Karma Girl: Bigtime Series, Book 1 (Bigtime superhero series, Book 1) [Kindle Edition]

Imagine a world in which a superhero protects every town while ubervillians attempt to complete their nefarious deeds....

Reporter Carmen Cole lives in such a world and it makes her sick! Ever since she accidentally uncovered the secret identities of her ex-fiancé and ex-best friend, Carmen has been the bane of superheroes and ubervillians everywhere. That is, until a miscalculation leaves Carmen as the pariah of the journalism world. Her past comes crashing back to haunt her when she finds herself locked in a battle between the Fearless Five and the Terrible Triad with both her life and her heart on the line.

If you are looking for a serious read, then KARMA GIRL is not the book for you. KARMA GIRL is pure entertainment. Jennifer Estep has perfectly captured the campiness and humor that made so many of us love the superheroes of our youth. There are no real secrets here as the so-called secret identities of the Fearless Five and the Terrible Triad are fairly obvious, but that is part of the fun. After all, everyone should have been able to see that Clark Kent and Superman were one and the same and yet no one could figure that out. KARMA GIRL uses those same basic principles to great effect.

Carmen Cole's tale of woe is pretty funny as even she can see how revenge really isn't the best choice. Carmen's actions repeatedly come back full circle and hence the very appropriate title to this charming story. Jennifer Estep does a great job at making Carmen likeable despite some of her actions, perhaps because Carmen herself expresses such deep regret for the mistakes she has made. And I love how all of the characters are named, as the alliteration really helps promote the comic book atmosphere!

After finishing reading KARMA GIRL, my first thought was that this just had to be a series. There are simply too many possibilities out there for more stories involving the other superheroes. Thankfully, Jennifer Estep is already working on future books as I can certainly envision other adventures for the fictional town of Bigtime! KARMA GIRL is pure fun as Jennifer Estep shows a real flair for crafting a tale that is both amusing and engaging.

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Carmen Cole is on a mission. When she found her fiance in bed with her best friend thirty minutes before her wedding, something in Carmen broke. When she realized that under the wedding clothing that the two were...er...working around...lay the truth of their secret identities, and that her fiance was her town's superhero and her best friend was the town's ubervillain, she did more than break. She snapped. Pictures that is. Of the two lovebirds doing the deed. Then she ran right to the newspaper she worked for and broke the story. Fueled by righteous anger and bearing a load of pain and humiliation, her heartbreak became the fuel to a quest, to a mission - unearth the identities of every superhero and ubervillain there is so NO ONE could be lied to and hurt like she was. And so her mission began, and she followed it faithfully until the day that her story caused the suicide of one of the superheroes she unmasked. The regret and sorrow over that haunt Carmen, ending her mission, throwing her karma completely out of whack, and leaving her ripe for the pickings of the Terrible Trio - her most recent city's ubervillain crime bosses. Karma is a bitch, and when it bites back, it leaves marks, and Carmen is just about to realize just how bad karma can get. Will any superhero lend a hand after her mission of disclosure?

As a true tongue-in-cheek romp, Karma Girl is a fun, light read. There's nothing too dark and unpleasant, and even the villains tend to feel more Sunday comics than dark comic book. Nefarious plans and wicked plots abound, as do irrepressible superheroes and sexy millionaire playboys. At the center is Carmen, the wounded reporter who's now paying for her revenge in the worst ways. I truly enjoyed the very "Batman/Superman" feel to the book - the costumes, the masks, the alter-egos, the Alternate Universe technology and inventions (like the freeze gun stuff and the explodium). It was just a whole lot of fun - and so long as you're okay not taking it seriously, it's a cute romance, too...though admittedly, I would've liked a wee bit more of JUST Carmen and Striker scenes. The book is written well and while the pacing slowed in a few spots, it was nothing that really distracted my enjoyment. I enjoyed the F5 group, and the villains were suitably villainous, and sure - it doesn't take a mad scientist to figure out who everyone is, but so what? It's not SUPPOSED to for the reader - that AU blind spot (like no one noticed Clark Kent was Superman??) that exists in all superhero books, movies, comics, etc. was well represented here.

There was only a couple of things that really bugged me - the prolific use of the word "karma" and being hit over the head with Carmen's guilt over Tornado's suicide. Both were so, so, SO overdone that it exceeded by FAR the bounds of foreshadowing/plot development and headed straight into being really distracting. I understand the importance of karma as a theme here, and to keep Carmen likable she had to feel remorse for Tornado, but sheesh - there's a fine line and it wasn't just crossed here, the author did the naked samba over it all through the book. Other than those two complaints, I found this book to be a fun, light, and surprisingly cute read that really well represented all those crazy, campy superhero stories. Nicely done.

I'm a big fan of Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series and immediately fell in love with the premise and characters of her Mythos Academy series, so I had a hinch that I would be in for a great story when I started reading Karma Girl, but I never expected to be blown away this much!

Karma Girl is the first novel in Jennifer Estep's Bigtime series which is set in an alternate universe where every town in the world has their own superheroes ("someone who shows up whenever the train runs off the tracks and won't stop") and ubervillains, the archnemesis of the superheroes, those "who want to rule supreme". Cape and tight wearing cartoon characters are actually real people and battles done with superpowers are true and not sci-fi stories. Can you imagine such a colourful, buzzing and heightened world? Well multiply what you picture by a thousand and you might get close to Bigtime, where if someone says "traffic was terrible" it might mean that "Yeti Girl was throwing cars around the freeway. Swifte showed up and helped the cops tranq her, but it took them forever to get the debris off the road."

The Bigtime series is flashing with the bright costumes of the several dozens of superheroes and ubervillains Jennifer Estep introduces: there is Granny Cane (yep you got it right, she is an old lady of seventy who grabs the purse-stealing thugs and brings them to the police lol), reformed ubervillain Shrieker who signs copies of her tell-all memoir in the mall, but the most famous ones in the city are the Fearless Five and the Terrible Triad.

"They were legends, not just in Bigtime, but throughout the world. They had the strongest powers. They waged the biggest battles. They engaged in the most amazing escapes and the most elaborate schemes. They were the crème de la crème of superheroes and ubervillains."

I just loved all the cartoon-like speaking names of the superheroes and ubervillains: the Toastmaster, The Kilted Scotsman, the Blue Berserker, the Fearless Five and the Terrible Triad; and the alliterating names for every character (Sam Sloane, Nate Norris, Devlin Dash, Carmen Cole) helped even more to make me feel like I was watching an episode of Superman. :-D

Carmen, our heroine, is a great character: she is an ordinary girl, one the reader can relate to. She is funny and independent but not too good to be true. She is human and flawed. But her sense of humour is without a pair, I especially loved her t-shirts, they were the best:

"T-shirt that read 0 to Bit*h in 7.7 seconds or your money back.
T-shirt that read Love just weighs a woman down."

And her lines like the ones below made me chuckle out loud countless times:

"I scanned the street and the surrounding alleys. Nothing. I bit back a growl of frustration. Striker wasn't going to show. I had come down to Drugs R Us and put myself in danger for nothing." - ROFL

What I loved most about Carmen was that she treated superheroes and ubervillains as if they were normal, ordinary people. She was impudent, cheeky, she didn't censor herself for fear of angering them, she remained her usual self.

"A block went by, then another, then another. I wasn't sure what to say to him, given the way our last conversation had gone. It hadn't been a smashing success. "So, how was your day?" I asked."

Can you imagine that? A superhero is walking her home so she isn't attacked and she tries to make ordinary small talk with him! Unbelievable, and so adorable :-D

"What could you say to a superhero you'd slept with? Thank you? Atta-boy? Keep up the good work?"

Striker is a dashing hero. Besides being a superhero and everything that entails: drop dead gorgeous body, noble intentions, heroic and fierce protector, he has a tender and intense side to him when it comes to Carmen.

"Superheroes aren't perfect, you know. Just because some of us have superstrength doesn't mean we never get scared. We have fears and insecurities and worries too. I was afraid tonight. Afraid for you. I saw the men chase you into the alley. I was afraid I wouldn't be quick enough to save you, fast enough to stop them."

The love story between Carmen and Striker was exciting yet tender. His gentleness and care didn't only make Carmen melt but I was a puddle myself. (and of course the heat of some scenes are to be blamed as well, there were some seriously sensual love scenes)

"His hot breath brushed against my cheek as soft as a butterfly's kiss on my feverish skin."

Karma Girl is a wonderful mix of mystery, adventure, romance and heaps of cheeky humour! I loved the wonderfully colourful characters, the exciting worldbuilding, the puzzling mystery, all the heart pounding action and of course the wonderful love story deleoping between Carmen and Striker!

Verdict: I was already a big fan of Jennifer Estep but Karma Girl made me even more devoted! It is such a laugh out loud funny, incredibly witty, amusing, breath of fresh air story, I loved every second of it and cannot wait to read more about the superheroes and ubervillains' adventures!

I give Karma Girl 4.5 stars!