TEST
Elizabeth Lowell and I sort of have a win-some, lose-some relationship. When she’s hot, she’s hot (and how!), and when she’s not, well, you get Fire and Rain. I’ve read several of the books in the Western Man series (since they are mostly reissues, I have no idea which came first or in what order I should have read them), and a couple of them have been pretty good. And a couple haven’t. Fire and Rain is a haven’t. I can tell you why right now, too – it’s because nothing happens. Nothing. It’s just plain boring, and the thick-headed hero didn’t win my sympathies at all. Also, if you’ve readToo Hot To Handle, you’ve already read Fire and Rain. The storylines are almost identical, the heroes clones of each other in every way – almost as though the author plagiarized herself!
Luke MacKenzie and Cash McQueen (Granite Man) have been friends forever. Always tagging along with the two pals was Cash’s “kid” (I just hate that term) half-sister, Carla. We know Carla is twenty-one now, because it’s mentioned many, many, many times throughout the story, but we have no idea how old Luke is – he is just “older.” So much older, at least in his mind, that it’s something Luke just can’t get past (he constantly calls her “schoolgirl,” thus reinforcing him as adult and her as child). Then there’s Luke’s “All Women Leave” one-note samba. Let me explain.
Luke owns the Rocking M Ranch which sits on some awfully rugged territory. So rugged that no woman in the history of Luke’s family (except for the Founding Mother) has opted to stay on it for very long. Since Luke’s mother took his own “kid” sister Mariah (Granite Man) and moved back East, abandoning Luke to his father and a life of loneliness, Luke refuses to consider marriage to any woman – because? “All Women Leave.”
During a poker game, Carla’s cooking and housekeeping services for the summer are thrown into the pot (in lieu of money), and Luke “wins” Carla. Well, Luke will accept Carla’s cooking, but he tells her she’ll leave lonnnnng before September, because, what’s the answer class? That’s right, “All Women Leave.”
But Carla doesn’t leave; she loves the ranch, and she loves Luke (and has, since she was little). Three years ago, she offered herself and her love to Luke and in a drunken rage, he viciously rejected her. After all, she’s his best friend’s “kid” sister! And, even if he did let himself love her – now, don’t make me say it, you know the answer – “All Women Leave.” Very good, you’re a quick study.
Throughout this meager story, these two themes are repeated ad nauseum until finally, Luke and Carla consummate their shaky relationship and Luke asks Carla to marry him. She refuses (of course), and the love-hate-touch-don’t touch-sex-no sex race is on.
While I understand Luke’s motivations, the continuous droning of “all women leave” and “but she’s my best friend’s kid sister!” left me irritated (and disappointed – I had thought Luke and Carla’s story was going to be a good one). In real life, people do suffer these kinds of hurts and dilemmas and we really do push love away because of it. But a book can’t dwell so fiercely on these things because after a while, the reader starts to whine, “Yeah, yeah, all right already – get over it.”
Carla was okay – she was an archeologist (something I myself wanted to be when I grew up), but, in an effort to elevate Luke from mere bronc-bustin’ cowboy, and to try to convince us he had more intelligence than God gave a goat, Ms. Lowell has given Luke a fine arts degree from the University of Colorado. A cowboy with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts? Why? Wouldn’t he logically have majored in business administration or at least some kind of animal husbandry?
If you’re an Elizabeth Lowell fan (yes, I am), and you like her love scenes (hot and sexy and often purple), you’ll find Luke and Carla’s romance passable fare. But there are certainly better examples out there of her work than I found in Fire and Rain.
Grade: D
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 15/01/98
Publication Date: 1997
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.