I was so happy there were no opportunities wasted to finally get more depth to what is between them, even if things aren’t one hundred percent figured out by the end. I’m excited to see where/how things progress for them from here.

Overall, Forever Wilde is a subtler game-changer than some previous installments, but it was exactly what I was looking for in this book. The next book has some big shoes to fill. This book was a great way to end/start the year.

Sexual content: sex