I love Nora Roberts when she writes as J.D. Robb. I read one of Roberts’s traditional romance years ago and, while it was a good book, I didn’t put her none Robb stuff on the top of my TBR mountain. A friend read this one and recommended it so I did put it on the stack.
It’s really good.
Rowan Tripp is a fire jumper, like her father before her. She’s still having nightmares about the jumper who died last season.
Gulliver Curry is a hot shot fire fighter, and a rookie in his first season jumping fire.
The whole team is still recovering from Jim’s death last year and it doesn’t help when the woman he was sleeping with shows up with a baby she claims is Jim’s and looking for a job. She blames Rowan for Jim’s death and sets out for revenge. Soon, several other deaths follow and fires are when the bodies are dumped.
Parts of Chasing Fire are predictable. Rowan and Gull end up in bed. (But the sex wasn’t overly graphic.) I thought I knew who the bad guy was but I wasn’t completely sure until he revealed himself. I love when an author can stump me and they’ve played fair with the clues.
For me, this book worked on several levels. It’s a good romance. Even though hero and heroine fall into bed pretty quickly, it was believable. There was none of that instant hatred of each other, then jumping into bed when lust gets the better of them. I like that Roberts respects her readers enough to not use that tired plot. It’s a crackling good mystery. There are clues but they’re not obvious. There are subplots and layers to the story that made a compelling read. I don’t know much about fire jumping but I feel like I do now. The fire fighting scenes were well placed and so hot, my fingers felt singed.
This is a definite winner!
Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family 