Book Review: Burn Bright

Burn Brighti is the first book in the Cobalt Empire series by Krista & Becca Ritchie. It’s the latest spinoff to the original Addicted series and each book will follow one of the Cobalts. Burn Bright follows Ben Cobalt and Harriet Fisher.

Ben is the 6th born out of the 7 kids Rose Calloway and Connor Cobalt have. Ben is now a sophomore in college and has transferred from UPenn to Manhattan Valley because his brothers have convinced him to live in New York with them. Harriet Fisher has also just transferred from UPenn to Manhattan Valley and has hopes of becoming a trauma surgeon one day. Harriet first appeared in this universe back in the Like Us series. She was Luna’s lab partner at UPenn and before that she had auditioned to be the new drummer of Tom Cobalt’s band and while she was the best one there, she was under 18 at the time so Tom wouldn’t pick her.

Ben is in New York after his brothers talked him into joining them, but for some reason he has no money (no one knows) and he has plans to leave in the fall (no one knows). Enter Harriet – she’s been taking care of herself since she was a little kid and is trying to do all the things in order to have a great resume for med school. She doesn’t have any friends and when she runs into Ben not only has she run into someone she knows, but someone who wants to be her friend. The two become friends and confidants. And their attraction to one another develops into real feelings. But can they be together when Ben is planning to leave and disappear from the city soon?

This is a thick book for a contemporary romance. It’s like a fantasy book with its page length! It is over 650 pages and while some parts were a little slow, the book kept moving along and didn’t feel as long as it is. Plus, I just love the Cobalts and the entire universe Krista & Becca Ritchie have created. I really enjoyed the book and loved Harriet. I really liked Ben, but sometimes he annoyed me with how much he constantly blamed himself for every single thing that happened. This does get explained later on though which made me a little less annoyed with him, but still. My favorite part of the book is seeing the brothers live together and how they all, even Charlie, really rallied to make sure Ben felt wanted in New York and convince him to stay with them in their apartment and not go off on his own.

Read this if you want a college friends to lovers, slow burn romance and especially if you’re a fan of the Addicted series.

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