The Experiment The See-Ers Series Book #4
Paranormal Fantasy, Paranormal Thriller, Paranormal Mystery
Independent
June 18, 2023
Kinde
264
Amazon
Jeff and Matt are in hiding and looking for the secret headquarters where Daryl has hidden his team after closing up their other location. They are looking for the safe house where Cliff, Ella, Chelsea and Mario are hiding out. Ella is almost 6 months along in her pregnancy and all is going well. Cliff and Ella are also just about to get married in a quiet ceremony on the island. Ella has been training with Chelsea. Daryl and Marjorie joined the group over a month ago. Ella has had questions about her brother and his disappearance. Cliff and Daryl have been looking into it and finally have discovered the whereabouts of Ella's brother, Joshua McKinnon. However contacting him remains risky due to what they uncovered. Ella's brother is married and has a family with two children. He, his wife and children all have magical abilities. They worry that not only will Ella and Cliff's child be in danger from Jeff, but so will Joshua's family. Will they all overpower Jeff and restore peace to the world?
Jeff and Matt have had no success in that secret headquarters on the Cayman Islands trying to produce a live human/alien hybrid with Ella’s and Chelsea’s eggs and DNA that they extracted. The babies keep dying so Jeff and Matt have concentrated their search for Ella and Chelsea in order to build up an alien super army. So far their psychic generator has had no luck picking up the spiritual trace/essence of Ella or Chelsea.
Chelsea and Mario are also engaged and decide to tie the knot the same day as Cliff and Ella. Chelsea has been training with Marjorie extensively and feels ready for battle, but is haunted by the guilt that Matt became victimized by Jeff because of her. Chelsea also discovers she is pregnant, and like Ella, knows her child will be coveted by Jeff and Matt for their evil alien army.
When Ella and her brother and his family do make contact, it unleashes a whole series of other events that almost cause the destruction of the entire Miller organization. Will the team come out of this safely as well as finally destroy Jeff and the evil Von Murren legacy? Find out in the conclusion of the "See-Ers" series.
Does Ella safely contact her brother and meet her sister-in-law, niece and nephew?
Will Cliff and Ella’s baby girl be alright and safe from Jeff’s clutches?
Review by S.C. Principale
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
The Experiment: Book Four of the See-ers series by Joanna Giacomini must be read as part of a series to fully understand what’s going on. But, if you’re just joining the series, an intrepid band of supernaturally gifted people are in hiding from a mad megalomaniac and his naive henchman. Everything is an idyllic information dump as Giacomini tries to quickly let us know that the couples are well, Ella is expecting a healthy baby girl, and she and Cliff get engaged. Their nemesis, Jeff, and his dupe, Matt, are supposedly dead.
But, of course, that would be too easy.
As Ella and Cliff and Mario and Chelsea rebuild their lives and try to reconnect with Ella’s brother, we find out that Jeff and Matt are alive and thirsting for revenge. Fortunately, our fearless foursome are still training their magical and telepathic abilities and are preparing for the day when someone else challenges the peace they’ve found. Of course, they have no idea Jeff will return to torment them.
There is a very prevalent sense of dread throughout this text, as we know that Jeff and Matt are waiting in the wings, and they want to take Ella’s little girl to use as a science experiment. As a woman and a mother, the emotional punch of this book was on-point. The dialogue, pacing, and mechanics were in need of some improvement, but overall, it was an enjoyable read, although predictable.
As the story develops, we learn that Chelsea is also expecting. When Jeff and Matt are revealed to be alive, it is the unborn children who actually have the power to fight them and save their parents. The science and mechanics of this required me to suspend disbelief more than normal, but I appreciated the symbolism. What I didn’t appreciate was the fact that Giacomini uses Cliff and Mario as pawns and Ella agrees to go to Jeff if he will leave Cliff alone. It didn’t ring true, and it was a device hinted at in other books. Another thing that felt forced was the use of the women’s powers. For example, at one point, Jeff appears as an avatar and starts touching Ella. Quickly, she “fires off a reverse love spell.” The use of magic as a cure-all without advancing the plot for the first third of the book may put some readers off. Jeff and Matt, and their constant references to mind-controlling the women into being their perfect love-slave and baby-makers is also enough to make you sick, but that’s intentional. Giacomini has created two villains you itch to hate!
However, in the later half of the book, Marjorie, Josh, Catherine, and others, characters who Jeff and Matt do not know are half-alien or witch, really get to shine as a force. Jeff and Matt underestimate them in their ignorance. A tense battle begins as the characters sense each other with their psychic abilities and the stand-off begins.
The battle, while tense, does drag, and there are constant “shocks” in store. For example, Ella and Chelsea still managed to get captured. Then, Cliff and Mario tell the girls “Thanks, it’s been fun” and leave them to Jeff and Matt. We’re subjected to endless evil monologues and dialog where the men talk about the impending rape and forced impregnation of the women, and how much the women will love it, since they will be drugged and mindless. Again, these are villains you will positively love to hate! But, just when you’re about to throw the book across the room, you discover the evil guys have made clones and that these short-lived duplicates are the ones who deceived poor Ella and Chelsea.
As the forced wedding is about to take place, there is a riot of magic and action where everyone is doing everything. Spells fly thick and fast. We see the children of the women who have been imprisoned by Jeff and Matt, and they are strong and ready to help fight for the freedom of their families. There’s a grand finale where evil is served and good triumphs. After a long, tortuous ride, the roller coaster ends at a lovely epilogue, with all the families safe, three years later—and finding a new See-er who may need their help.
This book is a love letter to fans of the series, but if you’re not invested in it, it might not be your cup of tea. It has action, love, magic, sci-fi, and a happy ending. It’s a great ending to the series!
Trigger Warnings: Abduction, talk of sexual torture, rape, forced impregnation, enslavement, physical and mental torture