Burned Deep

Fox (the Rugged and Risqué series) takes refuge in the tried and true for this uninspired launch to the Burned Deep contemporary erotic suspense trilogy. Ari DeMille is an up-and-coming wedding planner. While managing a gala event, she ends up in the same bar with Kyle Jenns and Dane Bax, who become her lust interests. That happenstance encounter leads to a chain of events that leaps without logic among a blackmailing parent, a billionaire hotelier, instances of passion, and the machinations of a cut-rate, ineffective Illuminati. The events fly past without raising stakes or tensions, barely introducing points only to negate or abandon them. This all could be forgiven for a little sizzle, but the intimate themes are as glossed over as the remainder of the narrative. The story is neither engaging nor exciting in its characters and situations, and it ends with a conclusion rather than a resolution. The shape of the enterprise is formulaic and the composition tired, with little attempt at verisimilitude or real passion. Agent: Sarah Younger, Nancy Yost Literary Agency. (Sept.)