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Review: Burn (SINS #6 / Ember #2) by Emma Slate

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Title: Burn
Author:  Emma Slate
Publisher/Year:  Tabula Rosa Publishing 3/3/21
Length:  178 Pages
Series: Sins #6 / Ember #2

Overview

I believed his seductive lies.

I believed his golden promises.

Now I’m in his clutches, and the more I struggle, the tighter his grip becomes.

But if you squeeze too tight, the thing you’re trying to hold onto might just slip through your fingers…

I will never belong to him.

Sasha Petrovich lives in my dreams and calls to me in my sleep.

Our love rages like wildfire, and when we are together again, we will burn it all to ashes.

My Thoughts

I was really bummed when the first book of this spin off wasn’t really about Sasha at all, and that this fast forward into the future left us wondering what that would mean for Quinn. She was in a dark place for most of the story – trying to wallow in her misery and refuse to come up for air. What happens though as that installment progressed and ended, she was happier. Quinn took over her father’s company and was hitting her stride. She was back with her friends and she had a new potential love interest – Ori Abruzzo. (I knew who hew was the minute the name Ori came out of his mouth but….she does not know who he is).

she we ended on a cliff hanger – car accident, and now she has amnesia. She remembers nothing, and Ori takes the opportunity to tell her that they’re engaged. From there, this story gets more and more complex.

Quinn has a niggling feeling that all is not what it seems with Ori and it’s good that she holds onto that. She gets flashes from her memories of Sahsa (although she doesn’t know that it’s him) and a few other things, but she correlates all her memories to sadness so she opts not to unlock her past. What’s interesting here though is that Ori spins a nice tale about how she’s not supposed to talk to other people and unlock her phone etc etc because too much memory at once will be bad for her mental health. Controlling much?

The side story to this ACTUALLY includes Sasha. He’s returned to New York and goes straight to Barrett and Flynn. He never stopped loving Quinn he just didn’t love himself and he used the year or so to recover, get reconstructive surgery and train to be stronger and harder. It’s going to prove useful when he learns where Quinn is and with whom.

The story from here is watching as Sasha goes after Quinn, trying to get back in touch with her but always being one step behind. We also find ourselves watching Quinn continue in a relationship that doesn’t feel 100% right but at times feels pretty close to right. She goes with him to Italy even and they plan to get married.

What happens in Italy, well you can only imagine that quite a bit will happen when you’re in the homeland of the leaders of the Italian mafia….no?

yup..

we’re left at a cliffhanger where Ori knows that Sasha’s alive and hunting Quinn….realizing that Ori used Quinn as a means to draw Sasha out since he’s still bitter that Sasha ‘killed’ his best friend Igor. Quinn is forced into a marriage that she knows that she doesn’t want….and yet, we’re left at the end with a nod to her memory….does she have it back and what does that really mean for her and Ori and her and Sasha.

I’m heading off on vacation and happily downloaded the next book in the series so I can see how this story nets out. It’s intense and insane, but different than many of the other installments, there’s really not as much of the sexy-times as the others. not a bad thing mind you given that this story is NUTS, but i’m sure we’ll pick that back up soon. Enjoy!

Review: Burn (Electric #3) by E. L. Todd

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Title: Burn
Author:  E.L. Todd
Publisher/Year:  CreateSpace Publishing 10/11/16
Length:  280 Pages
Series:  Electric #3

Overview

Volt is my best friend.

And nothing but my best friend.

Natalie and Sara keep telling me there’s something more going on beneath the surface, but that’s not true.

Volt is a manwhore.

A player.

And a heartbreaker.

We’re better off as friends.

At least that’s what I keep telling myself…

My Thoughts

We are on yet another roller coaster that i wish that i could get off. While i’m all for a dynamic ‘should we or shouldn’t we situation, this one is getting to be a bit much with the amount of whip lash. The challenge with Volt and Taylor is that they don’t admit to themselves what they want until it’s too late and they both don’t acknowledge their faults.

Volt is too quick to judge and cut people off, which is what he did to Sara and what he does here to Taylor. Taylor on the other hand doesn’t let things just lay where they should. She allows moments of reprieve from time to time and in moments after that, she allows the smallest things to ruin what could be great.

The bulk of this story though is still watching them deny what they are to each other. Taylor is in a relationship with someone else, and seems to be happy until she always chooses to be with Volt and manage him instead of her boyfriend. I can only imagine how that feels to Sage, the bf, and i’m not surprised when he makes his point and feelings clear.

Volt realizes FINALLY That he wants to be what Taylor needs but his problem is that he’s already established that he’s not that kind of guy, and we also know that he’s hiding quite a few things from her which will of course blow up in their faces. The biggest perhaps is that his father is her boss….no way that’s going to end well since his father doesn’t rate Taylor.

So we watch this relationship implode before it even starts and then we watch far too many false starts. I think they are both masochists to an extent to keep allowing this to happen to each other, but it’s also like a car wreck where i have no choice but to continue to read.

On the other hand, at least we have some happy thoughts happening with Natalie and Jared. They didn’t see what was in front of them until someone else came in the way, and they finally figure out how to make it work. We don’t get to dive too deeply into it, but i think that’s the moment of happiness and bliss that this series deserves.

Where we are left off in this one is yet another fight, another bunch of lies and well, it’s no shocker that Taylor and Volt can’t find a way to be together. Honestly, i think it’s for the best at this point, and i can’t wait to see how the Volt (Muriel)/Sara thing explodes since that HAS to happen soon. Enjoy!

Review: Burn (Songs of Submission #5) by CD Reiss

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Title:  Burn
Author: CD Reiss
Publisher/Year: Flip City Media Inc. 6/23/13
Length:  298 pages
Series: Songs of Submission #5

Overview

——————–Here’s how it’s going to be, goddess.

Until you surrender yourself to me fully, I will not touch you.

Until the world can know you belong to me, I will not kiss you.

I’m going to be inches away, at your side. I’m going to whisper in your ear and put my breath on your neck, but the heat of my skin will not feel the shudder of yours until you commit yourself to me completely.

My Thoughts

we are finally getting somewhere, and i think that’s due to the fact that we’re now past the midway point in the installment series.  I love where this story is going, and i think that CD Reiss has done a GREAT job in laying it out for us in a way that keeps us guessing.

What we get in this 5th installment is quite a variety of emotions and wondering who’s trustworthy.  What we also get too though is a bunch of randomness that i’m not sure really means much to the story.  or will it?

We travel to Vancouver for the opening of the exhibit that Monica and Darren agreed to help Kevin with, and of course, things become much more complicated there.  while we know that Monica and Jonathan are ‘on a break’, we know that he doesn’t trust Kevin at all yet, even with the information that he’s learned from Santon on who planted the cameras….but that’s all with just cause.  Given the fact that Monica’s ‘attacked’……by one Kevin Wainright.

Anyway, we travel to Vancouver where a lot happens, and a lot doesn’t.  There’s still a wall up between Monica and Jonathan and they are doing their best to both keep it intact and rip it apart.  The question really becomes, is it worth the fight?  isn’t it better to just give in one way or another?

I really liked where this story ends up though – while i kind of figured that we’d get to a point where someone had their life threatened again or was arrested, i wasn’t sure about the circumstances, and the way this has played out so far has kept my interest.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all about a story of who to trust and who not to.  We’re starting to get to the bottom of what this relationship could mean to Monica in the bedroom (and all over any surface she encounters).  while i’m happy to say that the word that i HATE (a.k.a. snatch) hasn’t made an appearance lately in the series (thank heavens), we’re also not really getting a strong dom  – which is something that i’ve come to really want and appreciate in this genre.  i know that Jonathan is supposed to be quite the top, but he seems very playful in it and tentative, and i know that it’s because of what he’s explained to us – he realized only with Jessica that he was into this, and really didn’t get a chance to live it out to the fullest.  I don’t know – i’m just used to a much more authoritative dom.  regardless – at least the scening that we do get is nice, and we get to see what he can do to a woman, and what Monica lets him do to her.

Review: Burn (Breathless Trilogy #3) by Maya Banks

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Title:  Burn
Author: Maya Banks
Publisher/Year:  Penguin Group 8/6/13
Length:  368 Pages
Series: Breathless Trilogy #3

Overview

Ash, Jace, and Gabe: three of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the country. They’re accustomed to getting anything they want. Anything at all. For Ash, it’s the woman who changes everything he’s ever known about dominance and desire…

When it comes to sex, Ash McIntyre has always explored his wilder side—extreme and uncompromising. He demands control. And he prefers women who want it like that. Even the women he’s shared with his best friend, Jace.

But Jace is involved with a woman he has no intention of sharing. And now even Gabe has settled into a relationship with a woman who gives him everything he needs, leaving Ash feeling restless and unfulfilled.

Then Ash meets Josie, who seems immune to his charms and his wealth. Intrigued, he begins a relentless pursuit, determined she won’t be the one who got away. He never imagined the one woman to tell him no would be the only woman who’d ever drive him to the edge of desire

My Thoughts

This is one of my favorite trilogies in the genre because or main doms are so different, yet their stories give us a great sense of being so intertwined and reliant on one another, and there’s such great anxiety and tension.  Maya Banks does a great job i think in bringing us women that are strong because of the way that they grew up yet sure of themselves enough to know that they can allow a man to take control and revel in it.

So this is the story that we’ve been waiting for – where Ash is the focus, and we get to see him on his own.  If you’ve read the first 2 books in the series you know that he and Jace used to be a packaged deal and they were infamous for their threesomes.  Then Bethany came along and Jace was smitten and completely in love.  leaving Ash feeling like he was on the outside, and that’s precisely where book 3 takes off.  We find him in a place where he’s feeling like his brothers/best friends are moving on from him for their women and he’s got no one for himself.  His control of everything seems to be slipping away and that is how he finds himself in a park, staring off into space in his own thoughts, when he spies Josie across the way, deep in thought as she’s drawing, that is until their gazes lock and things are changed for both.

From what we know of Ash, he always gets his way and he wants Josie.  Of course that means that he’ll use his power and money to find her, find out about her and make her his.  That’s what he does, and of course since we’ve seen the mistakes that both Gabe and Jace have made with their ladies, he’s going to make the same ones too.  Josie of course though comes from a complicated life as well, one that’s not so nice and tidy, and she herself is in a relationship (D/s) of sorts which complicates things more.  She’s not free to be with Ash, at least not yet.

So the journey that we go on with them is one where Ash feels the need to protect and own Josie, and she finds herself in a position where the timing is precisely right for that. of course things are never clean and simple, and they find themselves in a situation where trust is of the utmost importance, between them and those around them, someone gets beat up, and maimed, another person lands in the hospital, and you don’t know if there’s going to be a happy solution for anyone.

I loved that we got to see a lot more of Mia and Bethany and that they didn’t just fall by the wayside as their stories ended.  we also got to meat Brittany (Ash’s sister) and see the complicated dynamic of his family and how he’s afraid to trust that someone may have honest motives.

What i really loved and i’m worried that we’ll hear nothing more about is Brittany and Kai.  That’s a story that i’d love to get into more, and even Carol and Brandon (although that one doesn’t seem like a power trip like Kai and Britt).  I feel like Kai would fit in PERFECTLY with Gabe/Jace/Ash, so here’s to hoping that there will be another story to make this more than just a trilogy.

On top of a great plotline, there’s such heat and passion between these 2 (Ash and Josie) that you know what you’re going to get here.  Ash knows how to push Josie to her limits while tormenting both of them just the same.  It’s hot, it’s steamy and it’s perfect for this third installment.  Enjoy everyone, and make sure to keep the A/C on cause you’ll probably need it!

Review: Fever (The Breathless Trilogy Book #2) by Maya Banks

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Title: Fever 
Author: Maya Banks
Publisher/Year: Penguin Group (USA), 4/2/13
Length: 416 pages
Series: The Breathless Trilogy #2

the slightly awaited 2nd installment in the Breathless Trilogy has arrived and i have to admit that i was waiting to see what was next for the 3 sexiest men in the city.  Knowing that we had Gabe’s story all wrapped up in Rush, next on the docket was Jace…mia’s brother.

so we open into the engagement party for Gabe and Mia where everyone’s excited for the happy couple that managed to sort things out in book 2, meaning that we get to see what the future lies with the other 2 boys who everyone knows are majorly into threesomes.  So true to form, Ash notices that Jace is checking out a particularly attractive woman who happens to be working at the party and makes his intentions known.  this is how we meet Bethany.  She’s working for the caterer and upon meeting Ash and Jace who are polar opposites, decides to take them up on their offer for a threesome mostly because it means that she’ll have somewhere warm to stay that night.  see the thing with Bethany is that she’s homeless and she’s been on the streets for about 4 years now trying to survive.

Unlike all other encounters that Ash and Jace have shared, Jace finds himself very possessive of Bethany and doesn’t really want to share her with Ash.  throughout the fun that night, he is very particular about what he’ll allow Ash to do and doesn’t want to even share her.

That begins the torrent romance that they begin and we get to see a harder/dominating side to Jace which is a nice little kink.  Of course though, things are never cut and dry.  while Jace is trying to give Bethany everything in the world (a place to stay, food, clothes the works), Bethany has a ‘brother’ that has been on the streets with her and he’s managed to get himself involved in some less than savory things that some how manage to keep Bethany entwined.

So this is a story of a developing relationship and romance that’s new for both (jace has never been a one woman guy and never been in love) and bethany hasn’t had anything her entire life.  Bethany’s brother Jack is a wild card and there’s just so much that can go wrong.

all in all not a ‘bad’ story – but what i always get frustrated with is when we’re given a glimpse into a character that’s clearly a dom, and in this case Jace even goes as far to say that he wants a ‘slave’ – a full submissive in and out of bed – but we don’t really get into too many scenes with him in that role.  he does a little basic paddle work or spanking, some tying up and all that, but really the best sex scenes are just some less than vanilla things, nothing really BDSM.  i think that the book could have pushed a little farther given that there’s a lot of set up to Jace being all dark and dangerous.

regardless – i’m looking forward to August when Burn, the final book in the trilogy comes out.