Witchbane, Burn, Dark Rivers: Witchbane Series, Morgan Brice

  

Love and magic are all wrapped up in trying to escape the clutches of dark witches bent on fulfilling the wishes of their dark master.

Seth and Evan have their work cut out for them,

but not if they can't decide once and for all that they're all in.

All in for the hunt and with one another.

Captivating right from the start, Seth's introduction to the world everyone else is blind and oblivious to is harrowing and gory.  The horrible, painful, and formative moment sets the tone in a way that was difficult to forget.  When Seth meets Evan we have a deep understanding of what drives him to do what he does and feel what he feels.  Their interactions are subtle, tame, and hopeful until they decide to act on the barely banked passion they both feel; it's the sense of promise in their hesitancy that makes me want more from them together.  Once things really ramp up action-wise it's clear that there's going to be a whole lot of adrenaline-fueled arguments and sex but only time will tell if they can translate that into the softer, more stable things that make a lasting relationship.

The story is definitely dramatic once it gets to the point.  There's a bit of a feeling like it took forever to get to the details that mattered but I can't say that the slog through everything to get to the point wasn't informative, entertaining, or necessary.  We get to know both men very, very well allowing us to root for them individually and together right from the outset.  The confrontation was big, loud, and bloody...nothing there was glossed over so it fit the tone of the overall story.  By ending where it did, we were left on a high note full of passion and a hope for more.

On the heels of the dramatic events in Witchbane Seth and Evan are faced with the reality of what life will look like if they stay the course.  Evan struggles to reconcile everything that was with everything that could be and Seth is always assuming Evan will wise up and leave.  With both of them avoiding the communication that matters they're getting farther away from where they both yearn to be but don't know how to get to.  They've got a lot of work and confessing to do if they're going to build a foundation and make progress toward a solid partnership.

This was a great novella to connect books one and two of the series because it delves into both of their hangups as well as giving a sense of what else is out there in the world of hunters.  We're able to see the ups and downs of adjusting to the relationship that started with such drama.  Seeing them both training and hunting keeps the overarching plot fresh in our minds and also gives us a chance to see how they work together in a more "normal" setting and I have to say that I think they make a great team...they just need to get on the same page and stay on it.  It's not all happiness and roses, in fact, aside from their passion Burn is mostly filled with a lot of frustration, mistrust, second-guessing, and hurt.  When the big decisions come it's not without pain, but it is honest.  Burn is a believable segue between the uncertainty after Witchbane to all the crazy that's coming in Dark Rivers.

The action is ramping up.  Well, it eventually does.  We're "treated" to the leg-work aspect of hunting down immortal dark witches and while the pacing suffers sometimes, it's interesting to see all the work they put into investigating all the leads, locations, and connections necessary to finding the villain.  We also get to see more of the relationship angst as well as Evan's hard road to recovery from his involvement in the bloody events of Witchbane.  There were quite a few things that could have been left in Burn but since it's a novella that not everyone will read I can see why some of the hesitancy, doubts, and  fears are reprised here.

While it takes quite a while to get to the big action there are some inclusions here that bode well for a more interesting series.  Additional characters are introduced that will likely play more of a role than an occasional phone call for passing on intel.  It seems like a team, a make-shift family is being created to support, aid, and carry the weight of everything they'll encounter as they try to stop the dark witches.  Seth and Evan are creating new traditions as they make sense of a new life while making peace with the old.  The confrontation was a lot bigger, more frenetic, and crazier and I absolutely wasn't expecting any of it.  Overall this series is going in a great direction and I'm really excited for more.

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