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Burn 

Zombie apocalypse, but make it yearning. Xandra is out here torching lurkers to outrun her guilt, and Chase — her dead twin sister’s fiancĂ©, golden retriever energy, obsessed with his whole chest — will not stay away. That’s the whole hook: wanting someone who was never yours to want. The lurker action is lighter than you’d expect, so come for the romance and the twist, which readers genuinely did not see coming and which had at least one reviewer bumping her rating up for it. Also there’s a blood-as-lube scene that has become the thing everyone mentions — go in with eyes open. Ends on a savage cliffhanger, and Phoenix is next.

Book Description

It all started with the Turning.
Nine months ago, everything went to hell. An injectable medicine touted as humanity’s savior turned one-third of the United States into ravenous monsters whose only vulnerability is fire. They killed more than a half of us, leaving the rest a group of shell-shocked survivors.

All we do now is band together in individual communities, working to push back against the lurkers—hooded, hungry zombie-like creatures that lurk in the dark, eager to take a bite—and make it another day. Resources are scarce, and there’s no one to help us. Our useless government abandoned us all to the creatures all those months ago. Phone and television and the outside world… they don’t exist.

Or do they?

After a tragedy in my settlement has me desperate to escape, I’m willing to do anything to get the hell out of here. Enter Maverick Brooks. A dark-haired stranger fifteen years older than my twenty-five, he arrives at the Grave, stoic and mysterious, and looking for volunteers to join him in a suicidal plan to take the lurkers head-on.

I’m the only one reckless enough to raise their hand.

The leader of the Grave—who is also my dad—isn’t thrilled that I offer to go. Neither is Chase Knight, but I get it. The sexy hunter wants me to stay so that we can talk about the night that changed everything between us… the night that I just can’t forget or forgive myself for. Call me a coward, but I refuse to. As much as I’m drawn to him, there can’t be anything between us.

Not when he was my dead twin’s fiancé.

But he’s named well, and though I head out with Maverick, it isn’t long before Chase comes after me, and then sparks fly—and I don’t just mean from my lighter.

We’re on a mission to kill as many lurkers as can. That’s it. He’s an extra hunter… so why can’t I stop finding myself giving in to him no matter the reason?

I don’t know, but if I can’t get control of myself, it won’t only be the rest of the world that goes up in flames…

* Burn is a dark dystopian/post-apocalyptic/zombie romance told in 1st person POV. This is Xandra’s story, and while it seems like a love triangle is possibl, Chase is way too possessive to let her think about choosing anyone else… even if, on the outside, he seems like the perfect golden retriever love interest.

Genre, Tropes & Kinks
Triggers
⚠️ DETAILED TRIGGERS ⚠️ (contains spoilers)

Content Warnings

This is an apocalypse book, so expect sustained violence and gore — flesh-eating "lurkers" that feed on humans (cannibalism-adjacent body horror), and death by fire, since burning is the only way to kill them. The story opens in heavy grief: the heroine's twin sister dies in an incident Xandra blames herself for, and both she and the male lead are written as having something close to a death wish, so there's ongoing survivor's guilt, PTSD, depression and suicidal ideation. "Younglings" are child lurkers who are killed on the page. There's an auction/captivity scene involving human trafficking, plus a villain encounter with assault and coercion. Backstory includes an alcohol-fuelled one-night stand (referenced, not shown on page) and a mass medical catastrophe caused by an injected "vaccine." On the spice side, readers repeatedly call out one anal scene where the hero's blood is used as lube — it's consensual, but it's the moment everyone talks about, so know it's coming. Ends on a cliffhanger.
Book Meta
Publication Date2026-04-28 Relationship Pairing(s)MF Darkness Score5/10
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A stalker hero narrates a conversation the heroine has no idea he is overhearing. None of that is plot, and all of it is tone. On the page, you supply that tone yourself, using whatever your imagination hands you. In audio, a stranger supplies it for you. When that stranger is the right performer, the book becomes noticeably sharper. When they are wrong for the book, a scene that should feel genuinely dangerous ends up sounding like a man reading a grocery list in a low register. That is the whole argument in one sentence. **A narrator is not reading your dark romance to you — they are performing a second lead character.** ## Single, Dual, Duet: Know What You Are Buying Plenty of readers use these three words as though they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference changes the whole listen. **Single narration** means a single performer voicing every character in the book. That is fine for single-POV stories, but it gets risky in dual-POV dark romance. 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