BURNING DARKNESS by Jaime Rush is an interesting paranormal romance thriller.It is the fourth in the "Offspring" series,but can be read as a stand alone.#1, A Perfect Darkness,#2 Out of Darkness,#3 Touching Darkness. A fast paced story with love,sweet sensuality,passion,paranormal, survival,government hired assassins,family, kick butt action,the need and will to find out the truly.Fonda, a government hired assassin and Eric,a rogue Offspring find they have a attraction from the get on.But Fonda has sworn to kill Eric,for killing her so called fiancee. But soon learn they must combine they resources in order to survive an assassin from hell,who has targeted them for both.Eric,has pyrokenetic powers and can remote view.Fonda can astral project and find she can also freeze time also, a skill she did not know she had.She also did not know she had at least two half brothers.As secrets are revealed,as they fight together for survival,fight their attraction to each other,they learn that what they thought,or Fonda finds what she thought or was told about the Offspring was not always true.They must work together to save themselves and save Eric's family of Offspring's who has also been targeted. This is a fast paced, action paced,kick butt,fall in love,have passion,a little sweet sensuality paranormal thriller that will keep you spell bound from the beginning to the end.This book was received for the purpose of review from Net Galley and the publisher and details can be found at Avon,an imprint of Harper Collins Publisher and My Book Addiction Reviews ( )

Reviewed by http://urbanfantasyinvestigations.blogsp...

Finally Eric is getting his chance for love. I have always liked Eric and we finally see a totally different side of him from the Hard ass tough guy he has been through out the series. Fonda defiantly isn't who we thought she was and I enjoyed watching her and Eric bring each others true selves out. There is plenty of action, romance and twists to keep you turning the pages. I liked learning all the new info given about the offspring's and how they came to be. I enjoyed reading BURNING DARKNESS but it seemed like nothing really HAPPENED, even though there is a bunch of action it just seemed like they ran, they fought, they ran they fought and that was about it besides the relationship growing. I also found that the ending didn't really correspond with the past experiences of the book, I cant really explain more about what I mean due to spoiling it for you but I'm sure you will understand what I'm talking about after you read it. If you enjoyed the previous books in the Offspring series I'm sure you will still enjoy BURNING DARKNESS. ( )

Review provided by Black Lagoon Reviews:

This novel is a page-turner thriller that perfectly incorporates superhuman abilities, with a science fiction oriented government conspiracy and a dash of steamy romance. From the onset I was hooked on the world created by Rush as well as the characters and first rate story telling.

'Burning Darkness' is the fourth novel in Jaime Rush’s Offspring series and what intrigued me most about this novel when I began reading was the premise. While superhuman abilities are not exactly original, Rush’s approach to them were. 25 years ago, the US government experimented on people with latent psychic abilities in a project called 'Blue Moon'. The goal of the project was to enhance their powers with a drug made from a mysterious substance found at a meteorite site. Most or all of those given the drug died, but those that survived had a highly accelerated libido and psychic abilities. The children who were conceived by members of this project became known as the Offspring, each having inherent fully formed genetic abilities. These children became divided, some being enrolled by the CIA and others became known as the Rogues, a group who fought against the project and those behind it therefore becoming known as ‘the enemy’. If you are new to the series it is hard to know which side actually represents the greater good. However, we come to see that the Rogues are actually those aware of the truth behind their parentage and their abilities, realizing that the government is using those in their employ to their own means. It is interesting seeing those truths revealed especially those focusing on the mysterious origins of the Offspring. Are they alien? What was the mysterious substance that altered their DNA? For me, this was quite interesting and kept me reading until the end hoping to get some answers to those questions. Wonderfully enough, Rush does reveal the fantastical truths to those questions that while amazing and hard to believe makes a sort of sense within the Offspring universe. It also opens up the series to expand in later novels and it should be interesting to see how she utilizes this new information in the future.

The characters are also extremely fascinating and endearing. While highly developed, they pull you into the story with their complexities and emotions. From the first moment I was intrigued by Fonda Raine, a charming woman who has a giving nature yet hides a painful and lonely past. She is tough yet vulnerable driven by the need to avenge the murder of her lover Jerryl by Eric Aruda. Eric is likewise complicated, trying to avoid the descent into madness that being an Offspring can induce. Yet despite his fears, he is a charming character that I came to deeply adore. He has an inner strength and while a self proclaimed jerk, he is caring and protective of Fonda, helping her to overcome the darkness of her past despite her original goals of assassinating him. However, while I loved the characters there is a lot of repetition in their thoughts and emotion that limit the growth of the relationship as well as hindering their own evolution at times. Admittedly this is small when compared to the chemistry between the characters and the over all appeal of them throughout the story.

My only real grievance about the novel at times, which I confess is a small thing and didn't detract from the overall experience, was the style of the writing. The short staccato of the sentences was perfect to keep the action moving and added to the pace of the story but, at times it was only chaotic and confusing. Likewise, some emotional moments lacked fluidity and disrupted the romance though it worked perfectly in those moments where the passion was heated. I fully admit that this might be due to the fact that I am reading an ARC and such matters will be fixed before publication, but it was disruptive to the flow of the novel and occasionally left me scratching my head.

Overall, 'Burning Darkness' was a gripping novel filled with surprising twists, great action and an engaging romance. A must read for fans of the old television show The X-files with its wonderfully thought out government conspiracy and thrilling science fiction action or fans of steamy romance! ( )