After a tragic accident scarred her body and destroyed her dreams, Leila never imagined that the worst was still to come: terrifying powers that let her channel electricity and learn a person's darkest secrets through a single touch. Leila is doomed to a life of solitude...until creatures of the night kidnap her, forcing her to reach out with a telepathic distress call to the world's most infamous vampire...Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all - but whatever you do, don't call him Dracula. Vlad's ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him - a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.
I want to start this review saying that I genuinely enjoyed Once Burned. Don't doubt that.
However, I think that I must have gotten caught up in the hype surrounding this book, because I was expecting something....more. I'm not sure what, but I did feel that there was something missing. Or maybe it's there and I just missed it. It's possible. In specific reference to Chapter 36: either it was hyped too much or Kelly has corrupted me because I don't know that it was necessarily worth mentioning much. It was nice, yes. But, again, I was looking for something more.
Other than the brief flashback to one of the Night Huntress series books that I got about 2/3 or so into the book, I felt it stood well on its own. Leila's powers were fascinating, Vlad was ever so entertaining, and the ending shakes things up enough so that the next book has a lot of potential.
Once Burned is a good escape read. It's enjoyable. I'll be picking up the next in the series for sure.
