Wild Card by Jamie Wyman

Synopsis: It was bad enough that gods gambled with human souls, but Catherine Sharp’s soul just had to be won by the Greek goddess of Discord, Eris. As if working a dead-end tech support job didn’t suck the life out of her as it was. Now, Cat finds herself performing random tasks for the goddess in her free time.

But when Coyote, the Native American trickster himself, claims to have won her own soul in Mayhem’s weekly poker game, Cat wants in on the action. With five sneaky gods upping the ante, Cat needs to find a way to collect the winning chips that could save her soul.
Marius, a handsome yet irritating satyr with his own debt to Eris, might finally come in handy for something. If they play their cards right and work together, Cat and Marius may just get their freedom back. If they don’t kill each other—or fall in love—first.

Review: I was quite intrigued by the synopsis and the cover when I saw them. An urban fantasy book? Check. Gods? Check. An original story with a great heroine? Double Check! Yes, as you can see, this book is a real surprise for me and I took great pleasure in reading something original.

Cat is a young woman like any other if not a detail, she no longer has her soul. Because of an unfortunate event, her soul was deposed and played so she became a pawn in the service of the Goddess of Discord, Eris. This is not something she agrees with much ease, and I must say that I understand her. She must remain available at all times for the woman and satisfy all her demands, whatever they may be, even if in bad grace. Therefore, she can not leave the city, or even have a worthy job. Because, of course, belonging to someone does not pay the bills. But an event will completely change her life when Eris, which is found ruined, plays her soul without warning her in a poker game with other gods. But Cat wants to regain her soul, and she is ready to do everything for it! So when Eris offers to retrieve the tokens of each player to have a chance to be free, Cat does not hesitate one second. Yet she does not know who the participants are, or what they want from her.

I was completely swept away by the story! I loved the idea of gods. They are all present in the human world although they are not really aware of them. The Gods are trying to live their lives even if it is different from ordinary mortals. We also discovered some really known as Loki or Puck. Yes as you can see, many famous characters are present, the gods of Greek mythologist as well as some known Faes. I loved how the author had imagined all of them. They do not really have the nature we could expect and I was surprised more than once, but it’s also so good! Well of course, they all want something from our heroine without she understands the reason. And what better way to test her than to send the worst creatures to see how she would be able to defend herself? I must say that I took great pleasure in discovering Cat. This is a young woman who really did not have any luck in her life and she is now paying the price. However, she is very brave and tries to do the best in all circumstances. We will be able to understand her throughout the novel, seeing her when she faces her doubts, her greatest fears, and observing the consequences about her future.

She will however not be alone in this adventure and we also discover two really different men. A technomage, a longtime friend of our heroine, who does not hesitate to help her when she is in need and Marius, a Satyr, she thought she knew. It is very difficult to really understand Marius. He sometimes seems determined to help her and do everything to ensure her to do what she wants and other times he seems to play a double game and I must say that I had many questions about him throughout the novel and I can not really statute about him but I can not wait to meet him afterwards. Of course I was also really curious about what gods were involved in this game and why they wanted so bad to win but we discover all that throughout the chapters.

In conclusion I must say that this novel is a real and very good surprise. There are many revelations that I did not expect and I ‘m really happy for this first novel, and I hope there will be many more to read because I am eager to learn more. A new author to discover!

4

mellianefini

9 thoughts on “Wild Card by Jamie Wyman

  1. This sounds like my kind of fun UF with the menagerie of famous personalities and playing poker among others! LOL

    I like the idea of the heroine trying to get her soul back, that speaks Adventure with a capital A. Great find Melliane 🙂

  2. This does sound very unique and I love books with greek myth in it. And this one has faes too? Cool! It sounds like a good read with some surprising turn of events which is always fun. I find lately I always guess what will happen >.< Great review!

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