Hot Review: Burning Alive by Shannon K. Butcher

Burning Alive: The Sentinel Wars
Author: Shannon K. Butcher
Publisher:Onyx
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages

Summary: For too long, Helen Day has been haunted by visions of her own death, surrounded by flames as a dark-haired man watches her burn. So when she sees the man of her nightmares staring at her across a diner, she attempts to flee--and ends up in the man's arms. There, she awakens a force more powerful and enticing than she could ever imagine.

I bought a copy of Shannon K. Butcher's book Burning Alive because I had heard good things about her, and it was a paranormal romance, which I love. To start off my review, I want you to read the first sentence of Chapter 1:

The man who was going to stand by and watch while Helen burned to death liked his coffee black.

Burning Alive starts off with a bang, no waiting around for the heroine to meet the main characters, no back story, or prologue. It's right from the frying pan into the fire, and we do have fire. A lot of fire. Then we have the simmering heat between the hero Drake, and the heroine Helen. The author had me sweating and they hadn't even kissed yet! The amazing thing about this book is between the action, the hot romance and the twists in the plot, it never slows down, but the author has still given depth to the characters. In other words, the character development didn't suffer because of the action or the romance. It was a perfect mix of all three components, and a great read.

I have to say a little bit about the characters in Burning Alive. Besides the two main characters I just loved these characters and I think you will too:

Miss Mabel: She's a Senior Citizen with a feisty sense of loyalty and a walker that makes grown men run in terror.

Lexi: Smart and sexy with a secret to hide.

Zach: Wise cracking and intense.

Thomas: Brooding, sad and angry but protective.

Logan: Beautiful and manipulative with an agenda of his own.

Keep in mind, these aren't even the main characters, who are equally fascinating. I really loved Burning Alive and would highly recommend it to fans of J.R. Ward, Lara Adrian, Gena Showalter or Kresley Cole. I am looking forward to more books in the series, and I have the second one, Finding the Lost, on order already.

Burning Alive: The Sentinel Wars is available from Amazon.

You can read Chapter One of Burning Alive here:
http://www.shannonkbutcher.com/index.php?id=19


~Moonsanity