Burn For Me (Phoenix Fire, #1)

by Cynthia Eden

Journalist Eve Bradley falls into a dangerous passion for Cain O'Connor, who just may be a human embodiment of the Devil.

• ISBN13: 9780758284044
• Publish Date: 28 January 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Out of Print: 7 December 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Brava
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nadz@Totally Addicted to Reading]

This book has been on my TBR for sometime now. I received copies in both paperback and ebook format from the author, but never got around to reading it until now. Getting the audio book from Audible Escape was an added bonus.

Burn for Me by Cynthia Eden is the first book in the Phoenix Fire paranormal series. I have read a few books by this author and I enjoyed every one of them. I found myself pulled into the story and I was caught up in the world the author created. The suspense, action, and characters made this a great page turning experience.

This differs from my usual paranormal reads. The story features shifters and vampires; however, there were a few unique supernatural beings.

I found the world Eden created fascinating. Paranormal beings have made themselves known to the human world and are growing in numbers. The humans feel threatened by their existence, but there are those who want to study them, hoping to create an army of super soldiers who cannot die.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters. Eve is a reporter who went undercover to gather information about the top government secret program called Genesis. What she discovered would change her life dramatically. 

In the first part of the story, Eve proved brave and tenacious. However, sometimes her acts of bravery turned into acts of stupidity. 

She had a past that shrouded in secrets. It is clear she is not human, but the story never revealed what she was until near the end. It had me guessing throughout the story as to her true nature.

Cain O’Connor is not your typical shifter. Captured and held captive in the same facility that Eve had undertaken her undercover assignment. It was in this facility that they subjected the paranormal beings to experimentation and torture.
I loved getting to know Cain. His unique abilities forced him into the dark side each time he used them. Eve was the only one who had the power to save him the dark side.

Wyatt is the scientist responsible for carrying out the unspeakable horrors under the guise of experiments on the paranormal beings. Evil and insane, which made him the perfect villain. Up on learning why he is so evil, I had some sympathy for him, but those feelings were fleeting.

The secondary characters helped to drive the plot and made things interesting. I had a particular liking for Trace, a werewolf and Ryder, a vampire. I would love to learn more about them.

The romance was hot in every sense of the word.  Although, not a big fan of their romance, it worked for the story. They could not get enough of each other. You would expect that being chased by a mad scientist and his goons would put a damper on their steamy connection, but it had the opposite effect.

The story was interesting. It started out on a high note and kept that momentum to the end. Danger lurked in every corner. I found some events monotonous, but despite this, I still had a good time with the story.

Narration
Jillian Macie was a new to me narrator. I enjoyed listening to her. She brought the characters to life, and she captured their voices well. 


Conclusion/Recommendation

I am looking forward to the next book in the series, as I am eager for Ryder’s story. Burn for Me provided the perfect blend of romance and suspense. Fans of paranormal, romance and suspense would enjoy this tale.

[EBookObsessed]

Cynthia Edens adds an interesting new creature to her paranormal world, the phoenix.

Genesis is a laboratory under contract with the government working with paranormal volunteers to understand and help the paranormals find a cure. At least that is the propaganda that they are pushing on the public.

Except none of the “volunteers” there can leave, and let’s face it, none of them did or would volunteer for what Genesis is doing to them. One of the most dangerous subjects there is referred to as No. 13. Cain O’Connor is a very rare creature even among paranormals. He is a phoenix and every time he dies, he is reborn in a burst of flames, stronger and more deadly each time. Cain has lost track of how many times and in how many ways the sadistic bastard who runs this lab has murdered him, but he wants payback very badly.

Reporter Eve Bradley goes undercover as a technician. She doesn’t believe the hype that Genesis is spewing and she plans to shed light on the evil going on inside the compound. Wyatt sends Eve into Cain’s cell to give him an injection and notices that Cain has a reaction to Eve and tries to protect her from the guard. This is the first emotion they have seen from Cain and Wyatt plans to take advantage of that adding the human woman to his list of torture devices to use against Cain.

Cain and Eve manage to get out of the complex and free others but escaping doesn’t equal freedom. Wyatt has plans for more tests and he won’t give up until he gets his favorite test subjects back.

While this is an interesting new twist to the world Cynthia Eden has created, I did grow a bit bored with the fact that every time Eve and Cain got somewhere safe, Wyatt was one step behind them, or else it was the vampire Ryder who will be the focus of book 2. I made the mistake of listening to book 2 first since I forgot I had a copy of Burn for Me, so I know that Wyatt or his cohorts were also one step behind Ryder and his lady for their whole story, and that one has more of an escape, recapture, repeat plot.

This story was enjoyable but it might have kept up the excitement without being so repetitive if it was a bit shorter. It definitely doesn’t go high on my list of favorite Cynthia Eden stories. This one was quickly forgettable.