Annmarie McKenna is back with BURDEN, a M/M novella that binds action, suspense and white hot romance.

A tragic car accident leaves Detective Brennan McGuire with holes in his memory and a stutter. He must also relearn the most basic and simplest tasks again. When his therapists asks him to go to a coffee shop to help him adjust to the world again, he sees a man with a gun, getting ready to shoot someone. Instinct kicks in and as the nice day darkens into a shooting, Brennan acts and tackles Keegan Monroe, the man the shooter was targeting to the ground. Keegan is an undercover cop and suspicions arise as he takes Brennan into custody to ensure he is not working with the shooter. As an investigation ensues, Keegan and Brennan fight an attraction that burns steadily.

At a compact word count, McKenna expertly draws reader's attention with her talent with dialogue and great characters. I love McKenna's authorial voice but thought that the story was a bit rushed. At just over a 100 pages, Keegan and Brennan's story just didn't develop as much as I had hoped. There is little sexual tension and their scenes together just don't feel fully formed. Too much happened too quickly for it to feel believable and fleshed out.

Since Brennan requires extra help to function, the fact that Keegan jumped so swiftly to take on the task seemed too quick. The action and suspense, while great additions to the story, also felt too rushed. I don't think there were enough words to really make this book feel complete. This is one of those cases where I wished BURDEN was much longer.