[Review] Playing with Fire by Cynthia Eden [ARC]

Goodreads

An Old Flame

Cassie Armstrong has plenty to atone for. The daughter of the most immoral researcher ever to pick up a scalpel, she's determined to use her own brilliance in genetics to repair the damage her family has done to the paranormals. Especially Dante, the first of the phoenixes, the one they call the Immortal. He's been haunting her dreams since she was a little girl, and she's been trying to ease his pain for almost as long. If only he remembered any of it. . .

Dante doesn't know what Cassie's story is. He almost doesn't care. The minute he sees her, all he can think is mine. But there's more to the pretty little doctor than meets the eye. And Dante isn't the only one to notice. He can't trust her, but he can't stay away--and if he wants to learn her secrets, he's going to have to fight like hell to keep them both alive. . .

Review

I have not read the first two books in this series, but you don't have to. The characters are mentioned and the plot lines connect, so it would probably help you out a lot to read them. Plus, Cynthia's paranormal romances tend to be awesome. I will be going back to read the other two books, although I am certain this one will remain my favorite of the three. 

While I was a bit thrown by the sense of having no background to the characters relationship, that was part of the story and plenty (okay, all) is revealed as the story moves along. Dante is a phoenix and every time he dies, he forgets all his memories. They do eventually return, but it takes a while each time. 

Cassie is the daughter of a scientist who performed experiments on her and her brother. But he also experimented on a bunch of humans and paranormals trying to create an unstoppable army. I know.. cool right!? She has always loved Dante, even though he doesn't know who she is half the time and is indifferent to her the rest of the time. She struggles with her unrequited love and still tries to help him, even though he is an ass. She is good hearted and determined to make up for her fathers wrongs. Which is interesting in comparison to Dante's "Burn it all and damn the consequences" mindset. (: She tempers his crazy and I love it. hehe. 

Dante is a totally alpha character. He pretty much thinks he is invincible (and he is almost right.) He can he a bit of an butthead at times, but it is entertaining sense he has this old time view on everything and actually believes that the way he is doing things is the right way. He is a bit heartless, but I loved peeling back his layers and seeing what else he had going on in that little black heart of his. ;) It is entertaining to see him floundering around sometimes when he does something to piss Cassie off and genuinely has no idea why she is upset with him. The big goof. 

The romance was hot and steamy when he wasn't ready to kill Cassie. haha. Oh, those two. They are one of my favorite couples from Cynthia's books. 

The plotline was awesome. There was a pretty bad villain, although he went down a little easy for my liking. Then again, I am pretty crazy when it comes to the evilness of my villains. ;) I like em bad. 

I love the supernatural elements. Cynthia is so creative and there was one plot twist in there that had my jaw dropping and my fist pumping at the same time. Clever girl (Yes, that was a Jurassic Park reference.) The whole origin story of Dante and the continuing story- line about Phoenix paranormals is awesome. 

So, I totally loved this book. It was an ARC and had typos every now and then, but the characters wormed their way into my heart. 

**I received this book in exchange for an honest review. It is an ARC and the final version may be different from the one I read- although I hope not. 

4.5 Stars

(Round to 5 Stars)