Jason Horton, I’ve decided, is the king of quick action-packed, romance-packed stories… for this blog anyway. His first short story, Mine, reeled you in and his next book, Burn turns up the heat! Pun intended.
(You can also access my mini-vlog here! Full length will be in the mini’s description)
Burn picks up where the short story left off–Jason and Lucy are infatuated, but Lucy’s family (mostly her dad) are worried about her safety as long as she stays with him. Evil Tristan, meanwhile, is hellbent on destroying Jason, all because he feels like Jason stole away Lucy… but c’mon, if you have to drug a girl to get her to go home with you, is it really “stealing?” Psh.
After Tristan commits some crimes–I’ll give you a hint in terms of the variety, look to the title–in an effort to tear them apart, Lucy and Jason team up to bring down Tristan. They’re semi-successful, but there is so much more to this story, and the series, and I am here for it!
Let me start by saying that I really like this series–I like that it’s got a dash of mystery and a sprinkling of adventure. On the note of adventure, I love that Lucy isn’t some damsel in distress (there are times and places for that trope, but it’s not my favorite) and that she actually challenges Jason’s pseudo-self-sabotaging tactics. Along with my own frustration of damsel and distresses, it also irks me when male characters are so macho and independent that they’re like “No, I have to do everything by myself.” So I love that he doesn’t fight Lucy on this–he accepts her help and I think it makes their relationship that much more significant and meaningful.
On a technical note, I would love a little more variety with the writing–I feel like with the dialog (there’s a lot, and I love it!), it’s a lot of “he said/she said.” Those are fine language tags, but I think seeing some “exclaimed/asked/pondered” etc., would make the writing slightly more rich.
My only story “critique,” which isn’t much of one–I just feel like Tristan’s a little dramatic. During a discussion between Lucy and Jason, they speculate that Tristan has obsessive love disorder, pyromania, and sociopathy, all on top of narcissistic personality disorder. So, when looking at Tristan’s actions through that mental health lens, it all makes a lot more sense, but even so, burning people’s houses down all to win a girl’s heart seems a little over-the-top to me.
That said, his dramatics do make the overall series more interesting and captivating–between that and the length of the book, I finished it super fast and I loved every second. It was so entertaining and if you like a bit of crime and a dash of romance, I think you’ll also really enjoy it.
That’s all I’ve got for now! Be sure to look out for my next posts on the next installment of the Capfield series.
Happy Reading!
A Little Bit of Happiness 