Reviewer: Robyn Roberts
Title: The Burning - 3rd in the series
Author: Susan Squires
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
ISBN: 0-312-99855-4
Release Date: April 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Erotic Vampire
Year/Setting: Current 1821, England
Overall rating: 4.0
Sexual content rating: Sensual/Sexual
Language (profanity) rating: Mild
Susan's Website:
www.susansquires.com
Ann Van Helsing is considered a freak of nature by the townspeople. Really, what do you call a girl who can tell everything about you with a single touch? If not a freak, maybe insane…or even better, a witch? She lives a solitary life on her estate and sneaks out sometimes at night to just be free and feel normal.
One such evening, she happens upon a man and a woman. She thinks they are having "relations" until she realizes that the man is killing the woman. He turns to come after her and she sees his red glowing eyes. All of a sudden, a stranger comes to her rescue. It’s Stephen Sincai, a man supposedly looking for a property to purchase. In reality, he’s a vampire trying to right some wrongs that he released on humanity. Stephen has been through a most unusual training at the Mirso Monastery where vampires seek refuge. He has been trained by three sisters to put down all urges of the flesh by strange and sometimes sadistic sexual training. He needs to use this training to rid the world of made vampires who are killing off humans.
Shortly after this encounter, Stephen is attacked by these rogue vampires. On another midnight walk, Ann discovers him and makes the ultimate sacrifice. She touches him to help bind his wounds in order to keep him alive (not knowing he’s a vampire and he can’t die). The information overload sends her into a coma. When Stephen recovers, he must decide what to do with this girl who is getting under his skin.
From here, the book takes off and the story just spins itself. I don’t want to spoil any of the surprises (and trust me, there’s quite a few surprises along the way). Just know that you have a wonderfully crafted book with a master storyteller at the helm.
Ms. Squires has created quite a world of vampires. She created this world under the theory that vampirism is a disease of the blood. Each vampire has a "companion", a symbiotic being who lives within them and this companion is in essence, the disease of vampirism. I must be honest and say that vampire books are not at all my thing and I have a hard time reading them. However, Ms. Squires does a wonderful job of creating vampires who aren’t all evil and she kept a lot of the blood-sucking details to a minimum. (For this, she has my eternal thanks.) I will warn readers that there are very sexually explicit scenes during Stephen’s training. I did not find them to be offensive, but you need to be aware that they are there. If you don’t like graphic descriptions of sex, you may not enjoy this book as much as others.
For those of you who like vampire novels, you will truly enjoy this book. If you are unsure of vampire novels, I would highly recommend this book as a nice introduction to vampirism. I found Ms. Squires to have an excellent storytelling style that draws the reader in. She also does a wonderful job of connecting this book to the prior novels without making it obvious that she’s rehashing some of the information for new readers.
Overall, I found myself enjoying the book and most especially the flair for writing that Ms. Squires has. Vampire lovers---get yourself a copy and plan to put it on your keeper shelf.
Robyn
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