'Cape Storm' by Rachel Caine

The 8th book in Caine's 'Weather Warden' series has Joanne Baldwin battling a familiar foe. Bad Bob is back and hell-bent on bringing Jo over to the dark side. Together with head Warden, Lewis and her Dijn hubby David Prince, Jo and her task-force of good guys have commandeered a cruise ship and are heading straight for Bad Bob... to put the crazy old man in the ground, once and for all.

I am a one-woman Rachel Caine (real name Roxanne Longstreet) marching band. I love her. I am obsessed with her Young Adult series 'Morganville Vampires' which I am always recommending to people who tell me how much they love another certain YA vampire series that shall not be named...

Weather Wardens is her adult series and is a very unique Urban Fantasy. There are no vampires, werewolves or fae in sight. Instead there is a covert organization of humans with special talents for commanding the elements; earth, fire and water. They use these powers to control mother nature - from tornadoes to tidal waves and bush fires.

Helping the Wardens are Dijn, or as they are known in popular culture, genies. But don't get them confused with the 'I dream of...' variety. These Dijn are bad-ass and dangerous. They have claws, fangs and can control space and time. In the beginning the Wardens working relationship with the Dijn was master-slave, but over the course of the books that relationship has altered greatly. This is thanks in most part to Joanne Baldwin and Dijn David Prince. These two are one of the hottest UF couples I have ever read - not only are they adorable, but their love freed an entire race of supernatural's. Not your average shipperdom, huh?

Caine's 'Weather Warden' series is unique and exhilarating. All of Caine's books read like screenplays - she is a great visual writer and she loves epic battles. In both the 'Weather Warden' and 'Morganville Vampires' series she writes fantastically gripping, edge-of-your-seat, chew-your-nails-to-the-quick battle scenes. She is a masterful storyteller, as she proves again in 'Cape Storm'.

The 8th book is quite dark. Joanne is facing the man who was once her mentor, now a psychotic power-hungry leach who still considers Jo to be his protege. She is trying to resist his pull, but feels herself leaning toward the darkness... and to make matters worse, her friends and allies know they can't trust her because of Bad Bob's influence.

Quite a few times throughout the book Jo finds herself stranded and abandoned. Our girl Jo still throws around the usual quippy banter, but in this book she is really put to the test. As is her and David's relationship... Jo often describes David as being her 'true love', and throughout the series we have seen them both go through hell for each other. But in the book we see also glimpse a darker side to their love. Jo herself is very aware that David's devotion is potentially deadly to anyone who tries to harm her.

I also really loved Lewis's role in 'Cape Storm'. Lewis is a Warden who, at a young age, was revealed to possess all 3 elements - making him the most powerful Warden in history. Because of this talent the Warden council tried to lock him up and place a 'failsafe' on him, whereby an earth warden (who also have healing abilities) places a trigger in a Warden's head so that if they ever get out of control, a combination (a touch, phrase etc...) will fire neurons in the Warden's head, killing them. It is essentially a neutering. Lewis escaped, and for years worked on the Warden's periphery with the Dijn, before reemerging to help Jo and take control of the council.

Lewis and Jo also have a history. They are each other's first loves, and for Lewis that love has never diminished, even though he can see that he's lost Jo to David. Serious triangle!

In this book we finally get a long-awaited confession of undying love from Lewis, and it's good. So good.

Rachel Caine, as she loves to do, leaves 'Cape Storm' on a cliff-hanger... and it is a doozy. I, personally, am chomping at the bit for word of the 9th Weather Warden book.

I cannot recommend Rachel Caine enough. If you haven't already, go out and read the first Morganville Vampires book 'The Glass House' and the first Weather Warden, 'Ill Wind'. Right now! I promise you won't regret it.

Cape Storm = 5/5.