Shannon K Butcher - Burning Alive:The Sentinel Wars (Release Date may 5th 2009)

Wonderful Speculative Fiction Debut, March 5, 2009 Burning Alive: The Sentinel Wars by Shannon K Butcher With Burning Alive: the Sentinel Wars, Shannon Butcher (wife of author Jim Butcher) makes her paranormal debut. And let me tell you she had me by the throat with the very first sentence: "The man who was going to stand by and watch while Helen burned to death liked his coffee black." This is a wonderfully fast paced paranormal romance novel and a very fast read that will leave you wanting more. It is very different than the usual paranormal romance, possibly because of Ms Butcher's experience with writing romantic suspense and mystery. This book is filled with good guys, bad guys, steamy sensual scenes between Helen and Drake, there are things that would curl your hair and make you look under the bed before getting in and characters that you aren't sure just which side of the war they are fighting on. With this first book we get to meet some of the factions that are on both sides of the War. We get to meet Drake the Theronai warrior and part of the Sentinels born to fight the Synestryn, we also meet Logan who is a Sanguinar, a healer and called the `leech' since he seems to be a vampire, who has the ability to help heal the warriors, and who seems to have his own agenda. Helen Day the human (or is she?) who believes that Drake will be standing by to watch while a vision of hers comes true and who finds herself fighting the Synestryn by Drakes side. The characters are all flawed to some degree and that makes them seem more real to me. Ms Butcher also pulls no punches, this is no typical "romance" people die, even ones you like and they carry secrets. Many secrets. Enough so that you know that this will be a series worth reading. I'm not going to get bogged down in explaining what is going on or even give any other details. The book synopsis and description do a wonderfu job of that. I'm just letting you know that I couldn't finish this book fast enough so I could get the word out that this is one you definitely need to read. It's fresh, it's fast paced, it has mystery,it's hot and it is a book that has something for everyone.