Feature Review: "Trial By Fire"

He'll help you save the day - and set your nights on fire!

Like so many women, I began reading romance to sooth those intense, anxious feelings that left us reeling those first years following 9/11.

I didn't make the connection immediately. At the time, it seemed like I was just having an adverse reaction to a steady diet of God-forbid-we-should-be-too-hopeful-by-book's-end women's fiction. And it probably took someone saying how ridiculous they thought romance was -- what with all its "outrageous" heroics and "sappy" happily ever afters -- to make me realize the stark, God's honest truth --

I needed a hero.

And I needed him to help me rescue our future, the way so many of us have felt responsible to do post-9/11; we're alive, we survived, we have to make things better...

But moving forward is hard daily work, on top of being moms and wives and sisters and lovers and women who can -- and do -- "do it all." At the end of the day, we grab a romance novel to be assured of missions accomplished, rather than the insecurities we harbor still. And with the romance novel fantasy we have the luxury of relinquishing a little control to the big, sexy guy who'll help us save the day, then wrap us in his arms and say, "I love you. Rest awhile. Everything will be fine."

Yet there are some heroes, girlfriend, in whose arms you ain't gonna' want to do much resting at the end of that day. You're going to want to take full advantage of the brawn and the brains and driving virility that make his heroics wicked larger than life.

In that spirit, please let me introduce you to the hero we've been waiting for: Howard "Six Pack" Paxton. He's the insanely honorable and brave firefighter star of "Trial by Fire," the ridiculously entertaining and equally arousing kick-off to Jo Davis' highly anticipated Firefighters of Station Five series.

All 6 feet 6 inches and 260 pounds of Howard "Don't Call Me Howie" Paxton have had it with being used solely for emotionally hollow one-night stands. While that's not the only reason he's pretty much relationship-phobic, even the deeper, darker reason doesn't seem to be enough to keep him from instantaneously falling in lust with - and jumpin' all possessive over -- the curvy little school teacher he rescues from an arsonist's handiwork.

Kat McKenna's used to men treating her like she's "too sexy to have a Masters in education." Yet from the first, Lieutenant Paxton talks to her with respect and a sweet deference that has Kat bracing herself for a head-over-heels fall into possible heartache with the too-big-hearted-to-be-true leader of Sugarland Fire Department's Station Five. But Kat takes a chance on starting up something - and a little love-inducing sumthin' sumthin - with Howard that seems to be going somewhere fast.

 

When a serial arsonist /murderer continues to target Station Five's territory - and leaves gruesome clues that seem specifically placed to harass Howard - the Lieutenant vows to find the twisted criminal before the creep can kill again. And it becomes clear to Howard that he's endangering Kat because of his connection to the arsonist.

Yet when Howard tries to keep Kat safe by pouring on the overbearing alpha male, she doesn't feel like being ordered around, especially by a guy who can't - or won't - trust her with the secrets that seem to be tearing him apart. So Kat has to decide: Is being needed and cherished by Howard enough, when she wants to give him her heart? And Howard's got to come to terms with whether keeping Kat emotionally at arm's length really is protecting her - or absolutely is killing him.

"Trial by Fire" is a brilliant start to one of the most exciting "band of brothers" series since J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood. It's sweet and sexy, tense and suspenseful and - the best part -- pushes the erotic envelope in a way that fuses emotional intimacy with hot, sweaty sensuality.

Yet "Trial by Fire" isn't a "titillating" romance, simply romance as it should be: fun to read, and with an engaging plot that intrigues without usurping the remarkably sexy central love story.

Don't hesitate to get you some hero -- get "Trial by Fire" today. Then, read an exclusive Five Alarm Hot Sneak Peek excerpt from Davis' next book, "Under Fire," here. I'm not sure you can pre-order this series too soon, so --

Buy the books.

Meet the Firefighters of Station Five at JoDavis.net!