Seize the Fire

TEST

I felt emotionally exhausted by the time I’d finished reading this book. There’s no way to do it justice in couple of paragraphs, but there’s no question that in Sheridan Drake, Ms Kinsale has created one of the most complex, compelling heroes – should that be anti-heroes? – I’ve ever read.

A decorated naval officer, widely regarded as one of the nation’s heroes, Sheridan knows he’s a fraud. He’s clever, ruthless and manipulative, but finds himself on the receiving end of similar treatment following his father’s death, when his father’s former mistress – who is companion to Olympia, princess of a small European state – insists Sheridan marry Olympia in order for him to obtain the inheritance left him. Olympia already has a serious case of hero-worship, even before she meets Sheridan, and of course he exploits that to the full – but she nonetheless turns him down. A series of misadventures sees the couple running off in secret, captured by convicts, stranded on an island together, and then sold into slavery, and over the course of those events, Olympia comes to see Sheridan at his worst, and his best – and to love him in spite of it all.

I honestly couldn’t put the book down. It’s not an easy read at times, because Sheridan is a difficult character to like. But it gradually becomes clear that he is not really what he seems to be, and that he’s in fact a deeply troubled man who is haunted by so many of those events for which he has been lauded as a hero. My one complaint about the book is that the ending is very abrupt, but it’s still an amazing story.

Buy it at: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/Apple Books/Kobo

Reviewed by Caz Owens

Grade: A

Book Type: Historical Romance

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date: 04/08/15

Publication Date: 04/2014

Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

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nblibgirl
nblibgirl
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01/26/2019 6:50 pm

Ok, you’ve convinced me . . . I’m picking this one up again :-)

Em
Em
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Reply to  nblibgirl
01/27/2019 8:26 am

Me too!

Em Wittmann
Em Wittmann
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Reply to  Caz Owens
01/27/2019 4:43 pm

On it!

Em Wittmann
Em Wittmann
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Reply to  Caz Owens
01/28/2019 8:30 am

Started it this morning. I totally thought this was a different Kinsale! :)
excellent already.

nblibgirl
nblibgirl
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01/26/2019 2:18 pm

I read this book years ago, shortly after falling in love with Flowers from the Storm, and remember being disappointed. It was described by one favorable reviewer somewhere (not here at AAR) as being a terrific romance despite also being one of the most accurate descriptions of what it is like to live with PTSD. I’ve often thought I should try reading it again . . . Flowers may have set too high a bar and Sieze the Fire suffered (unfairly?) in comparison.

Blackjack
Blackjack
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Reply to  nblibgirl
01/26/2019 6:27 pm

Like Caz, Seize the Fire is one of my favorites of Kinsale’s books. I actually do like the ending in a perverse kind of way – it’s haunting and doesn’t let the characters off the hook for the trauma they incur and the actions they undertake. They will live with all of it, but they will do so together and become stronger for it. It feels more like the end of a literary novel than a traditional romance, but Kinsale pulls it off.

CarolineAAR
CarolineAAR
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01/25/2019 8:51 am

I finally read this and agree with this review – both that it’s exhausting and that it’s excellent and also that I wanted more of an ending. Both Sheridan and Olympia are so traumatized by what they have gone through that such a short ending left me still worried about them – an epilogue would have been helpful.

I see a lot of similarities between Sheridan and Francis Lymond of Dorothy Dunnett’s books.

Keira Soleore
Keira Soleore
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Reply to  CarolineAAR
01/25/2019 11:17 pm

Yes! I felt like Kinsale’s book is an ode to Dunnett.