BURN DOWN THE NIGHTby M O'Keefe
Series: Everything I Left Unsaid #3
Genres: Contemporary, Suspense
Publisher: Loveswept
Publication Date: August 9th 2016
Source: ARC received for review
Rating: ★★1/2
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The only thing that matters to me is rescuing my sister from the drug-cooking cult that once enslaved us both. I’ve run cons my whole life, and I’ll use my body to get whatever I need. Max Daniels is the last connection I have to that world, the one person reckless enough to get involved. Besides, now that his brothers have turned on him, he needs me too.
The deal was supposed to be simple: a place to hide in exchange for rescuing my sister. Now he’s my prisoner. Totally at my mercy. But I’m the one captivated. Enthralled. Doing everything he asks of me until I’m not sure who’s in control.
We both crave the heat. The more it hurts, the better. But what if Max wants a different life now, to leave the game . . . to love me? I thought I knew better than to get burned. Now I’m in too deep to pull away. And the crazy thing is . . . I don’t want to.
I loved the first two books in this series. They were dark, sexy and so much more complex than you could even imagine. When I found out that the author was writing a companion book about Max, the main character from the first book's brother, I was so excited. I picked this one up one evening and almost read through the whole thing in one setting. Despite being completely addicting though, I didn't love it as much as I loved Annie and Dylan's story.
We met both Max and Joan in the previous books. Max was Dylan's MC President brother and Joan, Annie's trailer park neighbor and stripper. I was excited about the prospect of these two getting together. Both Max and Joan were very tough characters to get a full gauge on. They were hardened by their pasts, and really difficult to connect with for me. I struggle with characters that push away others a lot and Joan was definitely one of those kind of characters. Her personality was understandable though because life had not been easy on her. I admired her resilience in wanting to find and save her sister who she felt responsible for, but there were times I felt like she let her emotions get the best of her, which led to her making some decisions that I wouldn't consider smart. I do appreciate that the author decided to add some diversity to the story by having Joan be bisexual. Max was broken as Joan was, which also made him hard for me to connect with. He grew up part of a motorcycle club and death and violence were a normal part of his life. He opened up to readers slowly throughout the book, and by the end of the book, I definitely liked him a bit more than I did at the beginning. I especially enjoyed his dynamic with his brother. He was trying to repair his relationship with him and I loved watching him on the mend.
From the moment Joan kidnaps Max because she thinks his connection to her sister's "owner" can help her rescue her, the chemistry between Joan and Max was palpable. M O'Keefe knows how to write tantalizing chemistry between her leads. Yet, I was never convinced by the romantic progression here. I think, I needed to see more emotional bonding over physical bonding. There were too many intimate scenes in my opinion, ones that I found myself even skimming. The sexy times scenes also weren't really to my preference. These two have a kink for violence during the sexy times which I wasn't very comfortable reading about. Plus, there was also a F/F scene between Joan and another woman, while Max watched on which was way out of my reading comfort zone. I'm not opposed to reading F/F scenes, but not when that's not the main couple. I honestly would have liked to be warned about bedroom scenes like that. Still though, I couldn't stop reading the book because M O'Keefe has a fantastic writing style.
While not the best book from the author, in my opinion, I don't particularly regret reading Burn Down the Night. It's a good addition to the series and if you liked the previous books, I think it's definitely worth a read. And despite my not loving this one, I will certainly be picking up the next companion in the series.
What are some of your favorite dark romances?
Let me know in the comments below!
