Blue Diablo (Corine Solomon, #1)

Author: Ann Aguirre
Series: Corine Solomon, #1
Published: April 7th 2009
Publisher: Roc
Mass market paperback, 336 pages
Buy: The Book Depository


After reading this for the second time, I had to resist the urge to write Ann Aguirre a lengthy fan letter with a bunch of exclamation points and possibly even a heart or two. I never get tired of her worlds or her characters, nor can I stop admiring the ease with which she pulls me into one of her stories.

Corine Solomon is a handler. She has the gift (or rather the curse) of psychometry: she can see things by touching a charged object. Unfortunately, no matter how many people she helped by using her ability, handling brought her powerful enemies as well so she’s been forced to live in Mexico under a different name for the past eighteen months. To make matters more complicated, she’s also been hiding from her ex-boyfriend and manager Chance, whom she abandoned in the middle of the night after a job gone wrong. Corine is convinced that Chance never loved her the way she needed him to, so when he shows up in her small shop in Mexico and asks her to help him find his missing mother, her first instinct is to run and hide before she gets heartbroken once again. However, Chance’s mother was always kind to her and Corine simply doesn’t have it in her to turn her back on either one of them when they really need her. Instead she chooses to return to the US with Chance, where she is forced to face demons, powerful necromancers, zombies and the scariest thing of all, her ex’s vulnerability.

Corine is not an easy character to love, that’s for sure. She can be petty, vindictive and completely blind to what’s right in front of her. She often made choices that made me want to strangle her with my bare hands. But she’s also smart, unflinchingly loyal and brave, even when she’s at her most vulnerable.
Ann Aguirre never writes simple, easily likable characters. Those of you who are familiar with her Sirantha Jax series will remember some of Jax’s actions and know exactly what I’m talking about. But the best thing about that is that it leaves a lot of room for character growth and, even though it takes her a while, she always brings her characters to the point where I admire them completely, possibly even more because I know how they started out. Knowing what I know now, after reading four Corine Solomon books, I can see exactly what she was aiming for at the beginning and what risks she took to make her characters seem more human.

The first time I was reading this (exactly a year ago, thank you, GoodReads) I didn’t know what to make of Chance. He was saying and doing all the right things and I believed him, I did, but there was just something missing, there was an emotional distance present even when he was proclaiming his love for Corine. I guess I understood and liked him better this time around, and I was able to read his actions (or lack thereof) much better. Needless to say, there was a lot of sighing and swooning involved.
And then there’s Kel Ferguson (yep, Ferguson, like my Kindle :D). I won’t even try to explain that complicated story, but suffice it to say that he’s one of the most intriguing characters ever and that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him this past year.

I can’t emphasize enough how much I love this series and everything else Aguirre writes.
Oh, and did I mention the zombies?