Born in Fire by K.F. Breene

PARANORMAL ROMANCE

Publication date: 02/17/2017
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: I dunno

First of all, this one would probably be more adequately shelved in the urban fantasy genre,  but there’s a very obvious love interest that plays a big part in the story, so I feel fairly comfortable classifying it as paranormal for the purposes of placement on our site. (We don’t have an urban fantasy page, OK? Sue us.)

Second of all, this is probably one of the best books I’ve ever DNFd. It was well written, there was intricate world-building, and the characters were interesting and likeable. So what went wrong? Glad you asked.

The entire book gave me a very disturbing case of deja vu. I felt like I’d read all of it before, even though it was only released a year ago:

1. Snarky, funny heroine just like Charley Davidson and Harper Hall? Check.
2. Super-strong heroine who is a merc with a sword trying to hide her parentage from the world just like Kate Daniels? Check.
3. Heroine is oddly, inexplicably appealing to vampires, just like Sookie Stackhouse? Check.
4. Supernatural bounty hunter, sort of like Rylee Adamson, the tracker? Check.

By about 48%, the familiarity of it just got to be too much for me. It felt like really well-written Charley Davidson/Harper Hall/Kate Daniels/Sookie Stackhouse/Rylee Adamson fan fiction. There just wasn’t enough variation for me to keep reading.

Oh, and maybe this is just a personal pet peeve of mine, but I draw the line at unicorns in my paranormal romance. Vampires, dragons, shifters, witches, fae...that’s all OK. But unicorns? That’s a little too weird and cartoony for me. (Spoiler alert: there are unicorns)

Long-story-short, if you’ve read all the other books I mentioned above and don’t mind reading about a heroine who is a rehash of pretty much all of them, you’ll probably like this one a lot. But if you’re looking for originality, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s clean and sober. No rehab needed.

Other reading suggestions
Definitely read the books/series mentioned above. And also, fans of snarky, sassy heroines should check out this “best of” list.

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