The first couple of pages, or even chapters, definitely make an impression on me, and that impression usually is a good indicator of whether I will like a book or not. My first thoughts of this book were not favorable, and no matter how long I read, the author never changed my mind. After a…
The Fireman Who Loved Me is a vaguely pleasant read that at times seems to pit the hero and heroine against each other in a “Who’s the Bigger Doormat Now?” contest. Not exactly what you’d expect from a book with a fire chief hero and television news producer heroine. News producer Melissa McGuire’s recently left…
Nora Roberts doesn’t need a whole lot of introduction. Chasing Fire, her new contemporary romantic suspense, has what you would expect from her: A solid romance, quirky but well-developed secondary characters, and bizarre names. (Gulliver Curry may give Boween Goodnight of Blue Smoke a run for his money.) But there were also some things lacking….
America tends to dominate the romance market, so it was nice to see a story featuring Italian characters actually living in Italy. Despite a misleading title (there’s a firefighter and a baby, but no doorstep), Firefighter’s Doorstep Baby is a sweet story, if a bit of a slow one. Mariella Holmes had a promising career…
I’ll definitely be filing Deadly Heat under “guilty pleasure.” It features a cock-sure hero, steamy sex scenes galore, and a hero and heroine who can barely sit in a room together for five seconds without tearing each other’s clothes off. I’m not sure any of it was believable, but it was certainly fun. Firefighter Lora…
When I pick up a book by Karen Rose, I know I’m in for one heck of a thrill ride. The plotting is almost always right on target, she writes good characters, and, while her villains may tend toward the supersmart serial killers, they don’t cross the line into campy eeeeevil. With Silent Scream, she…
Line of Fire is Jo Davis’s fourth book in her series about the men and women of Fire Station Five. It not only gives us the story of Tommy Skylar, the glamour boy of the outfit, but sets up the story for Sean Tanner, whose story will be told in the next book in the…
You don’t have to look much farther than a calendar shop to realize that women think firefighters are sexy. Bella Andre fully understands the attraction to firefighters in Wild Heat and creates a truly delicious hero, but missteps in a few other areas. Arson investigator Maya Jackson has been surrounded by firefighters her whole life…
Flashpoint is the first book in a connected miniseries about firefighters in a Southern California town. It’s a fun, sexy read with enjoyable characters and an interesting mystery subplot. It’s my first book by this author, but I’ll definitely be checking out her backlist. Zach Thomas was orphaned at age 10 when his parents were…
There are plenty of books with fireman heroes out there, but for some reason (because I don’t really have a fireman fantasy?) I haven’t read many of them. I found Trial by Fire to be a bit of a mixed bag. There were some suspenseful parts that I really enjoyed, and some that just didn’t…