Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: Everybody Burns
SERIES: The Enhanced World #6
AUTHOR: Victoria Sue
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 291 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
BLURB:
Eli was only seven years old when he had been given to monsters.
Sixteen years later he finally gets the chance for revenge, and with his enhanced abilities changing, nothing and no one is gonna stop him, especially a new partner that seems to see right through the black holes in his soul.
Agent Daniel Connelly left Washington trying to keep his sanity, but the images of the innocent victims are still haunting him and knows the horror in Eli’s eyes is exactly what he is trying to forget.
Everybody Burns is a story about two men falling in love. Except, one doesn’t think he is capable of it.
And the other doesn’t think he deserves it.
REVIEW:
If you have read my review of The Strength of His Heart, please forgive me repeating myself.
At a stretch, this book could be read as a standalone. However, there are a lot of characters and if you haven’t been following them from the start it would be very easy to get lost, especially as there are also a lot of acronyms. Even if you have read the series from the start, it can be overwhelming at times.
The enhanced are a group of people who, at around puberty, develop special abilities. They are marked by a strange scar on their faces that appears when their abilities first manifest. The public at large have a deep distrust of the enhanced and they are treated with all kinds of responses from accepting to dangerous. Insurance premiums are higher, housing is hard to get and jobs even harder. At the deep end, enhanced children are under the total control of their parents until they reach 21 and the government can take into custody any children they believe might pose a risk.
HERO is a new FBI organization that pairs humans with enhanced partners. The group is led by Talon Valdez, who is himself enhanced.
The books (apart from Book 4) roughly follow one pair in the team, and this time it is the turn of Daniel Connelly and Eli Stuart. Commonly, one of the pair is particularly damaged mentally and/or emotionally and the hurt/comfort trope is what first brought me to the series. It’s done very well.
I think the author’s greatest skill is in bringing her characters to life. All of the characters journey far beyond their own books and help strengthen and uphold the books and pairings that come after. This is why it is beneficial to have read all the books in order. After having followed a pair on a journey that takes them through hell, it’s easier to remember who they are when they appear in later books.
I think of all the people in all the books, Eli is the most damaged. He was taken at seven and held prisoner by a monster until he snapped and burned down the house with his abuser inside – or so he thinks. His reward for this desperate action that freed him, and countless other abused children, past present and future, was two years in an adult mental facility because he was deemed dangerous.
Daniel Connelly is a member of the large Connelly family. His brother, Vance, was the star of the previous book. The Connellys are a family of large, Irish American men, apart from Connie who ruled them all with an iron fist dipped in love. Most of them are in law enforcement in one way or another, and that has come in handy on more than one occasion. Like all the Connelleys he cares deeply and is struggling with the terrible things he has seen as part of his job.
Eli is not used to having someone care. His experiences as a child have left him so damaged he is barely able to function around other people at all.
Slowly, bit by bit, Eli unravels in more ways than one, especially when he discovers his abuser hadn’t died and was probably doing the same thing to other children as was done to Eli. Daniel is there to catch him, but Eli doesn’t want to be caught.
This is a book that takes you to dark, dark places and is not for the faint-hearted or those who are triggered by child abuse. If you can get past that it is a fascinating peep into the mind of a monster, and the lives of those he abused, as Eli is not the only one of his children to appear.
For both men, the case they are working on, a child trafficking ring that involves Eli’s abuser, brings back bad memories and should have driven them appart, but it doesn’t. Through thick and thin, even when they run, their love manages to keep bringing them back, until they decide to stay for good. There is no suggestion that Eli has been healed for which I am grateful, as such appalling mental scars take a very long time, if ever. However, he is healing and that is thanks partly to Daniel and his family, partly to the young enhanced boy he is helping, but mostly to himself and the courage he has found to face up to and finally process the things that happened in his past.
Daniel has his own healing journey, and although his scars are second-hand they are fresh and deep. With the support of his family he is able not only to face his fears, but to help Eli to face his.
As with all the books, the author’s characterisation is superb. The characters drive the story and if you are able to keep them all in your head, they form a rich tapestry. Even the minor character have life and colour and some of the most memorable characters play very small parts. In this book, apart from Eli, it was Bo who stole my heart.
Although I have loved all the stories this author has told, I enjoyed this one the most. Partly because of the characters themselves, but also the story which was as delicate as it was brutal. The author was not afraid to deal with the hard things.
This remains a go-to series for me and I hope we will be hearing more about HERO and about the enhanced in general.
RATING: 
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