[b:Burning Dawn|17838913|Burning Dawn (Angels of the Dark, #3)|Gena Showalter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382989108l/17838913._SY75_.jpg|24962594] by [a:Gena Showalter|48192|Gena Showalter|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1581848751p2/48192.jpg]
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance
5 Stars

Warning!
There are parts in this story that will make you laugh hysterically!
I have read a lot of Gena's books & this one is some of her best work. ( )

Burning Dawn by Gena Showalter

And she’s back! From the saucy leading lady to the steamy sex, Gena Showalter has returned. The last few books that I have read were lacking the sizzle factor that fans have learned to love about Gena’s writing. The leading females were prosaic and virginal while the sex scenes were lax which might have had a lot to do with Gena’s newfound Christianity. She may have been struggling with her beliefs and what she was writing. Maybe writing a detailed hot sex scene of two unmarried characters went against her beliefs but for some reason in Burning Dawn she has returned to her previous way of writing with her humpalicious sex scenes and her hilarious female characters.
Thane is a Sent One who was tortured along with Bjorn and Xerxes by demons. Since then, the three are inseparable. Because of his past, Thane has an insatiable need for violence during sex yet has no problem finding women who want to fulfill his needs which is good since he tires of them easily. He owns an immortal bar called the Downfall where he also lives and finds a lot of his bed mates. One such sex partner, Kendra, seeks revenge on Thane after he kicks her out of his bed and returns her to her Phoenix camp. She has the power to addict anyone to her by using the poison she has in her body and she can also change her appearance so she tricks Thane into sleeping with her by pretending to be different women. She enslaves him and takes him back to her camp where all he can think about is being with Kendra because he is so caught up in the fog of his addiction.
Elin Vale is half human and half Phoenix which is an abomination to the Phoenix race. After the Phoenix killed her father and husband of three months, they took Elin and her mother prisoner where they used her mother for breeding and Elin as a slave. Then her mother died, leaving Elin alone to be abused by the Phoenix.
Elin takes pity on Thane and decides to save him from Kendra’s poison and in return thinks Thane will help her escape the camp. She helps him and Thane does help her escape but because Thane has such a hate for all things Phoenix, she decides not to tell him that she is half Phoenix. He believes she is only human. He helps her out and gives her a job as a barmaid at his bar. He is attracted to her but because of his special brand of sexual appetites, he nixes the thought of having any kind of relationship with her but he can’t stop thinking about her.
Thane and Elin’s relationship heats up. Thane finds that when he is with Elin that he has no need for the violence that has plagued him for so long. Elin loves Thane’s attention but fears what will happen if or when he ever finds out that she is part Phoenix.
Meanwhile, the Sent Ones have been trying to find the demons responsible for killing Germanus, the Sent One’s boss. For some reason hordes of demons seem to be after Thane and now Elin. They are under the command of a demon prince, a powerful evil being intent on taking over the earth and humans who live on it. This prince is gunning for Thane. Now, Thane will have to protect what is his from the prince and the demons.
Side Stories
Bjorn keeps disappearing….literally. He’s there one moment and gone the next. Thane and Xerxes hire Lucien, one of the Lords of the Underworld, to follow his spiritual trail. Lucien discovers that Bjorn is being summoned by the queen of the shadow demons who believes she is married to him. She feeds off of his soul when she takes him. To save him from eventual death, Thane decides to buy the Water of Life from anyone who is willing to sell the almost impossible to get liquid. Since Clerici took over for Germanus, he changed the council’s rule of having to be whipped and give up something you love to get a vial of the Water of Life. There is now a line to get to the River of Life and it would take three years to get to the front of the line so waiting in line is not an option. Anyone who uses force to get to the River or cut in front of the line, loses all rights to the River of Life forever. Somehow, Thane and Xerxes will have to find a better way of saving Bjorn from the Shadow Queen.
Cario is still after Xerxes for some reason. He seems to want to kill her. Thane and Bjorn like to joke around about it.
I am anxiously awaiting the stories of Bjorn and Xerxes but I am also interested in Axel, Jamilla, Malcom, Magnus and now I want to know more about the beserker, Adrian. Maybe he’ll fall in love with one of the female Sent Ones. Yeah?

www.paranormalromanceslut.com ( )

2.5 rounded up. This was only okay. I feel like it could have been much better, but what character growth there was, wasn't all that believable, and everytime I turned around the characters popped another stupid pill apparently. The villains seemed especially under-developed, and I ended up not caring terribly about the whole climax of the story. The characters were decently likable when they weren't actively doing something stupid though, and I did chuckle at a few things. ( )

Burning Dawn by Gena Showalter
Book 3 of the Angels of the Dark series and 10.5 of the Lords of the Underworld. Paranormal, modern day romance. Best read as part of either series.

Thane rescues a slave from his enemies. He soon finds out she will change his life forever.

A dark and dramatic story of enemies, lovers, challenges and protectors.
Thane has issues from his past and I didn’t much like some of his actions. Elin takes a while to come into her own since her experience has been so horrible.
In the end, they do work out their differences and fall deeply into protecting and loving each other.
This series is not light reading but the characters tend to grab you with their intensity and despair.
There is bit of humor which is also part of the author’s style. ( )

Thane goes from sadist/masochist, to mister romantic sensitive. Of course he fights it at first but Elin's charm wins the day. She rescued him from being enslaved bya Phoenix, he has to come to terms with her being half Phoenix once he finds out. All the while fighting off the evil Prince.
( )