Burning Wild by Christine Feehan
Born into a world of twisted monsters, Jake Bannaconni is shaped and molded into a cold, revenge driven man. Honed in the fires of hell, he controls his world and rules with an iron hand. He has everything and anything money can buy. He’s ruthless, merciless and considered a man to leave alone. His hidden legacy, that of a shapeshifter, makes him doubly dangerous in the corporate world.
Emma Reynolds is a woman who knows how to love and love well. When their two worlds collide, Jake’s plans for a complete take over, may just come tumbling down.
This book is one of Christine Feehan’s best efforts. While she skimmed over the first two years of the Emmy and Jake’s acquaintance, she still developed a strong non-sexual relationship. This is the total opposite of her usual plot development which has the hero and heroine starting with sex and working from there. Actually, you’re over a 100 pages in before the first sex scene.
In place of sex there was A LOT of action. Without all the filler sexual material, Ms. Feehan excels at describing the emotionalism in this book. A very refreshing change.
I did have a hard time accepting a pregnant woman would move in with a stranger, then allow him to be name father after knowing for only 8 months. But that was the only thing I lifted my eyebrows about.
Emmy Reynolds, the heroine, was very passive in the beginning, although I believe that was adequately explained by the extreme trauma she had just experienced. She was essentially in shock. And she did eventually come out of it, although you have to understand she is the kind of woman who loves to cook and clean, etc. Definitely not a career woman by choice, which I liked, although if that were me (living in a mansion with two kids and somebody else paying the bills) I most certainly would NOT say I didn’t need a maid. If someone else wants to mop my floors – woo hoo!
The hero, Jake Bannaconni, is a tormented person who suffered disturbing abuse as a child. This isn’t implied but adequately explained and realistic in the first chapters so the fact he is extremely manipulative does make him a creep. The change in him was slow and very gradual-and I wouldn’t have accepted anything faster. At the beginning I supposed I both felt sorry for him and hated him, but by the middle it was wonderful to see him growing as a person. I thought his character development was perfect.
The reasons I liked this book so well were
1. good plot
2. lots of action
3. enjoyed the secondary characters
While it’s a hot read for the cold winter months, it offers so much more
