Veena’s review of Pure Heat (Firehawks, Book 1) by M.L. Buchman
Contemporary Romance published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 5 May 14
With this new series M.L. Buchman takes us out of the heat of war in Afghanistan straight into the scorching heat of wildfires in Oregon. I am delighted, however, to find my favorite Night Stalkers, Emily Beale Henderson and Mark Henderson, along with their baby daughter, making the journey with us to Mount Hood Aviation and the Oregon wildfire fighter team. The author skillfully blends in firefighting and flying with a terrific love story to deliver an adventure-packed first novel in the series.
Former smokejumper Steve “Merks” Mercer has had a tough time reconciling his passion for fighting fire with his useless leg after having it blown out in an accident. Determined to continue his love affair with wildfires, he’s remade himself into a spotter and drone pilot and now fights fires from the skies. He’s daring and takes risks to save lives, as demonstrated by his quick-thinking descent from the Firehawk to pluck one of the smokejumpers out of the fire.
Otherwise known as “The Flame Witch,” Carly has grown up around fires. She can read the fire patterns and smell the changes in the wind, making her one of the best spotters in this part of the country. Carly keeps herself emotionally safe by blocking most people from getting too close. Then she meets Steve. There’s something about the physically damaged Steve that calls to her emotionally damaged side, and, before long, they’ve breached each other’s defenses.
As the couple battles wildfires, they’ll have to come to terms with the heat generated between them. Can Steve see past his disability and learn to love fighting fires from the sky? Can Carly let another man who answers the call of the flames into her life…and her heart?
There’s never really much past the surface of Steve, other than his feelings about his accident and his leg. I got a little tired about his self-pitying attitude; plus, I can’t reconcile myself with his jumping between cocky player and lovesick hero. The character I truly relate to in this series is Carly. I want to cry with her when she recounts the harrowing details of her father’s and fiancé’s deaths. Of course, I have a continuing love affair with my favorite characters Emily and Mark Henderson and some of the tender and loving gestures between them continue to touch my heart.
The first half of the book is devoted to an education in firefighting and helicopter flying as the team goes out to various scenarios. If you enjoy the detail, it’s a great education; but if you don’t, it’s worth persevering past it to the story that follows which picks up the pace, especially in the last third of the book, to bring us to an exciting adrenaline-packed finish.
Grade: B
Summary:
These daredevil smokejumpers fight more than fires.
The elite fire experts of Mount Hood Aviation fly into places even the CIA can’t penetrate.She lives to fight fires
Carly Thomas could read burn patterns before she knew the alphabet. A third-generation forest fire specialist who lost both her father and her fiancé to the flames, she’s learned to live life like she fights fires: with emotions shut down.
But he’s lit an inferno she can’t quench
Former smokejumper Steve “Merks” Mercer can no longer fight fires up close and personal, but he can still use his intimate knowledge of wildland burns as a spotter and drone specialist. Assigned to copilot a Firehawk with Carly, they take to the skies to battle the worst wildfire in decades and discover a terrorist threat hidden deep in the Oregon wilderness—but it’s the heat between them that really sizzles.
Read an excerpt.
