Review: Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick

The Arcane Society was born in turmoil, when the friendship of its two founders evolved into a fierce rivalry. Nicholas Winters’s efforts led to the creation of a device of unknown powers called the Burning Lamp. Each generation, the Winters man who inherits it is destined to develop multiple talents — and the curse of madness.
Plagued by hallucinations and nightmares, the notorious crime lord Griffin Winters is convinced he has been struck with the Winters Curse. But even as he arranges a meeting with the mysterious Adelaide Pyne, he has no idea how closely their fates are bound, for she holds the missing lamp in her possession.
Their dangerous psychical experiment makes them the target of forces both inside and outside the Arcane Society. And though desire strengthens their power, their different lives will keep them apart — if death doesn’t take them together.

As Rebecca from Dirty Sexy Books mentioned last week in her review of Fired Up, the first part of this Dreamlight Trilogy of which Burning Lamp is part two, the numeration of these books can get a little confusing. Reminds me a little of trying to put in order comic books, what with all the volumes and restarts that Marvel and DC do so horribly well. Anyhoo, I didn't like Fired Up all that much but thought that Burning Lamp is much better. Of course, I prefer her Amanda Quick historicals to her Jayne Ann Krentz contemporary romances anyway. There is something about that time period that makes the men more extraordinary to me - maybe it's that they had a more difficult time period to live in and that makes them stand out more? When many of the men dress like dandies and are more girly than I, men that are men back then seem even sexier than usual, right?

Who could be more manly than a crime lord? Can you imagine a crime lord dandy? LOL. Griffin Winters is definitely no dandy but he's not but he's no Scarface either. And Adelaide Pyne is no typical lady of the haute ton. These two were pretty entertaining together. It's really too bad that the concept of this trilogy is so ridiculous - a tacky-looking lamp is the solution to letting the men descended from the creator hold on to their sanity? Really? I would picture it to be more like a lava lamp or something. I was satisfied to see Griffin and Adelaide interact with some of the past lovers in the Arcane series along with seeing one of the subplots that's been in the Quick installments of this series be partially resolved. The next book, Midnight Crystal, is being published one of Krentz's other pseudonyms, Jayne Castle, and is part of her futuristic Harmony series. It's release date is August 31, 2010.