HOPE IGNITES by Jaci Burton

Publisher:     Berkley Jove

Published:     March 24, 2014   

ISBN:        978-0425259771

Genre:      Contemporary Romance

Format:     Print  

Obtained via:  Publisher

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

FOUR-1/2 HEARTS

Logan McCormick is perfectly happy with his life on the family ranch in Oklahoma.  His brother, Luke, is a local police officer and living with his finance, veterinarian Emma and his younger brother, Reid, an architecture business in Boston.  When a movie producer asks to use the L&M ranch to film he figures there’s enough land that their paths won’t cross.  But large as the ranch is, not much time goes by before Logan meets up with the female star, Desiree Jenkins.  And the fireworks that erupt between the two have nothing to do with the Fourth of July.  Thing is Logan has no intention of falling in love—with anyone, let alone a Hollywood star.  And Desiree (Des) has her own life.  But the thing with hearts—heads can’t always tell them what to feel.

Like a finely orchestrated dance Des and Logan move toward each other only to pull away again and again.  It’s not Des who refuses to follow her heart.  She just can’t see how it could work with the often rude yet impossibly handsome rancher.  She is, however, willing to take a chance.  And just when Logan is ready to give their relationship a chance he comes upon Des in a romantic clinch that has nothing to do with their movie, with co-star Colt.  But Colt has a secret that has nothing to do with his professional relationship with Des.  Can Logan learn to trust the woman he is falling in love with long enough to move beyond his own past?

What a great story.  Jaci Burton’s HOPE IGNITES is one of her absolute, if not the absolute, best she’s written.  There is so much to like about this book.  First of all, her writing is in essentially the same every day language I use.  Just basic, down home language you hear your friends speaking and you do get what the characters are thinking and feeling.

In a time when so many authors are including a gay couple in otherwise heterosexual books not because they are part of the story but in what appears to be a ploy to draw in readers who wouldn’t ordinarily read a particular story, Burton’s gay couple is an essential part of the story.  They aren’t a gratuitous addition, but an essential part of the storyline.  And that Colt and Tony have their own story unfold in the pages is wonderfully and compassionately done. 

Likewise, the way Burton handles the clash of Des and Logan’s cultures is well done.  There were a few moments when I wondered how she was going to bring them together and was pleasantly surprised at how they ultimately resolved their dark moment.  This is a definite must read.

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