Review: Burning Wild by Christine Feehan

Reviewer: Holly
Burning Wild by Christine Feehan
Series: Leopard People #2
Also in this series: Cat's Lair, Leopard's Fury
Publisher: Jove
Publication Date: April 28, 2009
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 443
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Series Rating:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Dark Carpathian novels now returns to the exotic, sensual and dangerous world of her bestseller Wild Rain.

This time, what goes on between male and female is wilder than animal instinct-and twice as hot.

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.

Burning Wild is the 3rd book in Christine Feehan’s leopard series. If you remember, I was really excited to read this book. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I gave up on the Dark series a long time ago, and I never really got into the Ghost Walker series. I still read the Drake series (Hidden Currents comes out soon!..and it was amazing!) and I hoped she’d pick this series back up one day. I really enjoyed the first two and couldn’t wait to get for this one. Casee already reviewed this book. Check it out here.

I read quite a few reviews that complained about the hero and how controlling he was, but I feel Feehan did a credible job of explaining his need for control by giving us so much background information on him. Had she spent less time showing us his childhood I don’t think I would have been as forgiving with him as I was.

He was definitely overbearing and chauvinistic. There were several times when I was really angry with him. Especially when it came to the way he treated Emma when they’re relationship first started changing and they first became lovers. I was able to move past it, though. Honestly I’m not sure why. I think maybe because I’ve come to expect nothing less from Feehan. It really helped that most of the book is told from Jake’s perspective. Without that look into his inner thoughts I don’t think I would have understood him quite as well.

I really liked Emma’s character, and I loved that they spent to much time together as friends before their relationship changed. Seeing them as friends first – with Jake spending his time talking late into the night with Emma and caring for her – really gave us another perspective about Jake. She was strong and seemed to be the perfect balance for Jake.

I did wonder at her lack of..awareness about his life, however. She seemed content enough to run his home and not really leave the ranch, but she seemed really clueless about many of the things in his life considering the amount of time they spent together talking each day.

Which I guess leads me into my major issue with this book: The inconsistencies. There were so many little things that should have been cleared up – or never happened at all – that I was driven absolutely insane. As I mentioned above, Jake and Emma spent a lot of time talking to each other each night, with Jake specifically mentioning how he liked to discuss business decisions with her. So when she had no idea what was going on with his business it seemed off.

Then there was the issue of Jake’s family. They were wrong and abusive. Jake’s whole goal since leaving them has been to put himself in a position to crush them; to take everything from them. Just before he meets Emma he’s accomplished that goal. And yet he never does it. He never ruins them. Which I suppose makes sense since there wouldn’t have been a story if he had, but it was ridiculous how they continued to plague them when Jake could have ended it at any time.

Also, Jake is a shifter. Although he runs on his property, not much is really shown or talked about in regards to that until closer to the end. Therefore I found it really unbelievable that Emma so easily accepted it. She was all just, “Oh yeah, I figured it out a long time ago. So anyway….”. That seemed to really come out of nowhere because there hadn’t been much focus on that side of the story up to that point.

There were many other things that took me out of the story, but the clincher came at the end of the book. I think I’m going to do a separate post about it, so I’m not going to spoil it here. But it was enough to send me right over the edge.

I really enjoyed parts of this book. When Emma and Jake were together they were really great. They really had a connection that really showed. I also really liked both of the characters on their own. I had issues with things that Jake did, but I was able to most past that and see inside him. I think their relationship progressed at a great pace and I really believed in their relationship.

Unfortunately the inconsistencies in the plot and storyline really took away from my enjoyment.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The series:

This book is available from Jove. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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