Publisher: Signet Eclipse
Date published: 2008
ISBN: 978-0-451-22477-4
Romantic Suspense, Thriller
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
Obtained by self purchase
Howard “Six-pack” Paxton is every woman’s romance dream. At six foot six inches without an ounce of fat on his oh so yummy frame, he’s tall, dark and testosterone loaded handsome. For most of his adult life he’s managed to avoid any kind of permanent romantic entanglement and happily so. Well, maybe not happily, but with his history never far from his mind, he’s pretty certain no woman would want him for the long haul.
Kat McKenna hasn’t had the best luck with men. While she’s at home in her curvy body, the men she’s met seem to want to change her. Happy with her teaching she has no desire to join her family’s law firm. While her parents are away on the cruise of a lifetime with their neighbors, Kat is keeping an eye on their homes. When she arrives one night, not only is their family friends’ house on fire, Kat is certain she hears a scream coming from within the flaming building. Without a second thought for herself, Kat grabs a garden hose and heads into the flames. In minutes the firefighters from Station Five arrive and Kat is pulled out with a case of smoke inhalation.
When Howard sees the woman he’s rescued he’s totally and completely a goner. Every fiber of his being vibrates with need for Kat and in no short order, he finds himself falling in love with the curvy blonde. But someone with a life long vendetta is stalking Howard and leaving him souvenirs from a series of arson-murders. When Kat becomes the killer’s target, Howard tries to be there for her, but his past is rapidly catching up with him. Can he work through his own personal nightmare to rescue the woman he loves?
TRIAL BY FIRE, book 1 of Jo Davis Firefighters of Station Five series, I spent a good five minutes just staring at the cover. We’re talking one gorgeous male specimen in living color. Her hero, Howard Paxton, outdoes that uber handsome hunk and then some. She creates a three dimensional character that seems to step off the pages and into your life in the first few paragraphs. Howard’s history is sensitively revealed to the reader, so that by time he unravels his own past, you want to hold him close and never let go. Ms. Davis takes on a difficult situation and presents it with such care and compassion you want to right these same wrongs in the real world.
The initial pages ooze with steamy sensuality. The hero and heroine waste no time getting all hot and bothered with each other. Talking about leaping flames! After awhile though, all the sizzle between internal sizzle between the characters became a tad much and I wondered if the entire book would be about their desire for each other. While the subject matter Ms. Davis delves into is difficult to read, she does it with such understanding and compassion you have to stick with it. It was almost as if all the sexual desire filling the beginning of the book was her own defense against the issues raised later in the book. In the end, she combines the best of both situations into an amazing love story. I can’t wait to dig into the rest of the series.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.
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