Heat Stroke: Book Two of the Weather Warden [Mass Market Paperback]

Jo was once a weather warden, helping to protect humanity from the wrath of Mother Nature. But at the end of the first book Jo is killed. David, a powerful djinn, manages to resurrect her as a djinn. Jo now must leave all things human behind and learn how to be a djinn.

But it is not that simple. She is still linked to David and draining his power. She must learn to harness power on her own. Meanwhile something strange is going on in the ethereal plane and it has David scared.

Jo is then assigned to study with Patrick, the only successful human-to-djinn transformation. And then the action really begins.

Unlike the first book which starts with Jo on the run, this one starts more slowly and it is quite a few pages before the action begins. But once it begins it does not stop. As the story races along we learn about the origins of the djinn, ifrit, what is going on in the ethereal plane, the meaning of servitude, more of how djinn work, and some of the limitations of the wardens. In the end we are left with a satisfying conclusion but also a cliffhanger for the next volume (it can't be released soon enough).

More action like in the first book but with greater depth to the world of the wardens and djinn. A great follow-up to the first and definitely not the last.

I loved "Ill Wind", the first in this series, and immediately after finishing it bought the next 3 books in the series.

Heat Stroke, although a very good book (thus the 5 stars) didn't quite work as well for me - it felt rather like a linking book, with a far more `up in the air' ending. It was a relief to me to know that I had the third book already so could continue the story.

Caine's world is more interesting in this book as we start to learn what being a Djinn entails. Joanne is settling into her new life and existence as a Djinn and having to learn, very rapidly, how to control her new powers. We meet new characters, including the almost-deity Jonathan, as well as meeting again some of the previous characters like Paul and Lewis. Caine isn't afraid to kill off some of her characters (I'm not going to spoil it by saying who), although I keep being rather worried for David. We have so many hints at possible love-interest between Joanne and Lewis, Joanne and Paul, that you wonder when David's going to get the chop. Fortunately not in this book. You can spend a lot of time thinking about the interesting side issue as to whether Djinn have the same levels of morality as humans when they can be commanded to kill people, to rape people - perhaps this will be further explored in the next books.

The main `threat that involves Joanne saving the day' in this book I found a little confusing. Yes, the twinkly sparkly things were rather different than a dragon or evil despot, but I didn't really understand how it all worked. Perhaps reading the book again will help me to get it straight in my mind. Nevertheless, the middle section of the book dragged a little to me, as Joanne whizzes around the world and Djinn world finding things out and trying to solve problems with her huge power but very limited understanding of the situation. Once again, she comes across very much as a Stephanie Plum character (from Janet Evanovich's very funny crime novels) and I love her sassy nature. She's an excellent heroine.

The end of the book definitely improved, and we were left dangling on a precipice of an extremely serious situation that no doubt Joanne, David and Lewis will be doing their utmost to fix in the next book.

I did like this book, but I feel that it perhaps didn't have quite the immediacy of her first offering. The writing is great fun as always, well-paced and humorous in many places, and so it is worth a read.

I loved "Ill Wind," the first book in the Weather Wardens series, and "Heat Stroke" is still the better book by far. I'd read in an interview with the author that she originally had a plot device that ended "Ill Wind" differently and boy, am I glad it slipped her mind to do so. The consequences of David's act form the core plot of "Heat Stroke," and dealing with them makes for some of the best reading I've seen.

If you're not absolutely entranced by the relationship between Joanne and David, the first part may seem slow to you. (It wasn't a problem for me at all. :D) Your perserverance will be more than rewarded.

At the end of the book, I'm a little unclear on exactly how secret the Wardens are in this version of reality, but that seems a petty nit to pick in the overall scheme of things.

One last request...may I have Jonathan when the author is done with him? ;)