Shannon C.’s review of Icefire (Pure Wildfire, Book 2) by Lynne Connolly
Paranormal romance published by Ellora’s Cave 30 May 2008
One of the best surprises I’ve had this past month has been Lynne Connolly’s paranormal books. With the second book in her Pure Wildfire series, Ms. Connolly continues her winning streak. Pure Wildfire is a rock band, consisting of firebird shapeshifters, and given that I love me some musicians, this is absolutely one of my favorite premises for a series.
The first book in the series, which I reviewed on my blog featured the lead guitarist for the band, Aidan Hawthorne. This book features his brother, Ryan, the band’s vocalist and songwriter. Ryan is a tortured soul, having lost Maria, the love of his life, five years ago to a drug overdose. He’s never gotten over her, nor has he gotten over the fact that it seems that Maria’s death via a drug overdose wasn’t precisely accidental.
Now, Maria’s stepsister, Gina, is hired to work as Pure Wildfire’s PR person. Gina hasn’t gotten over Maria’s death either, and she blames Ryan for causing it. Then she meets him at a concert, and the connection between them positively sizzles. But the road to true love never has run smoothly, and someone still wants Ryan and Gina dead.
Ms. Connolly takes her time to introduce us to these characters. She doesn’t rush anything, which is a refreshing change from a lot of ebooks. We slowly become aware of just how complicated Ryan and Gina are, and though they have an instant connection and are in bed rather quickly, they have a long way to go and a lot of issues to work through before they can have their HEA.
I really did love both of these characters. Gina is a strong heroine, fully capable of taking care of herself and pretty sure that she’s going to end up having a quick fling with Ryan and that’s it. She is conscious of not wanting to be another groupie in a long list of groupies, and she is capable of doing her job even while she is in the middle of a relationship. It would have been really easy to turn Gina into an outlet for a lot of female fantasies about sleeping with rock stars, but she’s a well-developed character on her own so I didn’t think she came across that way at all.
Ryan was awesome, too. As with a lot of Ms. Connolly’s heroes, he’s not this larger-than-life beefcake. He is described as being slender but strong, and that was a really nice change of pace from hulking brutes. I also really loved him as a character. He’s been through a lot, some of which was pretty much self-inflicted, but he doesn’t wallow in his own angst. When he decides that he wants Gina, he’s very grown up about it, accepting, at least for a while, that she probably won’t want a future with him, but then gradually insinuating himself into her life anyway.
The romance between these characters was well done. I thought that their progression from hostility to lust to friendship to love was very well-drawn, and it moves along at a believable pace. None of the sex scenes felt gratuitous or forced, and all of them were intense.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think that the rest of the plot surrounding the story worked quite as well. I never really felt much of a sense of danger from any of Ryan and Gina’s enemies, and when the villain of the peace was eventually revealed, I thought it was pretty obvious it had been him all along. I also thought that some of the scenes had a tendency to drag just a bit.
Overall, this is a nice addition to Lynne Connolly’s work, and I am looking forward to reading more. I think it should also be said here that I probably would have graded this book a bit higher if I hadn’t read a *lot* of Lynne Connolly books this month. Doubtless if I ever do a reread, this grade will go up. But I still recommend her books to anyone looking for fun, interesting paranormals.
Grade: B
Summary:
Ryan Hawthorne, brother of Aidan, the hero of Sunfire, is in New York with the band, promoting the release of their second studio album. While he’s there, he plans to uncover the person who killed his lost love Maria, five years ago. The death was attributed to a drugs overdose, but Ryan’s always had his doubts.
He meets Maria’s stepsister Gina (Angelina) who has always hated the band for corrupting and ultimately killing her sister. However she is forced to rethink her assumptions when she meets Ryan. Together they try to uncover the PHR cell that is still persecuting the band Pure Wildfire, but in doing so they discover a lot more.
Read an excerpt.
Read an excerpt here.
