Burn: A Novel

REVIEWER’S OPINION:Great character development for Jenner. She didn’t have an advanced education, but I loved her intuitive smartness which guided her actions and helped her make smart decisions about a number of things. Great plot development. Great emotional pull. Romantically there’s anticipation and clever dialogue. I was laughing and chuckling many times – sometimes at the clever banter, other times because I was surprised at something unexpected happening. The suspense is well done. At the end, on the last page, I felt great! I read the physical book a few years ago and recently did the audiobook.REVIEWER’S COMMENTS ABOUT OTHER REVIEWS:A couple of reviewers felt there wasn’t enough romance. I agree that there was not a lot of romance, but there was definitely enough to be able to call this a romance novel. It was a good story which too many romance novels don’t achieve. Someone did not like that there was no secret about what was going to happen to the ship and its occupants. I didn’t mind that. The mystery was “how and when” the good guys would discover the problem and “what” they would do about it. A lot of good stories work this way. Someone complained that the “elaborate kidnap scheme seemed contrived.” I had no problem with it. In fact, one of the reasons I liked this book was that the kidnap scheme was believable, at least to me. One reviewer wanted more character development concerning Cael and the bad guy. Ok, there could have been more, but I was fine without it. I didn’t notice the lack of it until I read that reviewer’s opinion.STORY BRIEF:Jenner is a blue collar worker who wins a $295 million lottery. She is street smart from watching her father who was a con man. I think her mother died early. Jenner saw her best friend and coworkers change after she won the lottery. They were jealous and resented her. Jenner moves to Palm Beach and becomes a close friend with Syd, a shy kind-hearted heiress. Syd invites Jenner on a luxury liner charity cruise for two weeks. Aboard the ship, Jenner is taken hostage by a stranger and must cooperate in a mysterious cloak-and-dagger scheme, which involves pretending to be his lover.AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR:I’ve enjoyed the narrator Joyce Bean in some books but not all books. She has a problem doing men. She sounds weird or loses emotion when she tries to lower her voice to do men. She had the same problem in two other audiobooks: Blue Smoke and Angels Fall by Nora Roberts. In this book her voice for Cael (romantic hero) was wooden with no emotional interpretation.DATA:Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 365 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 5. Setting: 7 years earlier Chicago, IL and current day Palm Beach, Fl, San Diego, CA, Hawaii and aboard the Silver Mist luxury liner in the Pacific. Copyright: 2009. Genre: contemporary romantic suspense.

I'm a long-time Linda Howard fan, and was highly anticipating this book, but ended up disappointed. Being Linda Howard, it's still better than most of the romances out there, but it's just not up to her usual caliber. The characters were intriguing and hilarious, the plot should've been fast-paced and interesting, but instead it was just kind of boring.Ms. Howard's main problem with this book is that the story-telling switches so often from character to character that the reader becomes omniscient. You know exactly what Cael and his team are doing on the boat, you know where his intentions lie, and why he kidnapped Jenner. But you get to read page after page (after page after page) of Jenner musing over just these questions. Unfortunately, with no mystery to the reader concerning his actions, being forced to read on and on about her trying to figure it out becomes tedious and boring with much skimming involved.Likewise, it's very obvious, very quickly exactly what the villain of the piece is up to and why he plans what he plans because we read from his viewpoint so often. But having to go over and over (and over and over) Cael's musings to figure out the nefarious plot is equally frustrating. Ms. Howard could have easily created an extremely suspenseful and fascinating novel had she limited her character viewpoints only to Syd and Jenner. She could've expanded to include Cael and his team once we knew what role he played, and kept a couple of short blips from the bad guy without revealing anything but sinister design. But instead we're subjected to long and ultimately pointless descriptions of ghosting and surveilling Larkin, while the main characters struggle to understand what's happening around them. There's just NO MYSTERY. Even had it been set up like All the Queen's Men, wherein the reader understood everything happening, but the plot was filled with excitement and adventure, this novel would have been good. But no, after the kidnapping takes place, nothing at all exciting happens until the very end (that doesn't have to do with sex).Don't get me wrong, as I mentioned earlier, the interactions between the two main characters Jenner and Cael are passionate and absolutely hilarious (reminiscent of Jane and Sam in Mr. Perfect). Those scenes are well worth the read and certainly enjoyable. But absolutely nothing exciting or interesting happens in the middle of the book. I would recommend this one for the fun of it, but expect long skimming sessions.

Not my favorite and not sure why. The characters were as expected, but lacked the depth for me to really like them and be invested. Normally I would breeze through this type of book in a few hours, but this took me whole day with lots of putting down.

This book was unlike other books by this author. It moved slower, didn't get steamed up until almost the end, but the reason I loved it was Jenner. She was developed perfectly into a pain in the butt. In fact, the sign I have in my kitchen describes her perfectly. I just uploaded it to this review.Did the book have problems? Yes, the plot was plodding rather than fast paced. And the story needed some filling in. The prologue and first act were fine. But once the author got to the second, she seemed to have lost her steam for a while.Overall, I gave it four stars, mainly for the characters.

I absolutely loved this book it was an absolute delight. Jenner was a breath of fresh air as the female lead. Such humour in the dialogue between her and Cael especially. I chuckled all the way through despite the suspenseful plot which was just enough to keep the pages turning. It was like watching a good action packed film. Great story, great characters and a thoroughly entertaining read. I would highly recommend. For fans of karen Robards

I have read all Linda Howard’s books and just re-read this book which I purchased for my Kindle. An interesting read, quite a lot action, romance etc. Jenner who wins millions on the lottery and how she has people like her father stealing from her, her ex trying to get half her money and her best friend using her for money. She leaves and moves to the coast and makes friends with a heiress who both get kidnapped, Jenner while on a cruise which they are both meant to be on and Sydney her friend before she can get to the ship, then things escalate. Worth a read.

Seven years ago Jenner won the lottery. Shortly after winning she unfortunately realises she will have to choose her friends more carefully, and so breaks all ties.After taking the advice from her financial adviser she has made her lottery win grow and found that she does have a talent to make her money work for her.Her only true friend now is Syd, a quiet, shy and unconfident heiress, who she arranges to go on a cruise with.On her way to the ship Syd is kidnapped and when Jenner boards the ship she also is kidnapped. Both girls are concerned for each other and told by their kidnappers that so long as they behave neither girl will be hurt.Cael - who has kidnapped Jenner - comes to see that he does not have a willing, docile victim in his hands but someone who is going to make his mission very difficult to complete.Jenner made me laugh at her treatment of Cael - who after all is the kidnapper and in charge isn't he?Jenner just needs to work out why her kidnappers are watching a terminally ill man.I enjoyed this book, true it is not in Linda Howard's normal style, but enjoyable all the same.

I really enjoyed this book, hooked from the first page and I ended up staying up late to read as much as possible. Characters were great with some humour thown in. I had skimmed this once before when I borrowed it from the local library pre-kindle but could not really get into it. This time I paid more attention and read it as the mystery it was rather than for the romance. Maybe it was the mood I was in last time. I don't know about other people but sometimes I am in the mood for one type of book and sometimes another. This time it really hit the spot. I have read other books by this author which are realy page turners and am really glad that I gave this one another go. I only bought it because I did not recognise it from the blurb but so glad I did. I read a review somewhere that suggested it was a weak storyline, but I have to disagree. Read as a mystery/supsense rather than a romance the characters build much better and I understood why Cael treated Jenner the way he did. In my opinion it is well worth giving it a go.

I waited eagerly for this book from my favourite author Linda Howard only to feel let down and rather disappointed. Her gift with her male characters has been that she makes you want to lift them from the page and make them your own. The hero Cael is described as handsome, sexy, good body, but he doesn't come to life as any of that. It's merely as though by telling us all he is she expects us to just buy into it kind of "trust me on this" stance which just doesn't work in fiction the craft is in making us believe it for ourselves. She settles instead for "telling" us about Cael she doesn't "show" us him. He does nothing to make to the reader think "wow what a man", his character lacks depth. Jenner the heroine is feisty I'll give her that but she's not the best heroine her little rebellions are occasionally humorous such a yoga class but she's still a bit wet. Her friendships and the dynamics of them do help to keep the book going in parts. Overall the plot and subplots leave much to be desired and loose ends. For example we don't know what happened to Jenner's mother she appears to have been raised predominantly by her no good father. Why he is the way he is? We don't know. Why did Jenner turn out so diffrently? We don't know. What did she do when discovered his final betrayal? We don't know. What was the outcome? We never find out. Which makes me wonder why Linda bothered to tell us about it in the first place she raises more questions than she answers. The main plot doesn't work terribly well no aspect properly covered or paced, it lacks the edginess to be a real thriller such as "cry no more", and with the exception of the gradual disintegration of the villain which has it's moments of humour and menance, it is weak.The romance between Jenner and Cael is not believable. In the past the hero's "laser like focus" to use Howard's own words on the heroine is what has made for gripping romance. In this book the overall impression is he is at best disinterested if not a bit bored by her and just going through the motions. Forget the hot love scences that Howard is famous for. During a day alone at the beach the couple are standing in the water he inserts two fingers under her bikini bottoms and into her, she immediately begins to climax - cue end of love scene. Please! I am a huge and loyal fan of Ms Howard but I first wondered did she even write this book and if she did she has lost her edge. To summarise Burn is worth a read because it's Linda Howard but don't expect too much of it or a return to past form. It is not her finest hour.