Review: Born in Fire

Born in Fire by K.F. Breene
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Recommended by Facebook through some odd algorithm, I picked up this book because it looked interesting. This is going to be a mixed reviewed. The first few chapters, it was very close to a DNF for me. Why? Because the dialogue was grating on my nerves and the first person inner dialogue was too campy/corny for me to stomach. Based on dialogue alone, this would have been a 1 star.

Some authors excel at creating characters. Ms. Breene is not one of those. At least from a first impression, the characters in this book are found lacking. Reagan is a child with a huge chip on her shoulder and she possesses a deep dark secret. She is different than any other supernatural in the "Brink". Brink is possibly an alternate reality of Earth? Darius is interesting in some ways but a bit wooden as the Vampire. Their interactions are awkward.

Why did I stick through this book? I stuck through it because I wanted to know what kind of Supernatural Reagan turned out to be and I wanted to see where this was going. From a plot perspective, Ms. Breene had a mediocre structure and it did keep my attention. If she could have fleshed it out more w/o the snarky unnecessary inner thoughts from Reagan, the story would have been stronger. The almost fumbling sex could have been cut out too. This book could have been edited down by a hundred pages for a tighter story. The world building is a bit slow and takes time for readers to make the connections and a few assumptions to fill in the gaps. This isn't difficult for readers who read a lot of paranormal romance. For someone new to this genre, it may be a bit difficult.

About 2/3 of the way through the book, the story picks up a little bit more and there is more action rather than telling or inner dialog overshare. I found the story to be more interesting and wanted to see what happened at the end. There are a few big reveals and some connection which Reagan desperately needs. I'm on the fence with if I want to read the next book in the series.