BURN DOWN THE NIGHT is book three in the salacious Everything I Left Unsaid series by M. O'Keefe, the erotica alter ego of romance author Molly O'Keefe. These books are gritty and grindingly dirty and book crack- addictive. I can't sing O'Keefe's praises enough.

The series is written in alternating first person, so we get to see inside the heads of both the hero and the heroine. Joan and Max are not good people. They've both done some pretty bad things, and it's mind-blowing to me how O'Keefe still gets me to like and understand them, even as I abhor what they're doing now. Their journey to escape their many poor life choices is invigorating and freeing, and oh-so-fraught with sexual tension.

Joan is trying to rescue her sister from the meth- cooking cult that Joan got them tangled up with in the first place. She's willing to use anything she has, including her body. She'll even sacrifice her tremendous attitude and pride to do whatever she has to in order to free her little sis. Given her background and her drive, there is no line she will not cross in her quest, and knowing that ratchets my suspense even higher. Joan ends up kidnapping Max, the motorcycle president who was at a drug deal gone wrong where Joan tried to strong arm the cult leader into freeing her sister. Readers of the prior books in the series will already be familiar with Max, but this book is completely self contained, and newbies to the series will be able to dive right in. I feel pretty confident you'll have to go back and grab the first two books to read if you start here, though!

Joan and Max vie for who can be on top in their power dynamic, as they each try to maneuver the other into doing what is selfishly best for themselves. Their mutual seductions are just another way to try to play each other while getting themselves off, but somehow a bond forms between them, even as they each try to fight it. What starts out as a quest for justice for Joan and for revenge for Max brings them so much more than they expected. The sex is raw and earthy, and oh-so-erotic. If you're looking for a book to rev your motor, this definitely qualifies. What makes it even more pleasing to me, though, is the emotional connection these two tortured souls find. Their Happily Ever After is hard-won, and thus all the more powerful. O'Keefe delivers a wallop with BURN DOWN THE NIGHT, with angst and seduction and love twisted up in an utterly captivating read.