I’ve felt sorry for Conall “Mac” Macmillan since that fateful kiss from a damnably beautiful woman. It didn’t look like his luck had gotten any better at the beginning of  Scorched.

Alessandro Caravelli, the vampire boyfriend of Mac’s previous flame, Holly Carver, tosses him into a place where corridors disappear and men with tusks and bad breath want to spear him to the wall. The only light at the end of the tunnel is Constance, a petite woman with a taste for blood and a maternal streak wider than the Atlantic. Mac easily falls for her charms and agrees to help free her son from the men sworn to protect the Castle, the prison of the supernatural world.

Of course, nothing is ever as easy as we’d like it. Before he can help Constance, Mac must overcome a few obstacles, like his shiny new demon body, the Guardsmen created to guard the Castle, and a creature that makes even Caravelli quake in his boots—Holly’s slayer sister. The only chance Mac has of saving the day and getting the girl is to succumb to his demon side, but it may cost him his last bit of humanity.

Even though Mac and Constance were the main players in the book, I enjoyed the snippets of Alessandro and Holly the most. Their connection is so deep and pure that every interaction put a smile on my face. That’s not to say that I didn’t like the feisty demon and his vampire. Mac is a born comedian and can’t help but say and even think thoughts of pure comedic gold, like his musings about werebacon that sent me rolling on the floor.

Sharon Ashwood has a way of making inanimate objects into fully-functioning characters. In Ravenous, it was a house with a taste for trapping humans. In Scorched, it was the Castle.

The beasts and beings that make the Castle—both in name and deed—brought a fantastical element to the story. It was as if the scenes were being played out in front of you and all you had to do was reach forward and you could touch the mythological beasts trying to survive in their ever diminishing world.

Book Stats:

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Signet (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451228642
• ISBN-13: 978-0451228642

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Books in the Dark Forgotten series in the order they should be read:
Ravenous
Scorched

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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