A review by eesh25
Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh

4.0

It has now been almost a week since I finished this novel and it’s only now that I’m reviewing it. I have four more reviews to write afterwards and my reviewing game is so weak, it’s kind of distressing. My reading game, believe it or not, might actually be worse. It takes me an hour to find a book that I’m interested in and even then, it’s possible that I might just stop reading midway. The reading challenge I’ve participated in is being ignored and basically, this month sucks.

But… this novel doesn’t suck at all so I’m going to stop blabbering and get to the point. Hopefully, I can do at least a semi-decent job of that.

Branded by Fire features Mercy from DarkRiver pack and Riley from SnowDancer. You can say it’s a romance between a cat and a dog. It’s not exactly conventional and Mercy feels the same way. She doesn’t know how something like that could ever work. But she’s on the verge of sexual sarvation and she and Riley have undeniable chemistry, so they go for it. She intended for it to be a one time thing but let’s be honest, that wasn’t ever gonna happen.

On top of that, there’s trouble being caused in the city and Mercy and Riley have to work together to solve the case. This means that they have to navigate their personal and professional relationships at the same time which, I though, was a brilliant move on the author’s part.

You see, one of Mercy biggest concerns with finding a mate is that she’s into dominant men but she doesn’t want to be dominated or conrolled. She’s a Sentinel in her pack and she doesn’t want someone who’s always going to try to sheild her or treat her like she can’t take care of herself. It’s a valid concern. Mercy wants an equal who accepts her as she is instead of trying to change her. The problem with Riley is that he seems to want a stay-at-home wife. And before you call him a sexist asshole, that simply means he doesn’t want a soldier, aka a person who’s constantly in danger. After what happened to his sister and his mother, he doesn’t think he can deal with more. He’s still kind of a dumbass at points, though.

Anyway (went off on a tangent there), by putting Mercy and Riley in a professional situation, the author managed to show us the aspect of their relationship that Mercy was wary of and got them both to deal with it, because if Riley couldn’t see her as the capable soldier she is, they would never work.

Also, you might have noticed that I didn’t say much on the topic of what the trouble in the city was. And that’s because I don’t remember much. I mean, I know the main stuff but I’m rusty on the details. The “villain” was the Human Alliance, which is great because humans need page-time. And usually I’m equally interested in both the romantic and non-romantic plotlines. But that was when the latter plot directly impacted out protagonists. In this case, the shady stuff going on was so separate from both Mercy and Riley, I couldn’t get into it. Other than one kidnapping and some stuff to do with Nikita, anytime something other than Mercy or Riley came on, I wasn’t interested.

Though to be fair, part of it might be due to how much fun it was to read about Mercy and Riley. Their chemistry was off the charts, I loved their banter, and they had some very cute moments. Still, if the non-romantic subplot had a more personal impact, the book would have been perfect.