Windfall (Weather Warden #4)
Author: Rachel Caine
Published: 2008
On Goodreads
Rating: 
Rated R for the ride or die crashing and burning at rock bottom.
You think you’re having a bad day? Joanne “Jo” Baldwin has lost her job as a Weather Warden and saving the world doesn’t come with a pension plan.
Jo quit her job and took up being a local weather man with a sleazy co-host that she just wants to pummel. Her boyfriend, David, and a Djinn is on the verge of turning into a deadly Ifrit. Now, as if the world is really just trying to kick while she’s down, her high-maintenance sister comes knocking, looking for a place to stay and Jo is losing her powers.
Wardens are being knocked off the radar and Djinn is rebelling. They’re choosing sides and a war is on the horizon. So is the end of the world if it keeps up. Deadly hurricanes and other occurrences are sweeping up the coasts. Just when Jo thinks there’s nothing left for her to lose, she still loses. Some of the hardest choices in her life are yet to come.
Weather Warden Reviews
Jo had plans. Maybe not huge and outlandish plans. She liked her job and her friends and being able to manipulate the weather. Now, it’s all gone. No job, no allies, no boyfriend-not really, and a baby Djinn still occupying her warm womb as she struggled to make ends meet and keep a happy, basic life. Of course, nothing stays copasetic for long.
This has to be the lightest, yet the most heartbreaking and scary book in the series so far. There wasn’t too much going on, but when the major plot twisted, it twisted its knife into my heart. Jo has lost so much, but it wasn’t enough. Nope. She still had so much. From David to her sister to any attempt to make a life after all of the hell she’s been through. So much was still at risk for this high-end weather warden.
If there’s one thing that’s always kept me upbeat during the rocky drawn-out, or straight-up heartbreaking moments, it’s Jo’s ability to deflect and defend with sarcasm and a tough shield around her heart. There’s also her ability to be sensible and know that while whatever she has to do will hurt more than anything, and she may complain about it, she knows what the right thing is to do. Every. Time. She doesn’t fall back on the trope of desperation and fighting futilely and clinging so hard she refuses to let her death grip go. She confronts-hates and handles-the hard decisions that if we could be childish and throw a tantrum over, we would. But not her.
Now to get into the book depths. Jo’s sister is much to be desired, but I appreciated Jo’s new friend, Cherise balancing out the female character dynamic with her wit and adaptability to strange happenings. Like Jo’s jumping up on the edge of a bridge to try and save a warden from a Djinn, for example. I wondered for a good portion of the book if Charise was some sort of spy with how well she handled things when they went sideways. I was glad when that wasn’t the case and Cherise just turned out to be the kind of person that can roll with the flow no matter how feckered it gets. Jo deserves and has earned having this reliable friend. Her sister on the other hand is a freaking mess. I wanted to reach through and throttle the woman.
And, killing Quinn came back to haunt her. As if she didn’t have enough going on. Quinn, the one responsible for stealing and selling Djinn like they’re nothing but objects, had a partner. Caine knows how to throw a wrench into a story. Really Jamming Jo up and making me wonder how the hell she’ll be able to get out of the trouble she gets into. Damn.
From the get-go, I knew, I KNEW it was over between Jo and David. My heart was already shattered and shattered again when it finally happened. They fought and struggled through so much together and they were still pulled apart. Logically, everybody around them was right, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t try. Their relationship was doomed because David was still restricted to a bottle by Jo. Still, this kind of doomed relationship hurt. They both wanted it to work so badly. I wanted it to work so badly. But. The fecking BUT. The odds were against them. The world was going to shit. Jonathan was dying. The wardens were hunting everybody. The world itself was suffering catastrophic events in the middle of all of this. And, in the end, the two of them couldn’t win without all of them being the cost. There are still quite a few books to go, so I’m hoping they will reunite. OF course, they will. But you know what I mean. My heart breaks for them.
But, while one Djinn left Jo broken, another swept in to work on fixing that. Oh yes. If you recall from my Chill Factor review, Jo was pregnant. Well, the baby has come full circle. By that, I mean that baby Djinn AKA Imara vacated and came to pick up her mum off the ground, fully grown. What a way to keep me hanging on for the next book. She’s just as wistful, whimsical, and free-flying as her parents, but I was glad that she was able to get Jo to focus on something new instead of solely her heartbreak. There’s a lot going to shit in the world and nobody else was going to try and fix it. Jo definitely deserves a vacation and early retirement after all of this though.
Overall
This really hit the medium for me. I enjoyed it, but I won’t say it was the best in the series. So many great points that also left me wrecked. This also had a lot of connecting points that were imperative to the series. Worth the read, but I do wish Jo wasn’t continuously getting kicked while she was down. I need this woman to get some good in her life. PLEEEEAASE.
Quotables:
“It doesn’t take much to destroy the world as humans know it.” (Jo, p. 13)
“Love, I was starting to realise, was beautiful, but it was also ruthlessly selfish.” (Jo, p. 176)
“What is it with you and dying, anyway? Can’t you get a new hobby?” (Lewis to Jo, p. 370)
“Saving the world really isn’t all that profitable. You’d be surprised how little you get paid for that kind of thing.” (Jo, p. 456)
More to come soon…
-K.
Song Today? In The Mourning by Paramore.
Find Me:
Thoughts? Let’s chat in the comments below!
The Scarlet Reader 
Leave a Reply