Wild Ride

Written by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

Narrated by Angela Dawe

Mary Alice Brannigan doesn’t believe in the supernatural. Nor does she expect to find that Dreamland, the decaying amusement park she’s been hired to restore, is a prison for the five Untouchables, the most powerful demons in the history of the world. Plus, there’s a guy she’s falling hard for, and there’s something about him that’s not quite right.

But rocky romances and demented demons aren’t the only problems in Dreamland: Mab’s also coping with a crooked politician, a supernatural raven, a secret government agency, an inexperienced sorceress, an unsettling inheritance, and some mind-boggling revelations from her past. As her personal demons wreck her newfound relationship and real demons wreck the park, Mab faces down immortal evil and discovers what everybody who’s ever been to an amusement park knows: The end of the ride is always the wildest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Mar 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781423376088

Jennifer Crusie

Jennifer Crusie was researching her dissertation on the differences in the way men and women tell stories when she got sidetracked into writing romance novels. Her first book was published in 1993 (which pretty much finished off any hope of her getting that PhD) and her twenty-second book, Maybe This Time, came out in August of 2010, all of which she considers a minor miracle, especially since she is also a New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author and a two-time Rita award winner.

Reviews for Wild Ride

[Tammy Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Couldn’t stop listening. Caught myself laughing out loud too. Not generally my type of book but this was great.

[sharonmariabidwell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you’ve read Jennifer Crusie, or a Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer collaboration before, this book is unlike anything they’ve written. There’s a theme park, demons, demon minions, and magic. Plenty to have you engrossed, but if you’re expecting the usual romance, although the book has some romantic elements, this really isn’t romance. It’s a lighthearted but well plotted book that’s a little of fantasy, a little horror, and a little of romance. I’m still not sure if the book is lacking something, but if I asked to imagine what it is, I would say there are so many characters, you don’t get to know all of them deeply. However, that does not spoil the fun of the ride. As for the romances, you won’t learn much about why these people fall in love. In one particular instance, I found this a little disappointing. Still, I’m glad I read this.

[Darci · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love a good set of wacky characters and an offbeat setting.

[Mary Meehan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Jennifer Cruises ‘ characters they are always eccentric and funny

[Angela Johnson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Really disappointing. I slugged through it as far as chapter 11 thinking the story would eventually flow, but nope. It lacks the usual crackling repartee and pacing. It doesn't help that the narrator chose some questionable patois for the secondary characters local to southern Ohio. Hopefully the authors will go back to what they do best in their next joint project, which in my opinion is goofball contemporary romantic comedies, and leave the comedic supernatural genre to authors who do it best, like Charlaine Harris.

[Angel Triplett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a very light and fun read. I wasn’t sure when I started it but I’m very glad I stuck with it. If your not looking for anything serious and dramatic this is definitely a good choice. The characters were all unique and delightful, actually the whole book was quite delightful. I really enjoyed this one

[murderbydeath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was the last book Jennifer Crusie wrote that I hadn’t yet read (except for the Temptation books; I started Welcome to Temptation and something turned me off and I never finished it). It’s a co-wriiten book with Bob Meyer, and their previous effort Agnes and the Hitman is one of my all time favourite good-time reads.But I avoided this one for years because I’m not a fan of carnivals and amusement parks as story settings. Stephen King might have ruined this for me, but there’s just something WAY too creepy and seedy about them in books. Nevertheless, I had bought this and after years of languishing in a forgotten corner of the TBR, I found it just in time for Halloween Bingo, and the setting was perfect.Mary Alice (Mab) is just finishing up a massive restoration of an early 1920’s amusement park, putting on one of the last touches, when she’s attacked by a giant iron clown that calls her by name. The owners of the park seen unsurprised, though they pass it off as a hallucination. Soon, however, there’s no escaping the truth: the park is the prison for 5 untouchable demons (all from the Etruscan mythology, it seems) and two have escaped. It’s up to Mab and her fellow Guardia to re-capture them and keep the other three from escaping.Believe me when I say there is nothing deep or philosophical about this book. It’s pure silliness and funnel cake fun. It’s not nearly as well plotted or written as Agnes and the Hitman, but it’s well written enough that it kept me reading and the eye rolling only happened a few times.I doubt I’ll ever re-read this again, though it did make me want to climb that ladder to grab Agnes for a re-read.

[lindoula-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was so surprised by how different this book was from their first two. Unfortunately, not different in a good way. All the great banter between characters was just not there. The characters were just flat.

[nautilus-11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun book but a bit all over the place.

[karenduff · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Normally I really enjoy Jennifer Crusie's books but this never grabbed me.

All of the characters were stereotypical and if Crusie and Mayer had just stuck with that they would have produced an undemanding thriller which would have been perfect holiday reading, or in my case listening, however the addition of the demons changes this story from being daft to plain stupid.

Jennifer Crusie is one of my favourite authors but this is not her best work.

[theyodamom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story for me was slow to get started, but picked up and was quite funny. Not a romance but there is a lot of coupling going on. This is a hard book to review, it is action and yet not, not really romance, a mystery maybe, so much going on.. I don't know how to describe it. I did enjoy it, the characters are very three dimensional and quirky!
It is a good easy ,fun read when you are looking for something different. I like the male/female mix with the authors.

[auntie0nanuuq · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

CSAARS:

Challenge: Romance


Plot~Spoiler~Whatever (sans conclusions)

Mary Alice Branningan (Mab, Batty Brannigan) is restoring the rides & features at Dreamland.... Unbeknown to her, Dreamland is a "keep" for the five most powerful Etruscan demons known as the "Untouchables": Fufluns (FunFun) the Clown (only evil somethimes); Tura the Mermaid (Destroyer of Betrayers); Vanth the Fortune Teller (sometimes evil, sometimes nurturing); Selvans the Strongman & Kahros the Devil (Head Demon).

Then there are the five park keepers, who in reality are the "Guardia". It is the life "calling" of the Guardia to keep the demons locked in their iron clad prisons forever, thus keeping humanity safe. Each "Guardia" has a job: Trickster , Sorceress (Glenda), Seer (Delpha), Keeper (Gus) , & Hunter.

The Trickster& Hunter have long since died. The Tricker replaced by his own son, Young Fred, (with the ability to shift) and the Hunter soon to be replaced with the Sorceress' son, Ethan who has just returned from a failed Special Ops assignment. The Seer is murdered and leaves Mab as her sole heir....including her position in the Guardia.

Mab's Uncle Ray, mayor & 1/2 owner of Dreamland is under the thrall of the Head Demon with plans to take over Dreamland & the world. To make matters worse, Mab has accidentally loosed one of the Demons...who has loosed a second....and all Hell is breaking loose!

Then there is Weaver & her Special Ops FBI partner & Cindy who runs Dream Cream, ice cream & waffle shop...comedy & romance......

The plot & characters were a bit much to keep track of and it just didn't all come together as smoothly as I would have liked. Cruise & Mayer just were not as funny as usual.....and the story, well this just did not live up to the usual good reading level as her previous books.... I was disappointed, but not completely unhappy.

[rosa.mill · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a cute, fun, read, extremely enjoyable. I like that the male and female protagonist didn't end up together (cause of course that would be incest in a bizarre kind of way). I think having these two authors write together works and that their styles match well. This is another book that has a strong message about living your life and the importance of family.

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amusement park is the perfect place to lose yourself in fantasy and reject reality and also, it seems, at least one park is the perfect place to imprison demons. Mab, a restorer of amusement park paraphernalia, accidentally releases one of the demons during her restoration work. From then on, it is indeed a wild ride as more details are made known, and as mysteries so often put it, the plot thickens. A well crafted story with likable characters, well, except for some of the really bad demons, this paranormal tale is highly entertaining, with enough terror and excitement to keep you turning pages but not so much as to rob you of sleep.

[ratastrophe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The beginning didn't really draw me in, but I enjoyed another book by the same duo so I stuck with it....overall, had lots of fun reading it. :)

[akswede · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was so surprised by how different this book was from their first two. Unfortunately, not different in a good way. All the great banter between characters was just not there. The characters were just flat.

[romsfuulynn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

ooohh-kay.

Well. This isn't a bad book. I liked it ok, (maybe even better than ok) and it had brilliant moments. If I had a way to give parts of it two stars and parts of it five, I would. I really wavered between three and four, and ended up with four because I felt that persisting to the end was rewarding.

About 20% in I said "what are Jennifer Crusie characters doing in a horror novel" and I stand by that.

Lots and lots and lots of spoilers to come. I don't think I really write reviews, I write reactions.

The first thing to know about it, that I think is important, is that it isn't the genre you think it is. It has some romance in it, but it fails a lot of the genre romance tests including some that are important to me. But it isn't much like the previous Crusie Mayer joint works either. Not so much a suspense/thriller.

If I had to put a genre on it by the "feel" of the book, I'd say it was a supernatural psycholgical horror novel. Not necessarily a bad thing per se (although it is a genre I hate) but not what I was expecting.

If you enjoyed the Dogs and Goddesses book last year with Jenny & Anne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich this may work better for you, but I liked that a lot better.

SPOILERS here on out.

The eventual resolution of the romantic stuff for Mab didn't work. As far as I can tell, she never really had any interaction with the guy (probably a good guy) that she will end up with. it was almost like a gothic with an attractive guy who is not the eventual HEA hero.

Lots of unexpected WTF moments and I have a pretty high tolerance for them.

There were a lot of things that ended up feeling like rape to me. Not forcible rape, but rape by deception - if the person you are having sex with has been possessed, that person, male or female, is being raped, and the possesser is morally guilty of rape. Yes, this emphasizes that demons are NOT NICE, but it bothered me a lot.

In particular, I felt for Mab's mother - she had been raped by a demon - and I would wish for Mab to have understood her more after discovering that.

Mab's pregnancy totally squicked me, as did her acceptance of it.

I liked the secondary (I guess it was secondary) romance - that one totally made sense, although it was mostly somewhat more simplistic characters.

So why four stars - well, the main character is totally a Jennifer Crusie person, as are some of the secondary characters, and I'll forgive a lot for that.

The plotting is actually pretty decent once I got over what the plot actually was.

And the resolution was adequately triumphant and did some things that were more right - including three female characters off on a road trip to the Statue of Liberty (you have to work your way through the book for this to make sense.)

[bookswoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like what Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer have done as a writing team. And I liked this book. However it took me a while to get into it because it was so different than the first two collaborations. It wasn't bad different, just really, really different.


SPOILER ALERT!







This story is set in an old amusement park, that turns out to be the "jail" for demons, including the Devil. Some of the workers/owners of the park are called Guardia and they keep watch so the demons don't get out. Since the current Guardia are all getting older, the younger people in the story start getting Guardia powers. There were several twists and turns and a lot of fun scenes with demons who escaped and need to be re-captured. There are some great characters here including Mab (short for Mary Alice Brannigan) and Ethan, two of the new Guardia.

I enjoyed the book once I got over the fact that it was "the same" as the first two. Not being the same can sometimes be a good thing, and in this case it was great fun!

[bookwormteri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun, light read about an amusement park that is the keep of five very powerful demons. Five people protect the park (and the world). When one dies, their power is passed to another. Fun read.

[aprilroseking · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another amazing book by Jennifer Cruise and Bob Meyer. A really fun read, I think I finished it in a day. I can't wait until the two of them team up and do another book together!

[susiesharp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mab has been hired to help restore the Dreamland amusement park but what she doesn’t know is that the park is actually a prison for 5 Untouchables who are very powerful demons. Everyone who works there is a gardia who protect everyone by keeping the demons where they are. But Mab is clueless until she becomes one of the gardia herself with powers she doesn’t want; a boyfriend who is more than meets the eye and an Uncle who just may be trying to kill her. All this and demons too, poor Mab.I thought this was a fun book the demons and their hunters are characters in the best way! I thought this was a unique take on demon hunters. It had great humor and some really witty dialog. I really enjoyed all the characters in this book including the demons. And the minions, if you are in an amusement park and need some inanimate objects to turn into minions what would you choose? How about Teddy Bears? And that’s just one incarnation of minions, which made me giggle. Life ends up very complicated for Mab and friends trying to keep these demons in their prison. I think I will have to find more books by Jennifer this one was really fun!I listened to this on audio narrated by Angela Dawe she does a great job at all the different characters. It was easy to tell which characters were talking and there were quite a few characters.4 Stars

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This read was a lot of fun. The characters were vivid and interesting, the setting at an amusement park was unique, and the plot was fresh and different.

[sockmonkeygirl_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite by these two, which makes me sad because I loved Agnes and the HItman. I actually ended up just skimming the middle so I could get to the end and be done with it. Mayer and Crusie try to follow the trend for supernaturals, but it fell flat. I didn't really love the main characters and even the supporting cast (who were pretty interesting as usual) could not redeem it.

[sunnysd_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

All amusement parks have something a bit magical about them, but this one's got a real doozie of a secret: five demons locked in wooden chalices are contained inside the iron figures fronting the parks signature rides. The demons will destroy the world if released, but they can't be killed, only contained. The Guardia, five guardians whose powers pass on when they die, are in charge of keeping the demons from getting out and wrecking havoc.Mab, the artist whose temporary job it is to restore the park's rides, statues, etc. to their former glory, knows nothing of demons. But when the giant statue of FunFun which guards the park entrance comes to life and bumps into her, she knows something strange is going on.For Ethan, whose tour of Afghanistan ended with his unit dead and himself on borrowed time, coming home to the park wasn't a wish - more like a necessity. It's the only place he could think of to go where he could spend the rest of his numbered days drunk and oblivious. Too bad no one else is planning on cooperating with his plan.Snappy dialogue, intriguing characters, a plot both comic and suspenseful - what more could you ask for? A fun afternoon's read that doesn't take anything too seriously.

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This isn't just a romantic-comedy/action-adventure hybrid, it's a romantic-comedy/action-adventure with demons. If you can deal with that, it's worth a read.It's a smoother blend than Crusie and Mayer's first collaboration, but it's much more action-adventure than romantic comedy. For one thing, the male lead and the female lead do not end up together. For another, while there are some funny bits, it's much too tense to be a true comedy. There is romance, and it's much more believable than action-adventure romances generally are (that would be Crusie's influence), but the romance is not the focus.The characterizations are good, the action is as plausible as demon-hunting gets, and it's emotionally satisfying. That's really all one can reasonably expect in such a book. Not a keeper, however.

[thewalkinggirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mary Alice "Mab" Brannigan is restoring the Dreamlands amusement park in southern Ohio when she unwittingly releases one of five Etruscan demons/gods who have been imprisoned there. On the same night, Ethan, the son of one of the owners, returns from military service in Afghanistan. It's hard to say more without spoiling the story - the entire novel is one revelation after another in terms of what just happened, why, and what it means.The romantic storyline(s) and the humor weren't as straightforward as in Agnes and the Hitman and there were times when it almost seemed like Crusie and Mayer were writing different books that happened to be put together. I wouldn't say that those were bad things, but I will say to let go of your preconceptions about what this book is and where it's going to go. While I enjoyed this book, I wish I'd been less impatient and had waited for this to be available at my library or in paperback. It was fun, but I'm not sure that this is a keeper for me.