Swift Vengeance is a paranormal thriller with a healthy dose of romance.
Months after a motorcycle accident that almost killed her, Brittany starts getting visions, terrifying, bloody visions. As much as she’d like to ignore them, she feels she’s getting them for a reason and follows them to Swift Island, in New England. A few days earlier, another woman came to the island in search of… something. Nursing her broken heart on the island sounded like a wonderful idea when Toni’s aunt Leslie suggested it, and it feels even better when Brittany comes into the Second Wave, the pub Leslie and her wife Alice run. If only Toni was ready for a new relationship… And if only a killer wasn’t watching, waiting for the right time to strike.
I’m going to start with the one aspect I didn’t like so I can focus on everything I loved: I really really really don’t enjoy having to read the bad guy’s thoughts. I know evil exists, I do not want to live it. I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if whatever was going through the villain’s mind had been included in Brittany’s visions. I would have been just as terrified and probably more involved as I wouldn’t have had to keep distancing myself.
Now on to everything I loved. As usual for me, the characters come first. I absolutely loved Brittany, her strength, her will, her doubts, her sense of humour. She’s smart and sexy and it all comes through whenever she’s on the page. I liked Toni a lot too but I had a harder time figuring her out. Her backstory isn’t as clear, I understand her broken heart but I’m not sure about her reactions. That didn’t stop me from liking her, however. And I loved Leslie and Alice, both as individuals and as a couple.
And that’s kinda fantastic because the two main characters and the two almost-main characters already existed in previous books, in different universes. Toni and Brittany were secondary characters by, respectively, Erin Zak and Jackie D, whereas Leslie and Alice hail from Jean Copeland’s The Second Wave. To be honest, I didn’t know any of this before I read the book so don’t worry if, like me, you didn’t read these other books, you’ll still have everything you need in this one to enjoy it. But I love the idea and I love that I can now find out more about all of them, especially Alice and Leslie.
The thriller arc is solid, even though I wasn’t entirely surprised to find out who the baddy was. I loved how Brittany’s visions played out. And I enjoyed the romance tremendously. The characters are at times taken aback by how fast their feelings grow but their chemistry is so obvious, so palpable that it simply feels right. That feeling you get when you’re falling in love that the air you breathe is purer, the sounds louder, the colours brighter? It’s all here.
I’d love to know how the authors worked. I sometimes had the feeling I knew who had written the paragraph I was reading but I could be completely wrong and I like that too.
Jude in the Stars 