Lost my entire review.

Moral of the story - "meh". Not interested in proceeding with this series. ( )

Burning Alive
4 Stars

Synopsis:
Three separate Sentinel races work together to protect humanity from demons known as the Synestryn. Drake Asher is a Theronai warrior who will die if he cannot channel his immense power through the woman destined to be his mate. Now he has found her, but Helen Day wants nothing to do with him as he is the dark-haired man who watches her burn alive in her visions.

Review:
First time author for me and I was not disappointed. Butcher’s writing is smooth and her world building is imaginative and well-developed. While almost everything about the nature of the Sentinel races is explained throughout the book, there are some tantalizing hints at revelations yet to come.

The primary and secondary characters are skillfully drawn. The characterization is so good that each and every person in the book evokes some sort of emotion from me whether amusement, sadness, annoyance or even outright dislike.

The romance is intense and the chemistry between Drake and Helen sizzles. Their remarkable connection drew me right into the story. Helen is a bit too passive and accepting at the start but grows stronger and more determined as the book progresses. Even though she fears everything that Drake represents, she is not willing to sacrifice others and is ultimately able to overcome her fears when the moment of truth arrives. Drake is fierce, sexy and loyal. He can be overbearing and possessive but this is understandable considering the fact that he has finally found the mate who can help him survive and will do anything to keep her.

The book ends on a compelling twist and I look forward to reading more in the series. ( )

Meh. Okay, it was her last name that got me to read the book. Still have no idea if she's Jim's wife, but won't be reading more. I just felt like this was taking parts from other series and not really giving me a reason to read more. I mean really - a choker and a ring? The woman of course wearing the choker. Bleck. ( )

This book- series has definite potential. I will scroll trough the rest of the series and hopefully it will pick up. The whole brotherhood of the damned thing where only a female could save their life is a well used theme but there are heaps of books out there that make it work.

My biggest grief with this particular book was the continuous whine from our main female lead about her insecurities. She was going on and on about how she thinks she's fat and omigosh how can he like me? Mood-killah. If you already have such a situation- a war that rages on for centuries and an army of exhausted macho super-dudes that run around saving humanity and paying tribute to Darwinism by their primitive seductive techniques......(busy aren't they????) the LAST TING THE POOR BASTARDS NEED is to get shackled for the rest of their lives to a bunch of airheads that never emotionally graduated high school. Give them a bunch of hard-ass bitc**s that will help them out and give them a merry chase.

( )

I first came across the Sentinel Wars series by reading the novella, The Collector #3.5 in [b:On the Hunt|8273005|On the Hunt (Includes Sentinel Wars #3.5, Final Prophecy #5.5, Gods of Midnight, #4.5)|Gena Showalter|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312523280s/8273005.jpg|13121247]. I really enjoyed that short story and couldn't wait to read more.

Maybe it's because this is the first book, and like the beginning of every new series, there will be a lot of information to process to get the bigger picture. I like the idea behind the Sentinels and how they find their other half, but the chemistry between the hero and heroine is lacking, in my opinion. I get the urgency for each Theronai to find his lady, but in this introduction, Helen has to overcome her fear of fire, learn to trust Drake and be intimate with him and choose to stay with him forever. If it wasn't for the fact that she is also "other" and the bond allows her to sense his feelings, then I'd have raised the BS flag on how their relationship developed.

I'm still giving this 3.5 stars because I did like it, and I'm waiting to see how the rest of the series plays out. ( )