Note: There are spoilers for the Not Dead Yet series in this review.

I really enjoyed Jenn Burke’s Not Dead Yet series of paranormal romances and was delighted when I learned she was planning a follow-up series which would focus on ‘baby vamp’ Evan Fournier.  Evan was a troubled young man living with depression (and not doing so well) when we first met him and circumstances led to his becoming  the one of the members of the found family formed by Wes and Hudson over the course of the trilogy.  All Fired Up – book one in the Ashes & Dust series – opens around five years later and finds Evan – older, wiser and more confident in himself - in a much better place, having worked hard to get his life on track and learned to ask for and accept help when he needs it.

Evan works as a private investigator for Caballero Investigations, the firm set up by Wes and Hudson in Give Up the Ghost.  Although all the employees are paranormals, the firm takes ‘regular’ cases as well as ones involving the supernatural, but when Wes and Hudson have to travel to London at short notice due to a family emergency, Hud makes it very clear to Evan that under no circumstances is he to take on any paranormal investigations while they’re gone.  Not because he doesn’t trust Evan or to handle them, but because those are the cases that tend to go sideways quickly – and Hud is a bit (!) of a control freak and very protective of those he cares about.

But when Dr. Anika Kozlow - a witch and Evan’s doctor and therapist – comes to see him, clearly very upset, and talking about a patient who recently died under suspicious circumstances, Evan knows he won’t be able to sit this one out.  Called to visit a patient who had recently returned from a retreat for paranormals, Dr. Kozlow was shocked to see a literal shell of the woman she’d known.

“When I saw her, she wasn’t there.  I mean, her body was.  She was sitting in the recliner, breathing, he eyes open, but they were… empty.”

A diagnostic spell confirmed Anika’s suspicions:

“When I said she was empty, I wasn’t exaggerating.  Her magic – her soul – was gone.”

And she’s since discovered that several of the patients she referred to the retreat have died in the same way.

Evan decides to check himself into the Rising Sun Retreat to see what he can find out.  Everything seems above board at first; the location is great, the staff are kind and he falls in with a group of friendly fellow patients who show him the ropes.  But there’s one staff member who makes him feel uneasy, a man known only as Red – because of the red tips in his hair (which, incidentally, are nowhere to be seen on the front cover!) – a member of staff so quiet, controlled and emotionless that he’s almost robotic.  He’s pretty creepy and Evan is suspicious - but before he can find out much more, he comes dangerously close to becoming the soul-sucker’s next victim.

Firefighter Colin Zhang has absolutely no idea why he just tried to kill Evan;  the last thing he remembers is heading into a burning building to rescue someone who’d been trapped inside, and he’d rather be anywhere other than with a bunch of crazy people talking about magic and vampires and telling him it’s 2024.  It can’t be – the fire was just yesterday. In March 1990.

All Fired Up gets this new trilogy off to a great start.  The mystery is fast-paced, with plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and it hooked me in right from the beginning; but the big draw was getting to spend some more time with the characters I’d come to know and love from the earlier series, and to see Evan start down the road towards a well-earned HEA  - he’s been through some serious shit, and deserves to be happy.  Evan is a complex, well-rounded character and I liked his insightful and wryly down-to-earth narrative voice – a very clear contrast to Wes’ mercurial personality and deadpan snark.  Evan’s depression is realistically and sensitively portrayed; he’s fairly stable now, and although the old insecurities break through and threaten to throw him off balance from time to time, he’s very self-aware and determined not to fall back into the sort of downward spiral that almost broke him when he was younger.

I liked Colin and the way he’s already starting to fit in with Evan and his found family of supernatural beings – and an actual god - although he (Colin) isn’t particularly well fleshed-out as a character.  Still, this is only the first book of three, so there’s room for more development there – and perhaps the fact that I’ve got to know Evan already via the previous series makes for an unfair comparison.  I enjoyed the book very much, although a couple of issues brought my final grade down a bit. One is that Colin doesn’t freak out very much when he finds out he’s lost thirty-four years of his life – and not only that, but that he’s been used to - at the very least - do serious harm to a number of people throughout that time.  He seems to accept both those things too easily, which was a bit odd.  And in addition to having to come to terms with what he’d been forced to do and the fact that his old life is gone, Colin has to reconsider his sexual identity. Growing up at a time when AIDS was ravaging the gay community, he chose to deny the part of him that was attracted to men, but the realisation that things have changed considerably enables him to own the truth (that he’s attracted to men and women) and act on his attraction to Evan.  I appreciated the way this realisation is brought about – but it’s something else Colin seemed to adjust to a tad too quickly.

That said, however, they make a good couple and there’s some very real chemistry between them. Both of them have suffered the loss of loved ones and will have to find ways to more forward if they’re going to be together in any real sense, and I’m looking forward to seeing their relationship develop as the series progresses.

As in Not Dead Yet, Ms. Burke sets an overarching plot in motion in this series opener.  The villain of All Fired Up gets their just desserts, but the Big Bad – the brains behind the plot to steal magic and souls from members of the paranormal community –is still out there, and will no doubt be back to cause more trouble in the following instalments.  With a sweet HFN for Colin and Evan – and the promise of more to come - All Fired Up is a terrific combination of page-turning mystery and tender romance, and is strongly recommended.

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All Fired Up is a follow-up series to Burke's excellent Not Dead Yet trilogy (if you haven't read that one, well, what are you waiting for?!) featuring Evan Fournier, Hudson's vampire 'baby brother' (well, Hudson is Evan's sire, but I can't think of Hudson as Evan's father!). While I honestly couldn't remember much from the previous books (because yes, I forget things easily, not the books' fault), I think I noted that Evan needed his own happy ending after the event that happened in Graveyard Shift. With this series, I'm sure he will 🙂

Anyway, the story is like this, while Wes and Hudson are going to London, Evan takes responsibility of their investigation agency. Evan is NOT supposed to take paranormal cases, but when Anika (who have helped Evan with his depression especially), how could Evan says no? So Evan goes undercover to a retreat to find out why the retreat guests lose their magic after they come back home, gets into a whole of trouble, and find himself being bonded to a stranger.

The investigation to that mystery was good. I mean, I finished this in almost one sitting (I stop only because I have to work and then to sleep) because it was pretty engaging until the end!.

I really LOVED how Burke added a new 'creature' character to this series. I enjoy having more unusual mythical creatures in urban fantasy, in addition to the usual suspects of shifters, vampires, and witches. I also love that Burke added the complication of Colin's identity, and I can imagine the next two books will be deliciously addressing the progress of Evan and Colin's relationship.

The other members of the original gang are here too, of course: Wes, Hudson, Lexi... and I wonder how the appearance of Hudson's brother who ended up staying with them will effect everyone, especially Hudson's niece Priya.

All in all, a GOOD start of a new trilogy. Bring me the next book, please...

I made a strategic error in requesting this book. As it is the start of a spin-off series, I assumed that it would be accessible to new readers, but this was not the case. This is definitely a book for fans of the original series! For the rest of us, it's a little too much to catch up on - too many characters and too much backstory.

I freely admit I hadn't read the previous series by this author, of which this is a spin-off, so there was plenty of backstory references that probably went over my head when reading All Fired Up but the blurb was interesting enough for me to pick it up despite that.

Our main character is Evan, who's a vampire working as a private investigator in Toronto - fortunately for him, he can go out in daylight, but has promised his bosses that he won't pick up any paranormal cases while they're off in London dealing with family issues. This promise promptly gets broken when he's told about members of the paranormal community with an affliction where their soul/magic has been removed and they then just waste away. Deciding this can't wait, Evan checks himself into the retreat that seems to have a link to a number of these cases to investigate.

When Evan finds out what's going on, he encounters the mysterious 'Red', who's up to his neck in whatever's happening. However he discovers that Red is as much a victim of this situation, turning out to be a former firefighter called Colin who was kidnapped in 1990, his powers abused by the man who'd held him captive since then. Rescuing Colin has formed a bond between him and Evan which conveniently (for a romance novel, anyway) means they need to be near each other and Evan is more than happy to enjoy the view while they try to figure out what's going on and enlist the rest of his extended family to stop this particular scheme.

I'm not going to complain about the use of backstory, which is fair enough given that most people reading this book will have read Jenn Burke's previous books, or even the 'oi, guvnor' attempts at a London accent from a couple of characters (bad enough when it was Dick Van Dyke, there's little excuse for it now). Those alone weren't enough to make me drop the rating, though the latter did make me roll my eyes a few times.

What I do have issues with, dropping a star at least, is the character of Colin. This is a guy who's lost 30 years of his life and knows he's been used to at least seriously harm other people, so you'd expect some freaking out. Given this is a m/m romance book, there's also an element of coming out for him, having grown up in the time of AIDS and now discovering that modern day Toronto has moved on considerably from when he last remembers (and prompting some reconsideration of his own sexuality).

The book is from Evan's point of view but there's little recognition of his trauma or attempts to give him some control back over his life, especially in the light of this proximity bond he's stuck with. Colin is a bit two-dimensional for my liking and I was a little disappointed by how his experiences were addressed - he gets to see his former fiancee and suddenly he's moved on in more ways than one, which didn't really work for me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

If you haven't read the 'Not Dead Yet' series, I suggest doing so in order to understand who, and what, everyone is. This book was told from Evan's POV (a baby vamp from the other series) as he looks into some strange deaths with the help of good friends and chosen family. A part of the mystery carries over into the next book, which I am looking forward to reading.

The ARC had a couple of proofreading errors, maybe.

3.5 stars

This was my first book by this author and this is also the first book in this series so it was a pretty good starting point. But this is a companion series to the Not Dead Yet series and now I have to go back and read that too, because the characters are pretty unique and I need more!


Sure, this book focuses on Evan and Colin, (more on them later) but they have an amazing found family around them, and they all are interesting characters. All of them are caring and sweet, but some of them seem pretty unique. We have a God and a Vampire Sire (and how cool that sounds??) that intrigued me to no end, and they are the MCs to the main series. So obviously I need to go back and read that, right? I mean, I need to know more about Wes, and about his relationship with Hudson!
But, as I was saying before, Evan and Colin are our MC and they are sweet and interesting and resourceful. I loved Evan’s voice since the story is in 1st person and it is Evan’s POV.

So, interesting characters and a well-developed “found family” trope (and I really love this trope) with a mystery and some action. It is good, right? But there is one thing more that I have to underline in there.
Mental health representation. Our MC suffers from depression. And we get to see how he lives with that and how his family supports him. And we get to see other mental health issues in there. And I think that the author did a pretty good job with it all. Both in representing the issues and in showing us some good support nets. I really appreciated this part, and I am looking forward to the sequels to see what she would do next. But this was really important, and I have to say again that she really did a good job with it!

Jenn Burke delivers another hit with All Fired Up. If you thought you loved Evan Fournier before, get ready to fall further. All Fired Up is a wonderful story dealing with grief and the healing process. About two people facing wildly different losses coming together and moving tentatively forward, all in the middle of a paranormal mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I loved, LOVED this book. I really loved Evan in the Not Yet Dead series, which All Fired Up is a sequel to. In fact, I was a bit mad about what Jenn Burke did at the end of the third book, so I’m really glad that Evan finally has his own series 🙂

I have read the Not Yet Dead series multiple times by now and I still love it so it was no surprise to me that I also loved All Fired Up and will also loved the next books that are going to be in this series. I also really like Jenn Burke’s writing style. Also vampires and private investigators are so up my alley. The combination of my two favourite things can only result in a good book 🙂

The Ashes & Dust series plays a few years in the future, they are already in the year 2024. Normally I’m not a big fan of time jumps but in this case it makes total sense and is even appropriate.

(Sidenote: Am I the only one or does the number 2024 just look weird? lol I’m still getting used to writing 2021 and if I’m really honest I just put 2019 on a paper last week, so… oops)

I really felt for Colin, poor guy. I won’t say more about Colin and his character development because that’s a really big spoiler. I definitely can’t wait to see Evan’s and Colin’s relationship progression though. Those two will make me swoon so much, I know it.

Also I really, really hope there will be an audiobook of this, preferably also read by Greg Boudreaux because I love his voice and he is one of the few english narrators I actually like (I’m quite picky when it comes to narrator voices)

The only thing that I didn’t like was my inability to read slower. Why do I consume books in such a speed? I guess the only thing I can do, is reread this book again right now. The biggest problem with reading an ARC is that the next book is even farther away than if you get a book on the normal release date. Book two (according to Amazon) will be titled House on Fire and will be available in November…. November!! That’s eight freaking month. Who do I need to bribe to get it earlier and does that person accept german chocolate? LOL

All Fired Up was also a very welcome distraction from writing my stupid essay. I’m nearly done so I guess I’m going back to writing it… *sigh*

Rating: 5 stars

My review will post the week of release date.

Jenn Burke has been an auto-buy author for me since reading her Chaos Station series, written with Kelly Jensen. I think I’ve read pretty much everything she’s written. All Fired Up is a spin-off from her Not Dead Yet series, and features a character I fell in love with as soon as he was introduced.

It’s been a while since the events of the last series and Evan Fournier is working in Hudson and Wes’s private investigation offices and with the help of his found family and therapist learning how to cope with his depression. He’s doing well, even if he still grieves and feels guilt over the death of his lover, Iskander. When Wes and Hud leave town on an emergency concerning Hud’s brother, they leave Evan in charge with specific instructions not to become involved if a paranormal incident lands at their doorstep. But when a friend comes to him with concerns about past patients who are dying after attending a retreat, Evan can’t say no. That means an undercover job at the retreat and the discovery that something truly sinister is behind the deaths.

Evan also meets Colin. I won’t divulge exactly who Colin is or how he fits in with this mystery, but I will say that he turns out to be Evan’s love interest and someone who I look forward to getting to know better. They form a bond in a moment of extreme danger and that bond sticks with them throughout the book. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this being the glue that holds them together (I’m not a huge fan of characters being forced together by some mystical link against their control), but as I kept reading I understood where the author was going with it. I also think she took a lot of care to give both Evan and Colin free will, with emphasis on consent, to decide where they wanted to take their relationship.

I liked the mystery and understood that there would be a HFN relationship, with the main romance and series arc continuing through three books. Evan and Colin have a lot of getting to know you to do, with both of them having to work through their mental health issues and dealing with the loss of previous partners. I also liked the frank discussions about Evan’s mental health and Colin’s questions about his sexuality. I think both are handled well, even if I was a bit upset with Colin for hurting Evan, even unintentionally.

While I do think this can be read as a stand-a-lone, I would suggest to readers wanting to add this book to their reading lists to read the Not Dead Yet series first. You will be introduced to all the main and secondary characters and discover just how this found family came to be. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

This looks to be another fantastic series by Jenn Burke. I’m looking forward to visiting with these characters again in the next book, House on Fire, which releases 11/16/2021.

So this is the spin-off from the Not Dead Yet series Hudson turned Evan in that series and he lost someone he loved in that series as well. I really recommend you pickup that series, not because you would be lost, just because it's that good. Hudson's brother, is ill & Wes & Hudson travels to England on an emergency bases. Hudson gives Evan explicit instructions not to take on any paranormal cases while they are gone. But Evan being Evan, doesn't listen. When his therapist asks for his help to investigation the deaths of some of her clients, Evan can't turn her down. So Evan's takes him to a retreat where paranormal are being treated for various mental illnesses & the place looks like an amazing place, too bad it was evil. He meets Colin, who when we first meet him is basically a zombie. He is mechanical & appears to not have any real feelings. Colin is able to do something (no spoilers), and when it goes wrong, he & Evan bond. It also snaps him out of the spell he is under & he finds out that many, many years have passed. He didn't know anything about the paranormal world prior to his "death". He was a firefighter & was engaged to be married, to a female. He was so deep in the closet that being gay was non-existent. What I would have really liked is having Colin's POV. I enjoyed the mystery & investigation. There were some really scary moments. Evan & Colin take it very slow and the book ends on a HFN with the promise of a HEA on the horizon. I can't wait for more!

This spin-off from Burke's Not Dead Yet series features young vampire and fan favorite Evan Fournier. Set 5 years after the end of the series, Evan is working with Wes and Hudson in their detective agency and still dealing with the death of the man he was just starting to love. When Wes and Hudson go abroad to care for Hudson's ailing brother, Evan promises to stick to non-paranormal PI cases only. But of course something comes up that he can't ignore, and he soon finds himself in life-threatening danger while trying to figure out what or who is stripping the magic from paranormals. Even more disturbing is the fact that he stuck in a strange bond with a very confused (but hot) guy named Colin, who may or may not be human.

Burke is smart to get Wes and Hudson out of the picture for most of the book, so that Evan has room to grow and shine on his own without being overshadowed by their powers and personalities. His wry, honest first person narration makes him an easy character to love (for those who hadn't already grown fond of him). I also liked the way Evan is very upfront about his mental health issues; he is being treated for depression and is pretty stable now, but it doesn't stop him from living his life and having some awesome vampire superpowers. There is a bit of TSTL (too stupid to live) behavior as the case reaches its climax and the plot inspires a few more eyerolls than I had hoped, but the interesting characters and snappy dialogue help to cover up any plot weaknesses.

Colin remains a bit of a cipher, and Burke wisely doesn't force a HEA on the him and Evan, choosing instead a sweet HFN with promises of more good stuff to come. There is a lot left unresolved at the end of the book; a bad guy is taken down, but the Big Bad is still out there. Colin has a lot of baggage from his past that will likely come back to (literally) haunt him, and Evan is still finding his place in the world. I'm looking forward to spending more time with both MCs and the rest of the "family" as more mysteries are solved, issues are addressed and hopefully bonds are strengthened.

N.B. This book could be considered a standalone, but it will be much more enjoyable for those who have read the Not Dead Yet series, which introduces Evan and takes him through his vampire initiation, first love and loss.

ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for honest review.

All Fired Up is the first book in the Ashes & Dust series by Jenn Burke. This is a spin-off from her Not Dead Yet series. While you don't have to read that to enjoy this one I personally would because besides the fact that that is a great series, you would then know the backstory of the main character Evan and pretty much all the supporting characters in this one.

When vampire Evan's bosses' and family, Wes and Hudson, are out of the country he is in charge of their private investigation business. He is told to not accept any new paranormal cases but when someone close to him asks for help he can't refuse. He finds himself in the middle than something much bigger than he expected and bound to a stranger who wants nothing to do with their paranormal world.

It was so great to be back with this cast of characters again. I was so sad when the Not Dead Yet series finished without Evan getting his own satisfying conclusion, and it looks like it will be happening in this series. Evan is such a fantastic complex character. He struggles with depression and while he's been doing much better he still has time when his fears, insecurities and guilt from the past weighs him down. He is trying so hard to be more mature in this book, but sometimes his emotions still get the best of him. Then we have Colin {{sigh}} I feel for the man I really do but the way he hurts Evans feelings without meaning to still irks because I'm very attached to that cinnamon roll of a vampire. I had a hard time connecting to/ caring for him , even if he spouted some swoon worthy lines to Evan and had been through something traumatic. The 'relationship' between them was alright. Evan helps Colton see it's okay to question his sexuality but since they are both healing from lost loves they decide to take it slow between them.

The case that Evan has to solve with the help of his friends was interesting with layers and plenty of "oh sh*t " moments that kept me engaged with it. While it's wrapped up at the end for the moment you're left with the knowledge that it's not completely over. I think this could have really benefited from Colin's POV instead of just Evans. Hopefully now that his character has been bonded into their makeshift found family that he will get his own POV in the next book.

Overall, I enjoyed the start of the Ashes & Dust series and look forward to the rest of the series.


-My review will be posted on Amazon & my blog on May 18th-

The first in a duology, All Fired Up is part paranormal romance, and part thrilling mystery. Vampire PI Evan goes undercover to investigate why paranormals are dying after attending a mental health retreat. He comes back with more questions than answers and somehow bonded to a stranger. Colin wakes up after a fire with no memory of the past 34 years and not only learns that magic is real, but that his magic has created a bond with Evan. The two must work together to uncover the truth of what happened to Colin and who is out to hurt the paranormal community.