Powder Burn (Burn with Sam Blackett #1) by Mark Chisnell

I was drawn to this because of two things: 1. If Dragon Tattoo’s Mikael Blomkvist and the Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen could have a love-child, she’d probably be a lot like Sam Blackett... and 2. The fact the woman on the cover is wielding a sword. It all just screams kick-ass heroine. Though strength comes in many forms, I totally need a sword-fighting female every now and then.


We have a young woman who wants to make it as a journalist...and she thinks she finally has that story that will put her on the map, get her in Nat Geo. She's accompanying three men to a legendary mountain called Powder Burn, where they will be the first ones to snowboard it. History being made. One month trekking and backpacking and fighting high altitude and snowstorms.

But she gets more than she bargained for when the team runs into two strange men wielding an equally strange sword.

This is flat out an adventure, a thrill ride. There's soldiers, lies, secrets, arguments, death, shooting, blizzards...wow.

And Sam starts a romance and is faced with some tough decisions. Help a man or not help a man? Leave someone behind? Tell a story or not? There's also tension with one of the boarders. I like this chick. I like how she thinks and sticks up for herself... "...a good smack is the only thing that some people understand.."

It was entertaining, no doubt. BUT...and here are my quibbles:

-I didn't find it all believable. I mean, really, three people on a snowboard?

-There's a serious lack of emotion.

-It needs another round of edits. I got an ARC on Netgalley, but it was placed on that site after the book was published so I wonder if the finished copy has these errors...there were enough to really irritate me, such as "Why are the Demagistani's so anxious..." and "I think they've been fighting the Demagistani's."

I loathe apostrophe abuse. I have no idea why there are apostrophes there. What do the Demagistanis own? That is how it should be spelled.

I also spotted things like family are and family have...and forbad instead of forbade. There was an error on every page. Again, these MAY have been fixed later.

-The ending did not satisfactorily explain everything. I was confused and wondering about many things. It just didn't tie up very well for me. Like, these people claim they will not harm others, not even to regain their country from a Taliban-like group of people...yet they have an army that runs around with rifles and shoots at suspected CIA agents??? Um...like, ok. So the army isn't Buddhist and can run around shoot people for you, right? You just can't shoot them yourself...but why not send this army to get your country back?

Things just didn't make sense to me. However, it's a good yarn and despite the fact I have to say the cover is misleading--this chick doesn't really wield a sword though she does utilize a rifle--it is enjoyable.