*Originally reviewed on Pages Of Forbidden Love :O Uhhh…Oh no…You didn’t just end like that?! I felt like things were going well. I was liking where things were going. Burning was on its way to being considered a good book and then I totally was not a fan of the end. Why? I obviously can’t tell you but I can say it was enough to ruin it all for me. I can honestly see others being happy with it but for me it was far from satisfying. I sat in the backseat finishing this off on our long ride home when all of a sudden I startled my cousin with my shouts of protest. I swiped left and right on my Nook hoping I was missing something but alas I was not. “You got to be kidding me” was about all I could manage as a stared at the screen.Alright, before I scare you off, I am pretty particular about my endings and I know many will probably find it satisfying. Although I did not that doesn’t mean I disliked the whole thing. Besides the cover being absolutely beautiful some of the messages and scenarios in this story were quite touching. Both Ben and Lala were at points in their lives where they found themselves conflicted and confused. The future of the people close to Ben was so unknown after their town began to shutdown but Ben’s future was looking bright and clear. He was off to college on scholarship and was trying to cope with the guilt of leaving his friends behind along with the concern for his family starting again on their own without him. Does he really want to go on without them? How will they fair? Lala knows what her future entails as well and the closer she gets to it the more she wishes to run away. Her family is all she has though and the ways of the gypsies are all she has been taught. Can she handle what it would mean to leave them? Could she live with it all?Ben seemed so young while reading. There was so much he still needed to figure out and I liked that about him. He also cared so much about the well being of the people close to him, even when he went about it the wrong way, and I think that is a great quality. He wanted to be going to college, he felt he deserved it because of all the hard work he had put in over the years but he wasn’t ready just to run away and leave everyone behind. Like I said he felt guilt for having something that others don’t and worried about others. Lala on the other hand had so much wisdom and insight. She saw what other didn’t in others and in themselves. She wanted more than she knew was coming to her in life and I loved that about her but I also had my problems with her. Although both she and Ben helped each other grow and move forward a lot in this book I still wasn’t her biggest fan all the time. On the one hand I understood her and wanted to root her on for wanting what she wanted but then I felt like she could have worried about the lives of others a little more.Overall, I loved the idea of the story. It was different from other books I have read and all the gypsy stuff was very interesting. I don’t know anything about gypsy’s so I cannot comment on accuracy but all the information on some of their customs really added to getting to know Lala. Burning was in both Ben and Lala’s POV so it was nice getting to read how they each saw each other as well as getting to read their internal struggles and how they grow throughout the book. Her secondary characters were just as enjoyable as her main characters with a good mix of personalities. Ben’s younger brother was actually my favorite even though he had the least time in the book. He was younger than them all and seemed to be the most put together. Growth was the biggest theme in this book and Elena Arnold nailed that perfectly while still leaving her characters with even more room to grow. It was the best part of the book and if it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t come to terms with the ending I’d definitely be giving Burning a higher rating.
