Name: Burning Dreams
ISBN: 9781933110622

Susan Smith

Burning Dreams

Tess

I had a love/hate relationship with this book the entire time i struggled to finish it. Despite anything i state in this review that mentions what bugged me personally, i still highly recommend this book and the first one, Of Drag Kings and the Wheel of Fate. They are both long and relatively inexpensive, so i would deem them worth checking out.

The author has a very intelligent writing style, the plot is multifaceted, the characters are richly described and come alive in the pages. I loved the whole theme of reincarnated souls, of personal growth and healing of wounds that were lifetimes in the making. I loved the mysticism which was more prevalent in this book than the first. It was heavy with visions and witchcraft of a sort. And the blurring of gender roles was explored as well. I loved just about all of the characters... i hated Taryn. Since she was a main focus of the book (she would never settle for being anything less than the main focus, now would she?), at times it made it difficult to appreciate all of the other great aspects of the book. At first i struggled to figure out what bothered me about this book, because i really liked the plot and the various other aspects. Finally towards the end, i found that i was closing the e-book every time Taryn came into the scene. She was a self absorbed punk in this book, and i can't even remember if i liked her at all in the first book.

Another thing that slowed me down with this book, was something i pointed out in the first book as well. The author is very good with words and pulls you along with her. But when her characters got lost along trains of thought that last for many pages, i ended up getting lost too. Several times, for example, someone would ask a question, then go off on their inner dialog for pages, and by the time the other person answered, you had forgotten there was even a question, let alone what it was. The rambling, though often insightful and intellectual, made the book fairly long as well. I once again found myself skimming in places hoping to get out of the rambling and back to the plot. Despite this, i probably highlighted more insightful quotes and passages than i ever have in a book. So once again, love/hate.

i can't even rate it like i usually do. there were parts of the plot that i loved, and others that annoyed me. Same with character development and writing style. And there were no memorable hot and steamy scenes to even note. So, despite that it took me forever to finish, and annoyed me on several levels, this is a book i will not forget and can't help but recommend to others.

Burning Dreams

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