Review: Burning Wild by Christine Feehan

Published: April 2009 by Jove

Number of Pages: 443

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Stand Alone/Series: Book 3 of the Leopards but can be read as a stand alone
Book 1: Novella The Awakening in the Fantasy Anthology or Fever Anthology
Book 2: Wild Rain or in Fever Anthology

Why This Book: Because its Christine Feehan and I have this horrible series OCD that makes me keep reading a series I started. *sigh*

From the Author Site: Born into a world of twisted monsters, Jake Bannaconni is shaped and molded into a cold, revenge driven man. Honed in the fires of hell, he controls his world and rules with an iron hand. He has everything and anything money can buy. He’s ruthless, merciless and considered a man to leave alone. His hidden legacy, that of a shapeshifter, makes him doubly dangerous in the corporate world.

Emma Reynolds is a woman who knows how to love and love well. When their two worlds collide, Jake’s plans for a complete take over, may just come tumbling down.

Read except here.

Hero: Jake Bannaconni was bred. His parents want to control a shapeshifter and they thought they could make one. When he was a disappointment to them, they tortured him and tried to use him to breed a shapeshifter. Jake always knew there was another being inside him and when he was finally free of his parent he was able to let that side out. Although he has everything money can buy, he needs those thing that cannot be bought: true freedom from his parents and the love of a good woman.

Heroine: Emma Reynolds has a mysterious past. On the surface she is a pregnant widow who had been a newly wed. But there is something that is irresistible about her that draws Jake's leopard to the surface.

Review: I quite enjoyed this book. I really like Wild Rain when it came out and kept wondering if Christine Feehan was going to write more. I was a bit disappointed that it didn't take place in the jungle as the other had but was appeased with the appearance to support characters from the Jungle.

It was what I've come to expect from Ms. Feehan but with a nice edgier heroine. A wounded hero meets heroine who has that undefinable something that makes her irresistble to the hero. The heroine then "heals" the hero. Meanwhile evil someones are attacking/chasing them and it climaxes to a big huge fight where the bad guys all die horribly and the hero and heroine are free to live their lives happily ever after, sort of.

Her recent heroines haven't been much to my liking but Emma has a nice edge to her and isn't one to lay down and let people walk over her, even though she does seem to let the hero get away with way too much.

Ms. Feehan write good stories but they just don't have the edge or excitement that many of the newer authors have. I don't know what is missing but there is something that makes her stories just miss the mark. They are enjoyable but not rave-worthy. But I will no doubt keep reading her as long as she keeps writing them.

What I liked best: Jake's employees. Although Jake has a very ruthless reputation in the business world, all his employees are "damaged" in some way and he seems to be collecting all these "wounded birds" and giving them a chance to succeed. The softer side that doesn't otherwise show through.

What I least liked: The heroine's matter of fact attitude towards finding out Jake is a shapeshifter and her whole mysterious past. It seemed to pop out of no where. But it did work with the overall storyline.

Keeper?: Yes

Recommendation: If you enjoyed Wild Rain, you will probably enjoy this one as well.

Grade: B-
Series Grade to Date: B-