Deborah Blake - Wickedly Dangerous

The first book in the Baba Yaga series, published September 2, 2014.
Genre: paranormal romance
Cover: love it



Known as the wicked witch of Russian fairy tales, Baba Yaga is not one woman, but rather a title carried by a chosen few. They keep the balance of nature and guard the borders of our world, but don't make the mistake of crossing one of them...
Older than she looks and powerful beyond measure, Barbara Yager no longer has much in common with the mortal life she left behind long ago. Posing as an herbalist and a researcher, she travels the country with her faithful (mostly) dragon-turned-dog in an enchanted Airstream, fulfilling her duties as a Baba Yaga and avoiding any possibility of human attachment.
But when she is summoned to find a missing child, Barbara suddenly finds herself caught up in a web of deceit and an unexpected attraction to the charming but frustrating Sheriff Liam McClellan.
Now, as Barbara fights both human enemies and Otherworld creatures to save the lives of three innocent children, she discovers that her most difficult battle may be with her own heart…


I absolutely loved this story. Barbara sure can be a wicked witch if she wants to, and she loves mischief. She lives with her talking dog, who is really a small dragon, in an enchanted Airstream, which makes it very convenient to pack up and go to the next place where her help is needed. Of course, getting that help is not easy, the person asking for it must be worthy, and must fulfill a difficult task as well…
So when she is summoned by the Russian grandparents of a missing child, who still know the old stories about Baba Yaga, and the child's mother asks for her help, she grants it. If Barbara has one weakness, it is children.

What she doesn't count on, is meeting the local Sheriff, and having unexpected feelings about him. Liam is totally bowled over by this strange woman as well, but after his loss, he never wants another woman in his life again. Still, she is intriguing, maddening and mystifying him, and he can't help but be drawn to her, and her secrets.

Nor the Sheriff and his deputies, not the county police have found any evidence at the abduction sites, they don't have any leads or suspicions at all. Baba will have to call for help in searching for those missing children, in places the human police can not, so she calls on the Three Riders. (I won't describe them to you, as that is an adventure on its own).

When Barbara finds out that someone from Otherworld is creating problems for the local villagers, and is probably behind the abduction of those children as well, she has no choice but to inform the Faery Queen about what is happening. There has to be an undiscovered portal between the worlds that the woman calling herself Maya is using. Perhaps because all of the hydrofracking in the surrounding countryside lately. She can sense the turmoil in nature, the crying for help in the earth, the water and the air, the pollution taking over. Why are humans so dense, so insistent in killing the environment for profit?


The story itself is amazing, although I have to admit I thought it was slow going at times, with no real action taking place, nothing magical or investigating going on by Barbara. But in the end, the action I wanted was there, as were a lot of solutions to the problems. I enjoyed that a lot.
I loved the interaction between Barbara and Liam, and her dragon/dog ChudoYudo. And then of course the Three Riders, who come to the aid of any Baba Yaga who needs them. They are unique and fun, and I want to know more about them.

I will definitely read the next story soon, and I know book 3 will be available shortly.

A good series, and I recommend it if you haven't tried it before.

9 stars.

© 2016 Reviews by Aurian