Saturday, January 2, 2010

Burn by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy



If you don't mind having your brain twisted up like a pretzel...if you enjoy longing to skip to the end but resisting the temptation for nearly 400 pages...if you can stand the heat...

...you'll enjoy the "Burn", the latest collaboration from team Ted Dekker and Erin Healy. But be warned...this one won't let go until the. last. page.

"Burn" tells the tale of Gypsy daughter Janeal Mikkado. Like many teens, she longed for a different life than the one she had in the Gypsy Kumpania. When mysterious Salazar Sanso appears and sweeps her away, Janeal is ripe for the picking.

It's a simple proposal: find his stolen money and return it, and her father lives. But something so simple gets infinitely more complicated, leaving Janeal with the most critical decision of her young life: save her best friend or save herself.

That choice kicks off the most mind-bending of the Dekker novels. Ted Dekker is so exquisite at giving the reader multiple options on how the story ends WITHIN the story itself. Every possibility is plausible in the Dekker universe, which makes you ache to sneak a peek at the ending.

DO. NOT. GIVE. IN.

Erin Healy has passion, fire and heart: all three show up magnificently in her latest novel. I've heard that she's writing a solo project due out this year, and I can't wait to see her shine on her own. She's become a 'must read' author after only two books.

I must confess: I despised Janeal throughout the entire book. Never felt sorry for her. Never grew to love her, much less like her. And, to me, that is POWERFUL writing. It's difficult to get a reader to fall in love with your characters, but to strongly dislike them as a real person? That's great writing indeed!

My only quibble was the foreign terminology relating to the setting. I stumbled over it for the first few chapters, and found it distracting. But, it was necessary to the story, setting the original scene for the book and Dekker and Healy did paint a vivid picture of another way of life.

In all, I'd say this is equal to "Kiss", and maybe even a bit better. The story does take you places that "Kiss" tried to go, but fell short of. So, I'm giving "Burn" five out of five bookmarks, with a book of matches as a charm...you know I just HAD to do that, don't you?

Thanks to my friend Micah at Thomas Nelson for my advance copy!

Happy Reading!

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2 comments:

Petula said...

Sounds like a good book. I would love to read that. I'll have to add that one to my list. Thanks for the post.

Celticlady's Reviews said...

I read Kiss and enjoyed it a lot. I want to read this one also. Thanks for the review!!!!