A couple years ago I had the thought that someone needed to write a book about women vigilantes, righting the wrongs done to other women. Like the Gulabi Gang on steroids. When I saw the synopsis for Rage, I was so excited, because it sounded almost exactly like I had imagined! I joined Nia Myst's ARC team in such a hurry.
In book 1, Rage, there are a group of women vigilantes that call themselves the Wildcats. They use big cat code names and wear masks matching the name when they are out being badasses. Through a whisper network they take on the cases of abused women and girls who couldn't get justice through the court system and deliver judgement on the perpetrators. (Please, please check warnings before reading, because there are lots of things in the series that could be difficult/triggering)
After real estate mogul Dominic Park's sister is violently assaulted, he finds himself spiraling. The cops can't find anything on the attackers and his sister is a shell of her former self. When a waitress overhears a conversation about the stalled investigation, she passes a Wildcats card to Dominic, but his first impulse is to toss it. However he takes a chance and finds himself face to mask with a crew of women who promise to find the men who destroyed his sister's life.
The perps end up being exceedingly well connected, to the point that an assassin targets the Parks. One of the Wildcats, Samaira, takes on bodyguard duty in addition to being part of the search for the assailants. There are immediate sparks between Dominic and Samaira, though she is hesitant to act on them due to her dangerous life.
Rage is violent, cathartic and spicy. There is a lot of character trauma that is discussed (which makes the vengeance so much sweeter). I loved the diversity represented and how strong, both mentally and physically, the Wildcats are.
Book 2, Burn, tells the story of Tara, the most physically damaged of the Wildcats. Burn, like Rage, is violent, cathartic and so so spicy. The big bads the Wildcats tackle in Burn are human traffickers, kidnapping and selling women and girls to men with more money than morals. It feels very timely, given all the information that's been leaking out about the Epstien files lately. At least in fiction horrible, predatory men get what's coming to them.
Tara is the hacker for the Wildcats. She has hidden her face from everyone for years following an acid attack. Over the course of the book she slowly grows enough confidence to stop wearing it all the time.
During the wrap up of events of Rage, Dominic and the Wildcats come across an incredibly tenacious police lieutenant who looks like he might cause problems for them in the future. He, in fact, does become a problem. Knox is a sociopath who became a cop after his mother spent his whole life guiding his antisocial tendencies into an obsession with justice. But when he tries tracking down the vigilante taking out predatory men, Tara, or his "little criminal" as he begins calling her, becomes his new obsession.
That obsession leads to mutual stalking and an increasingly unhinged prank war between the two as they play a game of cat and mouse when they're not tracking down the Russian trafficking ring. Tara's last prank on Knox before they finally have a face to face showdown is particularly unhinged and hilarious.
This series is peak "found family" vibes. These women have each other's backs like no other. And the men they let into their lives have to have their backs just as much. I can't wait to see what injustices the Wildcats tackle in the next book.
