Burn by Suzanne Wright

⭐⭐⭐

With the end of March approaching, it was time for me to pick up the book for the Smart Women Read Romance patreon exclusive review. The theme for March was Urban Fantasy and Burn by Suzanne Wright won the poll. This is the first book in her Dark in You series. For Love Has Sprung I used this to cover the prompt updated or redone cover prompt and the Mean (book with a mean character) prompt for the Taylor Swift Quarterly Challenge.

When Harper stands in for her cousin Khloe during an underground demon fight, she draws the attraction of the local Prime Knox. When they meet, they come to find out their demons are anchors for each other. This means that they have a psychic link that helps strengthen their demon and also keep it grounded and from going rogue. Knox wants more from Harper though and also pushes for a physical relationship. As they come to terms with becoming mates as well as an anchor, a lot starts happening around them. Demon politics is starting to implode, Harper's birth mother is causing issues since she's apart of Knox's lair, black magic practitioners are targeting Knox (and now Harper), and Knox's childhood friend is deluded and thinks that she's his anchor.

While the blurb and set up of this book really intrigued me, there was just too much going on. I really struggled getting into the book and didn't really get past rereading paragraphs or going back to figure out what exactly happened until about 45% in. There was just something about the writing style that didn't click with me. To touch on the more positive before we get into what I didn't enjoy, I really liked Harper. She had some great growth and really came to adapt to the situation and fight past her previous experiences to get what she wanted. I loved how she was so powerful and sassy and really didn't let anyone take advantage of herself. She was just so confident that she could get out of any situation, but she also wasn't over-confident. I also was really intrigued by the demon setup and the mythos that Suzanne created.

Now, there were quite a lot of things that bothered me (like the bitter exes and way to many sub-plots), but the biggest thing that held back the rating for me was Knox. Yes he's an alpha-hole to the nth extreme, but we saw no softness. He was constantly pushing Harper, even when she asked him not too. There were a lot of sex scenes, but honestly, none of them felt steamy to me. I felt that the chemistry and emotional connection was completely missing. It just felt like banging all the time. I get he likes it rough and to be in control, but just once it would've been nice for Knox to give Harper what she wanted instead of "giving her what he knows she can take." Little things like that kept rubbing me wrong and there wasn't enough good moments in between to balance it out and I just kept feeling more and more offended on Harper's behalf. Never-mind he goes completely nuclear at the end even though Harper saved herself.

I will try other Suzanne Wright books, especially since I've had her Phoenix Pack series on my tbr for a while and have had good things about it. A lot of the people were around the same rating as me during the live show but enjoyed the first few books in her werewolf series. I will go into it though with tempered expectations, especially since I know that her writing style isn't as easy to read for me. I won't give up yet though!

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Burn, Suzanne Wright, 3 stars, 2 days, eBook, 344 pages, published in 2015, indie published