Ash’s review of Enemy Within by Marcella Burnard
Futuristic Romance released by Berkley 02 Nov 10

With paranormals taking over my to be read pile, I always forget how much I love futuristic romances. As soon as I started Enemy Within, I was reminded of exactly what I love about them.

Enemy Within is definitely a roller coaster ride. Ari has been through a lot, and that is putting it mildly. Marcella Burnard does a great job of making Ari’s emotions come through, I felt for her every time she has a flashback or whenever she talks about what she went through. Ari could have easily been an unlikeable character. She is a space captain and she has had to be tough.

Cullin is the only one able to break through her walls, and it makes what they go through together that much more heartbreaking. There are many times when I wanted Ari to just be pissed at him, he more than deserves it. I think that might be only because I like Ari so much, I hate for anyone to hurt her, and it’s painful to read her going through that.

In any other book, I probably would have been annoyed if she had, in fact, stayed mad at him. He made it easy for her to forgive him, he wears his emotions on his sleeve when it comes to her. I think he might be one of the very few heroes who, to me, make their feelings so clear without saying a word. The other characters play their roles well, and I never thought they are just there in the background. They turn into a sort of family for Ari and I had to smile when I saw that two of them are the couple in Marcella Burnard’s next book.

One thing I do dislike about futuristic books is the languages. I hate having to read words that are nearly impossible to pronounce, and Enemy Within had its fair share of those.  It’s never bad enough to draw me out of the story, though, so I was able to deal with them.

This futuristic world is not complicated, and it has just the right amount of otherness to make it a great story. Some of the characters are more than human, from being telepathic to having powers of persuasion. It’s a believable future and I’d like to see what else Marcella Burnard can come up with next.

I am looking forward to exploring this world more in the next book, and I expect it to be just as fun and exciting.

Grade: A

Summary:

After a stint in an alien prison, Captain Ari Rose wonders why she even bothered to survive. Stripped of her command and banished to her father’s scientific expedition to finish a Ph.D. she doesn’t want, Ari never planned to languish quietly behind a desk. She wasn’t built for it, either. But when pirates commandeer her father’s ship, Ari once again becomes a prisoner.

As far as pirate leader Cullin is concerned, Ari’s past imprisonment puts her dead center in Cullin’s sights. If she hasn’t been brainwashed and returned as a spy, then he’s convinced she must be part of a traitorous alliance endangering billions of lives. Cullin can’t afford the desire she fires within him and he’ll stop at nothing, including destroying her, to uncover the truth.

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