Burn Down the Night
by Molly O’Keefe
Synopsis:
A battle for control turns explosive as a beautiful con woman takes a bad-boy biker hostage in this edgy, seductive novel set in the world of Everything I Left Unsaid (“Toe-curlingly sensual.”—Katy Evans) and The Truth About Him (“Absolutely one-click worthy”—J. Kenner).
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.
Review:
Whoa.
Burn Down the Night is intense. But if you’ve read the first two books in the series (Everything I Left Unsaid and The Truth About Him) then you’re probably expecting that.
Can you read this one without having read the others? Probably–for the most part, Joan/Olivia and Max are several states away from the main characters from the first two books (Max’s younger brother Dylan and Joan’s former neighbor Annie) for all but the beginning and end of the book. There are definitely some aspects and events of the beginning of the series that come into play here, though, and to be honest I really wished an entire year hadn’t gone by between when I read book two and when I read this one. Fortunately I was reading on my ereader, so I could easily pull up the other books and do some quick searches for a refresher–if you don’t have the other books handy/haven’t read them you should be fine, but the deja-vuish feeling of “hang on, that sounds kind of familiar–what happened there, exactly?” was making me a little nuts and I had to give in. (Especially one part of the epilogue. You really need to know the backstory there to really “get” what’s going on…and to be especially anxious for book four, ’cause it’s gotta be Blake and Tiffany’s book, right?)
Though somehow I went through the first two books thinking Joan was much older than she actually was. I’m not sure why…I guess everything she’d been through just gave her an older aura, maybe? I couldn’t actually find anything in the earlier books to back that up, though, so I’m sure it was just me.
Max was definitely my favorite part of this book. I wasn’t at all sure about him at the beginning; he was pretty abrasive and oh-so-determined not to help Joan out, no matter what. I didn’t feel at all bad that Joan kept him handcuffed to the bed (and not in a fun way) for much of the first part of the book. But he grew on me…and he actually was the first one of the two of them to open himself up to the possibility of trusting another person. Joan was a heck of a lot more prickly for quite a bit more of the book. There were actually times I kind of wanted her to just get over herself already–they were few and far between, because she did have legitimate reasons for much of what she said, did, and thought–but she was definitely harder to get behind 24/7.
Burn Down the Night is dark, edgy, intense, and rife with sexual tension (and later on, actual sex!) In true M. O’Keefe style, though, there’s also quite a bit of humor and snark. When Joan and Max were out by the pool, getting all the “newlywed presents” from the residents of the complex? Just awesome.
Fingers crossed that the series is going to continue–and that we won’t have to wait another whole year for it to do so!
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
