Book 85, 2023

Burn the Night by Zahra Stone

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Wednesday evening, I finished reading Burn the Night by Zahra Stone. It's the first book in "The Enforcers" urban fantasy series. Story is in first-person point of view of the main character, Raven Black.

Raven is a supernatural of indeterminate origin. She works for the SIA, which polices supernaturals, along with her werewolf partner, Carter. When humans begin disappearing and are found dead and mangled days later, Raven and Carter are on the case. Their investigation leads them to a nightclub owned by vampire Nate Wilder. He seems willing to cooperate, but Raven isn't about to trust him completely. In addition to her investigation, Raven is also battling her attraction to Carter, as well as being subjected to a battery of tests that the director of the SIA insists on to find out once and for all what manner of supernatural Raven is. When things come to a head, it's going to take powers that Raven didn't know she possessed to save herself, her partner, and to solve the case.

This story clipped along at a good pace and I was really enjoying it...until the latter part of the book. For one thing, Raven and Carter went from being partners of several years to having a relationship with very little transition in between. Also, TRIGGER WARNING, towards the end of the book, Raven was beaten severely, as in nearly beaten to death with a baseball bat. It was distressing to read, and I thought the author could have chosen another way to force Raven's powers to manifest. The ending was quite abrupt. I was waiting to see the villain get well-deserved comeuppance, but that happened off screen. I was left feeling cheated. Finally, this huge editing error: ( Spoilers )

Favorite line: She had ovaries of steel.

This was heading for an easy four, but too many annoyance factors drop the rating to three.