Wicked Burn by Beth Kery
Erotic Contemporary Romance
May 1, 2012 (re-rerelease)

Reviewed by Mandi

I’m pretty new to Beth Kery, but after I read Addicted to You written under her pen name, Bethany Kane and discovered how dark and erotic her writing can be, I was eager to try more from her. Wicked Burn was first released in trade paperback in 2008. It is now being rereleased in mass market paperback.

Vic Savian is a brilliant playwright living in Chicago. He doesn’t like the city though, and only lives there in an apartment as necessary when his plays are in production. His other time is spent at his family’s farm. When he hears his neighbor being harassed in the hallway of their apartment building, he decides to go to her rescue.

Niall Chandler is the Curator of the Department of Nineteenth Century Art at a museum in Chicago. She is waiting on her new condominium to be finished, and is currently renting an apartment in the same building as Vic. They immediately have a physical connection and relationship, but Niall has big secrets that she can’t tell Vic.

The big thing that stands out to me in this book is the erotic sex. Which, I know, I know – I like to talk about sex in my reviews. *grins* But no, really. The sex scenes made this book for me. Vic may be a playwright that wears brown blazers, but get him in the bedroom and watch out. He is a contrast even to Niall:

His glasses intrigued her. How could such a big, masculine man who looked like he would thrive in the brisk outdoors doing hard manual labor look so natural wearing glasses while he worked at his art with total focus?

A strange, unwelcome feeling overcame her. At that moment Vic Savian seemed so vast to her. She’d come to know only the tiniest part of him…the outer limits of the universe of his character.

I totally agree with Niall’s assessment. Vic’s character seemed very large in this book. I wanted to dive into him (even more than we do) and explore his dominant side, his art side, his boyfriend side, and his past.  He is very dominant in the bedroom. He has dark desires, and Niall and him start an very sexual exploration of them. For example:

Her big eyes flickered over his naked body, lingering on his erection as he slid the latex over it. That’s for you, baby. He had to stop himself from saying it out loud when she stared at him so hungrily. That’s what you get for having such a tight, sleek little body and a sweeter, hotter response to me than I could have conjured up in my wildest fantasies.

“Go bend over with your hands up against the wall.”

Oh my Vic.

Niall has deep dark secrets. I won’t go into them so I don’t spoil, but she has had extreme heartbreak and drama about three years ago. She is still healing and I think this opens her to Vic and his dominant desires. While this book is heavy on the sex scenes, it worked for me. I also really liked developments towards the end of the book where Vic gets emotionally hurt. I’m glad that happened and these two had a break to both work out their issues.

I do wish we spent a little more time examining Niall’s troubled past few years – maybe digging into that hurt a little more. Seeing her more vulnerable to it. But otherwise this book is a good, dark, erotic contemporary. I definitely enjoy this author’s voice.

Rating: B

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