Sunday, February 2, 2014

Review–First to Burn (Immortal Vikings, bk 1) by Anna Richland

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Published January 27th 2014 by Carina Press

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Army physician, Captain Theresa Chiesa was never one to let questions go unanswered. So when she comes across injuries that mysteriously disappear and paperwork that just happens to no longer exist, she has to dig a little deeper.


Special Ops Sergeant Wulf Wardsen trusts his team and no one else. They know his secret and close ranks to protect him from the nosy female doctor who isn't content to let sleeping dogs lie. The only problem is, immortal viking Wulf, a berserker who fought with Beowulf, is not so sure he wants to keep the attractive female at a distance.   

When Wulf becomes a target of a drug smuggler, Theresa gets caught in the crossfire, but is Wulf unselfish enough to let her go for her own safety, even though she could make eternity bearable.  


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Even though I have more books in my actual TBR than I could possibly read in years, I still, every once in a while run across a book that dings on what I like to call my bookdar. For some intangible reason, I just zero in and boot everything else to the back burner and delve into my new find. This is how I found most of my favorite authors. Sometimes my bookdar is just a tad off and sometimes it finds a treasure of romantic gold. First to Burn definitely belongs in the treasure chest. Love, love, looooooved it!! From the first paragraph, I started to get the feeling that this was something special, but I didn't want to jinx it and proceeded with cautious optimism. By the end of the first chapter I was infatuated. By the middle of the book, I was falling in book love and by the end, I was ready to buy a ring.  

The really strange thing is that I had just finished a Suzanne Brockman book, and let's face it, that is a damn tough act to follow. But by crikey if First to Burn wasn't one of the smoothest segues ever. It was kind of like if Suzanne Brockman and J R Ward had a book baby, it would be First to Burn. "New2Me" author Anna Richland just blew me away. Her characters were compelling and likable, (except for Ivar, more on him later) the story was action packed, nail biting , emotionally wringing and left me exhausted, satisfied and longing for more from the Immortal Vikings.  

There was sooooo much packed into this book that it would take me way longer than the space I have for this review to explore every nuance of this incredible story. The history of how the Immortals came to be, the dynamics among them and the actual story of Theresa and Wulf. Oh, and the freaking heat level, woooooah, mama. Wulf has had eons to perfect his game and perfect it he has. Let's just say that Wulf''s weapon wasn't necessarily carried in a holster. Now for the aforementioned Ivar. This is Wulf's older brother and leader of the Immortals (kind of), but if he was on the market, he would put Summer's Eve out of business, because he was a big ol' douche. I'm sure that things will be resolved and I have a sneaking feeling about who is going to wind up ringing his bell, but until then........ I'm not a fan. Wulf, though OMG, yum, yum eat em' up!!    

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1 comment:

Anna Richland said...

Thank you very much for reviewing First to Burn here and at Amazon, etc. I'm thrilled you discovered my Immortal Vikings -- "Bookdar" is such a great term (although I think of First to Burn as a serious case of "Thordar")!

And don't worry, the next one is not about the douchebag brother. He gets plenty of time to rehabilitate himself before he's ready to fall in love. Although I already know that Theresa sets him up on a blind date, one that he really messes up, because that scene plays out in my head at odd times.

My next book is actually a novella coming out in late summer/early fall about Cruz, Wulf's mortal teammate. That's a related story, and Wulf and Theresa show up, but it's a regular contemporary - no paranormal/RS elements - and sort of a separate timeline from the Vikings.

The second of the paranormal Immortal Vikings will be out next January - and it's about an immortal Viking conman/thief. In fact, he's so good at being different people I'm having a tough time getting a grip on the slippery character.

Thank you again for reviewing First to Burn - I'm so glad people are finding my book!