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Book Review of Burn

Burn
Burn
Author: Linda Howard
Genre: Romance
Book Type: Hardcover
MELNELYNN avatar reviewed on + 669 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5


Jenner Redwine knew winning the Mega Millions lottery was going to change her life. But after her ex-boyfriend tries to sue her, her father robs her, and her best friend ditches her once the gravy train has been cut off, she's not entirely certain it was all for the best. Cutting her ties to her former life, Jenner tries her luck in Florida and enters the fringes of the Palm Beach elite, guided along by Sydney Hazlett. Seven years later, this former meat packing worker turned multimillionaire is about to set sail for her first cruise when her oh-so-helpful-stewardess calmly informs her that her friend will not be joining her as planned because her associates are holding her hostage, and if wants to see her friend again, she must do as they say. Stunned and terrified, Jenner realizes that the people holding both her and Sydney captive are ruthless and not to be trusted. She's frantically looking for a way out that will leave both her and Syd alive when she is swept up into the arms of the most masculine and menacing stranger she's ever met. She may be angry. She may be scared. But she will not be contracting the Stockholm Syndrome any time soon.

The more I read, the more this book reminded me of LH's Mr. Perfect. I would say that this book has the same amount of time spent on the romance and the suspense as Mr. Perfect. The emphasis on the friendship between Syd and Jenner reminded me of the friendship between the four ladies, and the smarta** comments Sam and Jaine were always tossing about were easily interchangeable with the smarta** sparring of Cael Traylor and Jenner. Which for someone who really enjoys smarta** characters, I thought this book was enjoyable. Until I realized that sparring aside, this book doesn't have a whole lot of substance to it. The plot itself was pretty weak. I don't believe for one second that a real black-ops team would chance their mission on what they believed were two spoiled rich girls (can you imagine the fate of the world being held in the hands of Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie???) and the villain's gleeful ruminations got darned boring after awhile. Since the only one left in the dark is Jenner, I didn't have a whole lot of sympathy for her when she continually begged to be let in on what was happening. Everything is laid out for us and so we end up playing the waiting game throughout most of the book. Waiting for the villain to make his move. Waiting for Cael & Associates to figure it out. Waiting for Cael and Jenner to realize they love each other and fall passionately into each other's arms. Blah, blah, blah.

Cael Traylor starts off very aggressive in the prologue. Since the book kicks off right in the middle of the book, I was really confused when I was bombarded with all the characters right off the bat. At first I didn't know if the guy was the villain or the hero. I assumed he was going to be a Simon-like character from LH's Death Angel, but he quickly turned into a "Yes, Dear" kind of guy. While I enjoyed reading about his attempts to keep Jenner in line, I kind of missed the scarily aggressive male from the beginning. Instead of Simon, Sam or Jackson Rippner, I ended up with a p*ssywhipped Ricky Ricardo.

The sex in this book was also quite a letdown. I know Linda Howard can set my panties afire but in this book all I got was a painfully dry Insert Tab A into Slot B scene and another that read like a fade to black scene. Neither sex scene lasted more than a page or two. Complete letdown.

Though it sounds like I didn't enjoy this book, I did. The action in the book picks up at the end and makes you feel like you've been tossed onto the set of Titanic, and I, weirdly enough, enjoyed the death scene of one of the 'good' characters. But it was the sparring matches between Jenner and Cael that carried this book to the end.