REVIEW: The Burning Bush by Kenya Wright

The Burning Bush by Kenya Wright
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Even though I rated book 2, The Burning Bush, the same as book 1, book 2 is hella better than book 1. The surge in the quality amazed me, and that’s not a compliment I give lightly or frequently, if ever. Whether it’s better editing or better writing or both, it’s working~! Not to mention it’s another book written by an author-friend that I actually like; that’s two out of, uh, many now.

The heroine no longer has fits of TSTL. The transition between chapters was smooth, unlike in book 1 where it was raw, sudden, and disjointed. The plot progressed steadily and dished out ample action scenes, things that are unfortunately not common in the Urban Fantasy books I’ve been reading.

+ the heroine
I didn’t really care for Lanore in book 1, but I do now in book 2. She was awesome. I like her willfulness and confidence. It is rare to see an Urban Fantasy heroine who has no issue with sex and body image and loves herself for who she is. I love how she didn’t let her love interests control her life or decisions, how she pushed back when they got annoyingly alpha towards her, how she let them know in all instances that she is a fucking independent woman and not their fucking squeeze, and how when she wanted sex she got sex and there is no post-coital angst and regret or other emo issues.

I like how Lanore treats her friends and her pets. I like how she takes responsibility and doesn’t run when the going gets tough. While I love kickass bitches, I like that Lanore wasn’t typecast as one, i.e. her character didn’t feel trope-ish or similar to other Urban Fantasy heroines I read about. I like that Lanore is unique without tipping over into the special snowflake zone.

Long story short, I like Lanore.

+ the love triangle
It’s still there, but it wasn’t as annoying as it was in book 1, probably because it did not rear its ugly head often. I got a pretty good guess now who Lanore will end up with.

+ what I did not like
The ending was a cliffhanger for the first time in the series! Talk about the climax. It was great! Major progress in the series. But dude, I felt cheated out of the full awesomeness with that cliffhanger. So unhappy that the book was rounded down from a 3.5 stars.

In Conclusion

I rate The Burning Bush 3-stars for I liked it. Everything but the infuriating cliffhanger ending ruled. As said before, there was major progress in book 2. Deaths happened, people changed, allies and enemies... they’re not clear cut at all. Knock, knock. Who is it? Depth. Story depth, and also its companion Moral quagmire. Fuck, yeah.

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