Burned Hearts

Fox concludes her Burned trilogy (after Flash Burned and Burned Deep) with a suspense-filled erotic contemporary that will get readers’ pulses pounding. Ari DeMille Bax and Dane Bax fell in love at first sight, but their complicated courtship took them all over the western U.S. and involved bombed hotels, rattlesnakes, and gunshots, thanks to Dane being a member of an Illuminati-like organization. Dane’s motives are pure, but many of his contemporaries in the global group want to turn Dane to their darker, self-serving purpose—or eliminate him and everyone he cares about. After Ari and Dane’s son is born, the stakes get higher, and it soon becomes clear that at least one person in their inner circle is hiding terrible secrets. Unless Ari and Dane unravel the mystery quickly, everything they hold dear might be destroyed. Fox takes a deep and effective dive into the strong emotions that link her well-drawn hero and heroine and combines them with strong plotting that will keep readers on the edges of their seats through the surprise ending that wraps up the story. Readers frustrated by the first two books’ cliff-hanger endings will be thrilled and relieved that this one provides a fitting conclusion to the enjoyable trilogy. (Oct.)