Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE:  Burn

SERIES:  Elementally Evolved #1

AUTHOR:  T.J. Klune

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:   364 pages

RELEASE DATE:  February 6, 2012

BLURB:

Set in a world that closely resembles our own, Burn is a story of redemption and betrayal, of family and sacrifice, which leads to the greatest question of all: how far would you go to save the ones you love?

Fifteen years ago, Felix Paracel killed his mother with fire that shot from his hands. Since then, he has hidden from forces bent on exploiting him and his fire and wind Elemental abilities. But Felix’s world is about to change, because he is Findo Unum—the Split One—and his coming has been foretold for generations.

Though Felix’s arrival brings great joy to the Elemental world, it also heralds a coming darkness. No one knows this better than Seven.—Seven, the mysterious man who rescued Felix from that horrible fire years ago and then disappeared; Seven, who has returned to claim what’s rightfully his: Felix’s heart. But even as Felix begins to trust Seven and his feelings about his place in the world, the darkness reveals itself, bringing consequences no one could have predicted.

REVIEW:

Saved from the fire that took his mother’s life, Felix has lived his life in hiding, changing his identity and fearing to let anyone get close.  This is his status quo and he’s, if not happy, than at least content.  Everything changes before his twenty-fifth birthday, however, and Felix goes from just one of the crowd to the one destined to stand before it for he is Findo Unum, the one told by prophecy to stand before the darkness.  Together with Seven, the teenager now grown into a man that saved him all those years ago, and a group of others, Felix will have to decide for himself how far he’s willing to go to save not just his friends, but the world.

Oh boy, this was like a book and a half!  Let me start off by saying that the world building here was just fantastic; I never actually felt like this couldn’t be happening in real life and that really made all the difference to me.  The characters were also so much more than what they originally appeared. I enjoyed Felix; he was kinda snarky and even when he was giving in to what Seven wanted he’d still come back and hold his ground when it really mattered.  Seven, aside from the dominate persona he projected the majority of the time, was actually more broken than he first appeared and it was nice seeing the bouts of insecurity and shyness as it made him something more than just a one dimensional character.  Even the secondary characters were well thought out and unique and I was more interested in them than I thought I’d be.

The story itself also moved along at a good pace with some strategically spaced out action scenes that were well written and entertaining.  There were some times in the book, however, that were a little harder to get through just because they were a bit wordier or so full of information that I needed to put the book down and take a break for a minute.  The story, however, was just really, really good and even those few sections that I had to put down for a while didn’t detract from that.  There were quite a few shocks over the course of the book and I was totally thrown for a loop once before the end; even better was that I just didn’t see any of it coming.  The only real complaint I have is that this ended on a cliffhanger and as the second book hasn’t been released yet, I’m going to have to sit on my hands and wait to find out what happens next.  (It isn’t the kind of cliffhanger that makes you want to scream at the book, however.)  Based on how much I enjoyed reading this one though, I’m certain it will be worth the wait.  

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

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