THE FIREMAN WHO LOVED ME by Jennifer Bernard

Publisher:   Avon

Date published:   April 24, 2012

ISBN:  978-0062088963

Genre:   Contemporary Romance

Book format: Paperback

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

 

When her grandmother, Nelly, invites her to a special event that turns out to be a bachelor Firefighter’s auction, Melissa McGuire is less than pleased. When her grandmother starts in bidding on one of the oh so hot and hunky firefighters Melissa heads for the door. Before she can exit the building she runs head long into the poster boy for what makes a fireman fodder for a vivid imagination. Tall, broad shouldered with steely grey eyes, Harry Brody is any woman’s fantasy. Well, anyone but Melissa’s. Melissa prefers intelligent, well-read, creative types like sculptors and painters and writers.

A few days later Nelly is awaiting her auction date but cries off because suddenly she’s not feeling so well. She quickly (and sneakily) decides to send Melissa in her place. Meanwhile, the fireman Nelly bid on gets cold feet and is looking for a way out of his date. Not one to renege on a deal, Brody agrees to step up and take the date. When he arrives at Melissa and Nelly’s door he’s secretly pleased—he was taken when the dark haired Melissa but didn’t quite know how to go about pursuing her. After all, as one of the famed…and cursed…Bachelor Fireman of San Gabriel, marriage or any kind of happily ever after isn’t in the cards for him. But, honouring the auction the pair venture out on Brody’s well planned date with the elder McGuire, Nelly.

Not far into the date Melissa explains why she cannot and will not see Brody again—they just don’t suit. And that’s fine with Brody because of “the curse”. Yet neither can stop thinking about the other. Because of Melissa’s job as a news producer they find themselves thrown together again and again. And bit by bit they give into their attraction for each other.

Sadly they both have ex’s who want back in their lives and that ex-wife and ex-boyfriend make things extremely difficult for the pair. Even with Nelly’s machinations to get and keep them together the relationship seems doomed. It takes a crisis to stop them in their tracks and think about what they are giving up. But will they swallow their pride and give each other a chance?

THE FIREMAN WHO LOVED ME by Jennifer Bernard is a cute read with some wonderful and at times endearing characters. I really liked Brody. He’s an all around good guy with solid motivations and ideals. Any woman would be lucky to have someone like him in their life and especially in a romantic way. He’s smart, caring, keeps his word and strives to do the right thing. He’s also pretty darn hot.

I didn’t much care for Melissa. Granted her past career problems contributed to some of her reticence and constantly finding herself as the underdog, but her priorities seem a bit skewed. She ruminates over bringing the big story to light. When an abused foster child comes to her for help she talks a good line about investigating his and his siblings’ plight but she never quite gets in gear to do so because she’s too busy trying to figure things out with Brody. If the investigation and/or her career meant as much as she says it does she would have stepped up a lot sooner to get into the investigation. Not calling the child back, not scheduling appointments, not moving forward really in any way—well how important could his welfare be? It isn’t until the child is badly beaten she steps up but then turns right around and puts him on the back burner again.

I didn’t much like Ella Joy either but as the bad guy in the piece she’s not supposed to be likable. I think we all know or have met the special girl who gets everything she wants just because she’s cute.  I don’t think many of us like her very much either. She and Everett were a bit over the top and their scenes weren’t funny.

Nelly was great. I really liked Nelly. Her conversations with Leon were well done and I got a bit teary at the end where she was concerned. We could all use a Nelly in our life.

And while a minor character, Stan was great. I really hope we see more of Stan as the series goes on. He add this element of a combination of humour and caring to the story.

There is some good comedy in the story, especially around the “Thanksgiving Special.” Despite being almost 400 pages in length it is the kind of story you can pick up and start to read and go cover to cover without stopping or you can put it down and pick it up again a few days later and not forget what came before. It has a nice balance to it for someone on the run who needs to read in chunks and doesn’t want to miss any of the action.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.