Customer Reviews

Karma Girl (Bigtime)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned.

On Carmen's wedding day she found out that her fiance and her best friends were entangled in a very shocking way. She literally caught him with his pants down while her best friend moan with pleasure, after her heart shattered into million pieces, the shock did not end there, in the throes of undressing, she caught a glimpse of another clothing underneath, and found out that her fiance was a superhero named Machinator (controls machines with his mind) and Crush (freakishly super strength). So what do you do if you are an investigative report scorned and heartbroken? You take a picture and turn your humiliation into a headliner. And that was exactly what Carmen did, she made it her personal vendetta to expose superheros and ubervillains so nobody won't feel cheated like her ever again. And more months / years she was successful at it, people are fascinated by her skills on uncovering who is behind those mask and spandex until one of the superheroes group member called Fearless Five committed suicide after being exposed.

Booed and threatened by the public, Carmen was forced to write the society page of the newspaper. But her life got even more complicated when she was kidnapped by the ubervillain nemesis of Fearless Five called the Terrible Triad. She is of course being black mailed and was given some nasty image of how they are going to torture her but then she met Striker (leader of the Fearless Five) and she never thought a superhero can be so good looking with a spandex. Conflicted with the past and stressed out by what is happening in the present, Carmen still did what she does best, nosy, sarcastic, funny and impressive on everything.

I love the story the plot, the humor, the characters and the ending. I haven't read much of a superhero vs. villains book but every time I do, I always end up wanting more and Jennifer Estep's is no exception.

I wish Big Time series could be all about Carmen and her superheroes... a girl could dream

I was quite underwhelmed. This is a well-written fanfic, but it is a fanfic after all complete with Mary Sue. The plot is well told (she is not Stephine Meyer, thank Gawd) but the characters are quite flat in "Carmen's" (who is a reporter, just as the author is, hrm) cliched Cinderella fantasy. The heroine slaps the hero, and then within two sentances is having sex with him in a sprialling tracking shot. Really. I'm not kidding. There is a "tragedy"(TM) that keeps the hero and heroine emotionally apart ("Oh, noes! He couldn't POSsibly love little ol' me!"), but not enough to keep them from boinking on a regular basis. Which is good because that seems to be the only thing the relationship is built on. But don't worry. The "tragedy" (TM) is conviently erased by the end of the story, leaving the heroine guilt free. (And no, don't yell at me for "spoilers" for something that cliched. It's not like you don't see it coming a mile away anyway.) The "hero" is an obvious Batman knock-off, but he is the single most one-dimensional, boring, and stupid Batman knock-off in any medium ever seen. Adam West had a more engaging personality than this character. The author's gimick of giving every single character an alliterative name maybe intended as a wink at the audience, but it comes across as being condescending of the very genre she is asking the audience to suspend their disbelief for. Not to mention it just becomes annoying.

It's pretty obvious that her familiarity with super heroes comes from TV and movies rather reading the very medium that created them: Comic books (I figure the Oracle knock-off was taken from the mercifully short lived "Birds of Prey" TV series). Honestly real comics of today, even comic book romances of today, are deeper, more compelling, and more believable. Today's comic books deal with more adult themes with more complex three-dimensional (not to mention much smarter) characters than this does. If you want to read a good super hero romance involving two adults with real senses of humor (as opposed to just bitchiness, which the author of "Karma Girl" seems to have mistaken for a sense of humor), read (not watch the movies, read the comic books) the decades long relationship of Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson. That's a super hero romance.

Newcomer Jennifer Estep blends the over-the-top, cartoonish world of comic book heroes with the everyday life of a woman scorned in Karma Girl. Believe it or not, it works.

Carmen Cole is a reporter who trusts her instinct and discovers, on her wedding day, that her fiance is sleeping with her best friend and maid of honor. Definitely a clichéd premise, but Estep uses it as a stepping stone to introduce the superhero-ubervillain concept that defines her fictional world.

Jolted out of her expected life in the town of Beginnings, Carmen climbs the journalistic ladder, intent on unmasking the superheroes and ubervillains that populate every city and town. When Carmen finally lands in Bigtown, she finds trouble that is bigger than the town she moved to. On many different levels.

First is the problem she created when she unmasked Tornado, one of Bigtown's Fearless Five superheroes. Much to the world's shock, Tornado committed suicide after his true identity was revealed to the world. Carmen promptly finds herself on the superhero blacklist -- and a target for ubervillain Malefica, member of the Terrible Triad. Worst of all, her karma's black. She drove a man to suicide.

Can Carmen find a way out of this? Can she turn around the ugly karma she began creating on her wedding day, when she discovered her fiance, her best friend, and some harsh truths that sent her reeling?

Of course she can; Carmen is a hero's heroine, resisting her new roles in life as she resists the handsome and horny-for-her Striker. While she'd like to be a shrinking violet, she relies on her intuition to tell her when to step it up and when to back out. And so, Carmen saves the day, in many different ways. Yet she is the least cartoonish of the characters. In Carmen Cole, Estep has created a woman similar to so many of us -- brave in the face of our insecurities.

Making Bigtown come to life displays a depth of knowledge of the often imitated superhero canon. The main department store, where everyone shops, is named Oodles o' Stuff. Good Intentions Lane is fraught with danger. The Fearless Five's compound is named Sublime. And so it goes, more along the DC Comics model rather than the Marvel Comics model, where the heroes are complex, brooding, and full of angst. This is an easy, breezy world that's a pleasure to dwell in even while the reader squirms at the thought of vats of radioactive goo.

To balance out the cartoonish aspects, the characterization is the other strong point of Karma Girl. Maybe Carmen talks about karma a bit more than she ought to, but it's an integral part of the storyline. Striker's character has room for development, but right now, that's part of what makes him the ultimate hero. He makes mistakes, he is elusive, and most of all, he's hotter than his flame-wielding partner, Fiera. It'll fun to watch the Carmen-Striker relationship develop during the sequel, due out in November 2007.

Speaking of a sequel, Karma Girl is a book that deserves one, leaving as many brand-new loose ends as the book ties up. I hope we see more of Lulu and the other members of the Fearless Five, and indeed, many, many more adventures set in Bigtown.

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:
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A light, fun, fantastic street view of comic book heroes, I enjoyed KARMA GIRL immensely. Carmen Cole is a heroine after any bookworm's heart, leveraging her organizational skills with intuitive leaps to make one heck of a reference librarian (though no librarian would travel with garbage bags full of Xerox copies, Carmen could benefit from the data-savvy of a few actual library science classes). Ultimately, Carmen learns that even without super powers, one must be careful to work for the side of good, and I enjoyed watching this most human of characters hold her own with the superhero/ubervillain big boys.

I definitely picked the word "light" to describe KARMA GIRL for a reason, this book requires a certain amount of suspended disbelief. You will be repaid ten-fold, however, in a heroine who personifies grace under pressure (even amidst a nervous breakdown), a fun, well balanced look under the cape at some of the less convenient aspects of a world with super powers, and characters that entertain as they grow. KARMA GIRL borrows freely from common romantic and comic book tropes, but these plot elements are never an excuse to skip on character development for the heroine. While the people in her life are a little larger than life and two dimensional, Carmen has enough nuance to carry this book without a missed step.

A much simpler read than Carolyn Crane's Disillusionist Trilogy (which can be good and bad), I also found KARMA GIRL to be easier to enjoy straight out of the gate. For anyone who likes to play in the superhero sandbox but was looking for a bit more fun and romance, Estep has written a admirable Gal Friday who teeters on the line between good and bad without ever losing her cool (or my attention). I was thoroughly engaged, waiting to see if Carmen would given in to despair or step up and embrace her inner superhero, and amidst all the spandex and radioactive mutations, it was Carmen's puzzle-solving mojo that saved the day for me.

Sexual Content: Several sex scenes.

These books are light, fun and easy reads. I really just think of them as long comic books. They are silly and allow me to turn off my brain and just enjoy. A little drama is in there, but I can't take it too seriously when dealing with superheroes and uber-villains on every page. And while some of the characters have traits that annoy, they're not enough to turn me off the series.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a little slow through the middle but I did read it over one weekend. It was a new idea and had some mystery elements in it. Carmen is a likable character and her story had me hooked. I did keep wondering where it would go. If you think of all the characters as comics in your head, then it works. Don't take it too seriously and have fun with it.

I'm gonna be honest up front- I'm giving this book 5 stars instead of 4 or 4.5 because I want more of this story line!

It comes down to this- it is JUST. PLAIN. FUN.

This author, Estep, should be given three cheers for coming up with a fantasy series that is able to kindle romance while making fun of itself. The writing and plotlines are light, the romance is superhero textbook and the action is the kind you would hear clapping for in a movie premier.

Reading this book made me feel like a kid again. Like all of us could be a superhero if we ran into the right circumstance- the right spider, the right nuclear accident, the right combination of strange coincidence and somehow we end up with strange powers and an over developed sense of right and wrong.

I think this is simply brilliant. It was Disney's "Incredibles" for adults- and wasn't there some silly movie with Reece Whitherspoon as a giant?? That one too fits this mold. I read somewhere that the publisher decided not to pick up the series and I think that is nothing short of TRAGIC and frankly enormously short sighted. Do they not see the words on the wall??? Marvel comics are being made into movie BLOCKBUSTERS and the American public, at least, is CRYING OUT for heroes. This series is in the right place to capitalize on those hopes and dreams if marketed right.

PLEASE READ THIS! It is light, fun and fast. It is so silly you laugh out loud at times. Clever setting, absurd premises and yet great, down to earth characters. I wish I lived in the universe Ms. Estep created here. Battles between light and dark forces follow rules and in the end ROMANCE influences us all.

WELL DONE, I say to Ms. Estep. I am holing out on bks 2 and 3 because frankly I hope your publishers come to their bloody senses. I want more of this and so will anyone else who picks it up!