Bonus Feature: Covet discussion questions

In case you missed it, you can read my review of Covet by J.R. Ward here.

Question #1: Did you relate to Jim at all? Did you feel like he was a good choice or worthy of this mission? I think that, within the world that J.R. Ward created for the book, Jim is a plausible choice, since he has to be a mix of good and evil so that the two sides in the cosmic flag football that's being played can attempt to win him completely to one side or the other. I find the idea of Jim as the protagonist easier to accept than the overall premise of the series, to be honest. Are we really supposed to believe that if Jim doesn't manage to convince seven people (out of the billions of people walking around on the planet) to quit being obnoxious, then the cosmos is going to kick out the proverbial plug on humanity? Come on now.

Question #2: How do you feel about the tone of the book? Did you think that there was too much slang/not enough/just enough? How did you feel about the word choice in the book- did it add to your reading of the story or take away from it? The word usage in Covet is easily my biggest complaint about the book. J.R. Ward is known for an edgier, more casual vocabulary in her books and I understand that (even appreciate that in some of her other books,) but here I found it detracted from the story and made a lot of the plot points harder to work with than they needed to be. A little flavor is nice, but after awhile I did catch myself hitting fast forward.

Question #3: When the "fantasy" of the book is based on a belief system that is regarded as truth by some religions (the angels & demons) does it help you relate better with the story, as opposed to a story about vampires and werewolves? The overall concepts behind demons and angels didn't really factor into my reading of the story one way or another, to be honest. I think my issues with the story stemmed more from my issues with the story's construction and my lack of buy-in to the conflict and the setting of the story than anything else.

Question #4: In the opening of this book we read about a football game analogy of Demons verses Angels, even though this is fiction what do you think of Demons in this case Jim the Fallen Angel being portrayed as a "Good Guy"? I hate sports metaphors as a rule and I really didn't like the one that started off Covet in any way, shape or form. Be that as it may, I don't think Jim is supposed to be a demon in the sense that the bad guys in this series are supposed to be demons. I think Jim is supposed to be an angel who's not as good as a regular angel and therefore fits the description that the bizarre game that this series is centered around calls for. In some ways, I think that's not a bad thing, since in the realm of people there isn't anyone who's truly, 100% good and everyone has their imperfections, so if the savior of humanity has to come from the ranks of humanity itself then that hero's going to have a few warts, so to speak.

Question #5: How do you feel knowing this will be a 7 book series featuring Jim and he might win all of the battles?I'm really hoping Ms. Ward mixes it up a little bit in the rest of the series and either delegates some of the world-saving to the other characters, because otherwise the series is going to read more like a TV show than a dramatic series. I mean, granted, probably the good guys are going to win and the world's going to carry on and all that jazz, but it'd be nice if it wasn't that formulaic. A little drama or suspense would be nice, certainly.