Rachel Caine : Devil's Due

As with the first book, Devil's Bargain, this second "red letter" book almost has it all.

Great romance - As we saw at the end of the first book, Ben and Lucia are intensely attracted to each other. However, despite some steamy romantic scenes, Ben walks out on Lucia (not once, but twice), leaving the reader to wonder "What the heck happened? What was that about? Does he not feel the attraction, too?" Well, he certainly IS attracted, but the answer on why he doesn't take Lucia up on it, doesn't come until the last couple of chapters of the book. Wow. Pretty inventive, Ms. Caine.

Great action - Once again the Eidolon Corporation and the Cross Corporation are fighting it out over who gets to use the two partners, Jazz and Lucia. Throats get sliced, noses broke, people get poisoned, and that's only in the first half of the book. As with the fabulous "Weather Warden" series, Ms. Caine delivers nonstop action and the plot advances at such a quick pace that there is no let up until she brings the story to its powerful conclusion.

Great characterization - Lucia is almost an anti-heroine. She is violent, manipulative, brutal and efficient. However, she is also completely loyal, emotionally vulnerable and totally protective of those she cares about. I really wish we could have got more background on Lucia. There was various vague references to a really bad time in Russia with a spy named Gregory, who by the way, I wanted to shoot, so I can't believe Lucia didn't. I waited the entire book for the story to be told, but it wasn't. Considering the fact that Lucia ends up being obligated to Gregory and promising him a return favor leads me to believe that this second red letter book may possibly not be the last one. Also, the character of Ben is too die for, no wonder Lucia falls for him!

The Plot - Eidolon Corporation and Cross Corporation are really two fronts for two major groups of people. The psychics in the group feed their various visions to the computer people, who then run the variables through major computers, coming up with several timelines of things that MAY happen. The Cross Corporation consider themselves the "good guys" and Eidolon is basically doing it for the power/money, the "bad guys". The only problem is the old saying, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely". Neither corporation comes out smelling very good, while both of them use and fight over our two heroines, Jazz and Lucia. Both corporations wouldn't hesitate a minute - and didn't - to let thousands of people die in order to bring in a timeline they wanted. It's a little hard to swallow this concept, and it's slightly difficult to keep track of the many threads running through the book concerning the timelines. Just a little too much for a 300 page paperback.

Overall, I liked the book very much, despite the convoluted plot and the unanswered questions concerning some of the characters. I couldn't help but wonder why in the world they kept opening those stupid envelopes! I kept waiting for Jazz to pull a gun out of her desk and simply shoot the FedEx guy. Lol. However, I would recommend buying both books, and keeping an eye out of a possible third.

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