Ex-detective Macmillan always had a taste for bad girls, but his last lover really took the cake—and his humanity. Now half-demon, Mac’s lost his friends, his family and his job.

But Constance, a strangely innocent vampire trapped in the supernatural Castle prison, needs his help. Her son has been kidnapped, so suddenly Mac has a case to work—one that embroils him with a mad sorcerer, an even madder city council, and a winged love god. The trail leads deep into the supernatural prison, and Mac soon learns that cracking the case will cost him his last scrap of his humanity.

Fiery, vulnerable Constance will do anything for those she loves, including Mac. He’ll be damned if he turns his back on her… and a demon forever if he doesn’t.

In Sharon Ashwood’s second installment of The Dark Forgotten Series, we learn more about the mysterious Castle and find out if Mac is going to embrace his “inner” demon.

In Ravenous, Mac is a cop who basically gets screwed over while on a long over-due break at the local watering hole. Mac kisses Geneva who turns out to be a Soul Eating Demon, that simple kiss turns Mac into one as well. When Holly Carver (a witch) sends Geneva back to the Castle, Geneva looses the demon and automatically turns back to a human and dies. Mac disappears during all of this, so at the end of Ravenous we are left wondering what happened to Mac.

Scorched tells us where Mac ended up, but as soon as he comes back to town, he is immediately met by Alessandro (Holly’s vampire Chosen) who is basically a paranormal cop of sorts. After a struggle Mac finds himself back in the Castle, a place that was built by Sorcerers to put all kinds of paranormals in, a type of jail if you will. We find out that the Castle’s magic is failing and the guards have started to revolt in an attempt to get things back to the way they were, by kidnapping Constance’s son who they believe can fix the Castle. Mac and Constance end up coming together to save her son, while trying to save the Castle at the same time. Mac can’t forget his police background even as a demon. Constance, having been put into the Castle right after being turned into a vampire hasn’t been out in the world since she was 17. She will do anything to save the child she’s raised as her own.

Sharon’s writing in this book is simply incredible, the descriptions of the various parts of the Castle made it feel like a real place. A place in your worst nightmares, teeming with monsters and things that should never see the light of day. The Dark Forgotten Series is one of my favorites to come out this year, I find that I savour everything written and take my time reading it. It’s so detail rich, the character development leaves you with visuals, you can imagine you’re in the room with some of the characters. Scorched is  fast-paced, with lots of twists and turns to keep your attention from wavering. You NEED to know what happens next! Not only does the story follow Mac and Constance (HOT!), but Holly and Alessandro have big parts in it as well. Sharon’s writing is like fine wine, you want to savour it slowly. There’s some big surprises as well, but I won’t even give you a hint, you’ll want to find out on your own.

Scorched will leave you begging for more, thankfully Unchained is due out July 2010.

Rating: 5/5

Visit Sharon’s Website and Sharon will be here this month for an interview!

Buy Scorched at:

Chapters/Indigo

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

A special thanks goes to Sharon Ashwood & Gaylene Murphy for my copy of Scorched.