Review: Baby by J.K. Accinni

Baby (Species Intervention #6609 #1)
by J.K. Accinni

A story deeper and darker than E.T. How could one planet evolve such complex and divergent examples of biodiversity?
The series “Species Intervention #6609” spans two hundred years, encompassing tender love between divergent species, political downfalls and violence of unspeakable order. It is an unfortunate tale of Armageddon and the remote possibility of redemption.
In Baby, Netty is a naive teenage farm girl given in marriage to an older brutal opportunist disguised as a successful citizen during the years of Prohibition in Sussex County, New Jersey. After years of enslavement, Netty flees into the night from her rapist husband, traveling back to the farm worked by her parents, where she rescues an unfamiliar damaged creature she finds in a cave in the woods of her childhood, falling in love with the enigmatic creature she names Baby. Together they find happiness and fulfillment despite the changes to Netty’s body wrought by the proximity of the unusual creature.
When a handsome Italian stranger comes into Netty’s life, complications ensue as she falls in love while trying to hide the bizarre and wondrous changes to her farm and her body. Netty, Baby and Wil strive to conquer obstacles thrown in their path by life, succeeding wildly until the heart-rending and astonishingly brutal climax to their story.

Boy, did that ending ever creep up on me! I had no idea that the last 20% of the book was actually the first three chapter of Echo, book 2. That was sneaky...

Overall, it's a pretty interesting sci-fi, and it definitely left me wondering what happens next. The second half is undoubtedly stronger, with a lot more happening plot wise, while the first half is building the characters and setting.

The story begins in 1929, in a rural community in New Jersey. Our main character, Netty, has just escaped from an abusive husband, and is striking out on her own with no one to rely on, and nowhere to turn. When she finds Baby, an exotic creature to say the least, hurt in the woods, her life begins to change and there is no going back. 

I found the characters a little one dimensional. Netty doesn't seem appropriately traumatized for everything that she goes through. Simply too accepting of her fate. While I liked Wil, the "handsome Italian stranger", he didn't have the chemistry with Netty that I hoped for.
And then, there is Robert, Netty's husband. I know this is going to sound strange, but he is simply TOO evil. He's more than just a bad guy. He's a BAD GUY! It's beyond believable that he can invoke such evil in everyone around him, with his entire household showing a severe lack of remorse.

The premise has some serious potential, and I am really looking forward to the next installment. Thank you to J.K. Accinni for offering a copy of her book in exchange for an honest review.