The Sweetest Burn by Jeaniene Frost – Review and Giveaway

Posted 17 July, 2017 by Heather in Blog, Blog Tour, Book Review, Giveaways, Heather, Heather Book Review / 4 Comments

I received this book for free from the TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Sweetest Burn by Jeaniene Frost – Review and GiveawayThe Sweetest Burn by Jeaniene Frost
Series: Broken Destiny #2
Published by HQN Books on June 27, 2017
Genres: Adult, Legends, Myths, Fables, Occult & Supernatural, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 304
Source: TLC Book Tours
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
4.5 Stars

The breathtaking second novel in New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost's Broken Destiny series finds Ivy and Adrian rekindling their alliance—and passion—as the struggle for the fate of the world begins… 

Conquering a supernatural realm turned out to be easier than getting over a broken heart. But her initial victory has made Ivy a target for revenge, forcing her to reunite with the dangerous—and dangerously sexy—Adrian. Ivy isn't sure which will be harder: finding the hallowed weapon that will repair the crumbling walls between the demon and human realms, or resisting Adrian, who's decided that come hell or high water, he will make Ivy his.

At first, Adrian tried to resist his feelings for Ivy. Now, determined to break the curse that dooms their love, he's vowed to save her and to have her. If only he can persuade her to forgive his past sins. But defying destiny—and surrendering to the smoldering desire between them—will bring consequences and sacrifices they never imagined…

 

I’m one of the lucky people that didn’t have to wait any time between finishing up The Beautiful Ashes and picking up book two in the Broken Destiny series, The Sweetest Burn. Following sheltered, optimistic twenty-year-old Ivy, who is the last descendant of David and is destined to gather three divine weapons that can vanquish demons, as she works alongside Adrian, the last descendant of Judas–who also happens to have been raised by demons, this installment picks up a few months after Ivy wielded the mystical slingshot to decimate an entire dark realm of demons and their minions while rescuing her sister.

Ivy and Adrian’s relationship seems doomed from the start, especially since he’s fated to betray her as a long line of his ancestors have betrayed hers over and over again. Adrian is determined to beat fate–as Ivy was so positive that they could do in book one–even though Ivy told him to stay away from her once she learned that he was actually a prince of a demon realm. She needed time to collect herself, and train both mentally and physically so she’d be strong enough to use the next weapon. But Ivy learns from the angel Zach, who’s been cryptically guiding and helping them on their journey, that she can’t find the staff of Moses without Adrian’s help, so they reluctantly begin to search the world for this mystical relic.

Of course their search won’t be easy when the entire demon world is searching for the last Davidian and their lost demon prince, if only to get their hands on a weapon that can control the atmosphere and so many other things. It’s a race against the clock as more demon realms take over parts of the earth, and innocent humans are trapped inside and forced into slavery.

Ivy has grown since the first book. She’s not so naive to the world after her exposure to demons and angels, and she feels guilty that it’s her fault that her adoptive parents were murdered and her sister was kidnapped by demons. But she knows that she can fight back, although she knows that she can’t fight her feelings for Adrian. He’s her biggest weakness. She thought they’d grown close in the first book, but all of his lies to protect her had the opposite effect and she doesn’t trust him at all. Although she’s just as guilty of telling a few lies or leaving out the truth just to protect the ones she loves, and that happens a lot in The Sweetest Burn.

Adrian is a very different man than he was at the start of the first book. He seems to care about more than just himself, and he’s not as cruel and callous. You get to see so much more than the superficial, and I really enjoyed digging deeper into his character. What he thought was once an unescapable destiny now looks like something that he can use to his advantage and to Ivy’s benefit as well. We learn so much more about Adrian and his childhood in this book, and I only hope that we get this kind of treatment for Ivy in the third and final book.

Ivy’s sister Jasmine and Adrian’s friend Costa are along for the road trip this time, and while I enjoyed Costa as much as I did in the first book, Jasmine was quite annoying. Sure, she was traumatized from her stint in the demon realm, but she was quite the bitch a lot of the time. I think my favorite character was Brutus, Adrian’s pet gargoyle that was set to guard Ivy while he was away. I didn’t know that I could love a gargoyle so much.

The second book definitely has more of an urban fantasy/paranormal romance feel to it than the first book, which was more geared in a new adultish way and fell a bit flat at times. Jeaniene Frost’s writing is much stronger in the UF/PR genre, and Adrian and Ivy’s relationship really shines once a more adult relationship comes to the forefront in this story.

 

I give The Sweetest Burn a 4.5 out of 5.  Jeaniene Frost seems to have hit her stride with this series, and The Sweetest Burn has found its footing and identity. I really love how the pacing moves along quite nicely throughout–full of action and some hot scenes too, but also with just a few quiet spots within to give our racing hearts a break. Ivy is conflicted about Adrian throughout this book, but he doesn’t stop proving himself to her, and I loved that. At it’s heart, this series is about fate and destiny and whether or not you can fight those two things–and whether or not you really should when it comes to the greater good. I can’t wait for the last book, The Brightest Embers.

If you want to read an excerpt from The Sweetest Burn, check out my post kicking off Jeaniene Frost’s TLC Book Tour here.

Find THE SWEETEST BURN

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Goodreads

About Jeaniene Frost

Jeaniene Frost is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and international bestselling author of the Night Huntress and Night Prince series for Avon and the Broken Destiny series for Harlequin HQN. Jeaniene’s books have sold in twenty different countries to date. She lives in North Carolina and Florida with her husband.

Connect with Jeaniene Frost

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway

Enter the Rafflecopter widget below for your chance to win a $25 gift card to celebrate the release of THE SWEETEST BURN.
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Jeaniene Frost’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

tlc

Monday, July 3rd: Bewitched Bookworms – excerpt

Wednesday, July 5th: Smexy Books

Thursday, July 6th: Romancing the Readers – excerpt

Monday, July 10th: Stuck in Books – excerpt

Wednesday, July 12th: Mama Reads Blog

Thursday, July 13th: Books That Hook

Monday, July 17th:Bewitched Bookworms – review

Wednesday, July 19th: Lovely Reads

Monday, July 24th: Tome Tender

Thursday, July 27th: All Roads Lead to the Kitchen – excerpt

Friday, July 28th: Becky on Books

Monday, July 31st: A Dream Within a Dream – excerpt

Wednesday, August 2nd: Becca the Bibliophile – excerpt

Monday, August 7th: Books and Spoons – excerpt

Wednesday, August 9th: A Chick Who Reads

Thursday, August 10th: From the TBR Pile

Thursday, August 10th: Brooke Blogs – excerpt

Monday, August 14th: Read Love Blog

Heather

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I'm a PhD chemist who loves sarcasm, music, and books-paranormal, mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, and romance. Most of my free time is spent at the martial arts studio these days--whether practicing Combat Hapkido or reading books while watching my son's Taekwondo classes, or even working up a sweat with Kickboxing for fun. Goodreads

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4 Responses to “The Sweetest Burn by Jeaniene Frost – Review and Giveaway”

  1. I’m really craving paranormal right now. I went back and reread an old favorite – The Psy-Changlings series by Nalini Singh. Now I’m reading a new series (to me) by Jaymin Eve – Supernatural Prison. Really glad the whole series is out since it’s about to be devoured. 🙂

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