Book Review: "Burn This Night" by Alex Kenna

“I was in my ninth week of sleeping on an air mattress in my childhood bedroom when I learned that my dad wasn’t my biological father.”

How’s THAT for an opening sentence? It definitely sets the tone for what’s to come in the book.

Kate is a private investigator who is really struggling. Her marriage is over, she’s lost custody of her daughter, and now she’s learned that the man she had always believed was her father wasn’t. And to top it off, she’s just learned she shares DNA with someone accused of murdering a young girl 20 years earlier.

The police recruit Kate to go to the small California town of Inglewood (where another distant relative lives) and see what she can find out about her relative-slash-murderer. At the same time, she takes on another case, one involving arson and murder.

Abby, an actress turned social worker, is killed in a fire that destroys part of Inglewood and leaves two others dead. The police suspect her brother, a drug addict and schizophrenic, but their parents believe he is innocent. They hope Kate finds evidence that exonerates him. But what Kate finds is a much more sinister web of secrets and lies, one that could prove deadly.

This was quite a twisty thriller! It’s a bit of a slow burn, but I liked the way Alex Kenna teased everything out and kept me guessing. The narrative shifts among several people and several timeframes, and I found that a bit disjointed, but this was still a compelling read.

Book Review: "The True Love Experiment" by Christina Lauren

I couldn’t have loved this more if I tried!

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is a famous romance novelist who loses her mojo—both creative and romantic—when she realizes she’s never had the all-consuming love she writes about. Sure, she’s had relationships and some steamy, no-holds-barred sex, but she’s never truly felt love, so she feels like a fraud. And she might have shared those thoughts. Publicly.

Connor Prince is a documentary filmmaker focused on the environment. He and his ex-wife share custody of their 10-year-old daughter and he is a devoted father. When his boss tells him he needs to create a successful dating reality show in order to keep his job, he’s thrown for a loop.

But when he discovers how popular romance novels are (and particularly, Fizzy's novels), an idea is born: how about a show where the audience watches Fizzy interact with different men, and hopefully fall in love with one of them? At first, Fizzy wants nothing to do with the show, so she makes all sorts of unrealistic demands about casting and everything else. And Connor meets nearly every single one. So now she’s trapped into doing the show.

As Connor helps Fizzy get ready for the show, the two become close friends. Both find themselves wanting more, but know it could be disastrous, especially for Connor. But how can he watch her flirt with other men, much less fall in love with one?

This was another fantastic Christina Lauren book. I loved Fizzy in The Soulmate Equation, and it was so good to see her in her own book!