Review: Burned
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 23, 2013
BURNED is a story of small town life, gossip and characters.Hauk Michaelson lives in Whispering Cove where he was unfortunate enough to have lost the last two women he loved. The first was the mother of his little girl, Sophie, who walked out but was found dead on the beach, so Hauk had to prove his innocence; the second died in a rock climbing accident. Vic Hayes, who runs a beauty salon, keeps busy hours and a lively life, a counterpart to Hauk's hours running his bar. Yet Vic is a good friend, ensuring that Sophie is looked after and gives the girl feminine company. The two adults are assigned work together on preparations for the town's Fall Festival.Predictably Hauk and Vic start to feel attraction and the sexual tension rises. Hauk is determined not to mess up their friendship, and he wants to keep Vic away from the town's gossipers. He also worries that he has a bad-luck fate where women are concerned. However Vic is equally determined when it comes to getting what she wants, even if she has to dress like a tramp and sing karaoke in the bar. Whether she can bring him to break his self-imposed solitude is another matter, but it's not too hard to figure the answer.BURNED is short and at the end are three 'tasters' for other books: Brazen by Catherine Fox, Bold by Mackenzie McKade and Wicked by Nikki Duncan. Personally, I would have liked this book to take more space and show us the famous Fall Festival. I would also have liked less rehashing of the events of previous books in this series, but I'm reading this as a standalone. Nikki Duncan has given us an interesting romance in a locale both friendly and claustrophobic.