Ill Wind (Rachel Caine)

Ill Wind
The Weather Warden series, Book 1
Rachel Caine
Roc
Fiction, Fantasy
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: Storms, fires, earthquakes... Mother Nature wants us dead, and but for the Wardens she might have succeeded ages ago. A secret global association does its best to defuse and mitigate the worst disasters, recruiting rare people gifted with power over the elements and employing captive Djinn. But gifts don't come without risks or costs, and the dangers of a rogue Warden - or, worse, one infested with a demon - are worse than anything Nature can concoct.
Joanne Baldwin has always had a strange connection to the weather, and was recruited as a teenager into the Warden Association. She was a bright rising star in the organization. Now she's on the run, accused of murder and bearing a Demon Mark. Her only hope lies in reaching Lewis, a former friend and fellow outcast from the Association, before the Mark devours her powers and her very soul. But first she has to outrun the Association's trackers, assorted Djinn, and a sentient, predatory storm - not to mention someone who is trying very, very hard to kill her.

REVIEW: This modern fantasy establishes a hidden network of mages and Djinn and malevolent natural phenomena... all bound to the viewpoint of a character I wanted to smack across the face more than once. Joanna is one of those protagonists who can be mind-numbingly oblivious about obvious things and behaves in such obnoxious ways that she didn't even pause at "endearingly quirky" before she hit "outright aggravating." She deliberately refuses to seek or accept help, actively ignoring advice and obvious clues, even as she flirts with anything remotely masculine out of sheer reflex. (And, of course, every male wants to sleep with her, because she's just that hot.) At one point, while she's on the run from various people trying to kill her, she stops at a mall for fresh clothes and deliberately picks out a lacy tight top (with no bra) to tease a hitchhiker she picks up... then pouts that he doesn't notice, even though she actively and aggressively told him to get lost shortly before the pouting fit. Other things, she's simply far too slow on the uptake about, to the point I was (figuratively) shouting at her for a good third of the tale. This is who I had to follow through the book. Add to that how Caine dances around what actually happened to Joanne for a good portion of the book, indulging in prolonged flashbacks that deliberately avoid the matter... I won't lie: teeth were ground more than once. The story itself, when it isn't flashing back and once it finally lets me in on enough of the world's rules and Joanne's story for me to engage with it, moves fairly well, building to a climax and a surprisingly solid ending, one that might tempt me to the next book in the series. My overall annoyance with Joanne, though, costs the book a half-star in the ratings.

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