The Book Gourmet

Go Zulies!Oh. Wow.Nora Roberts sure can do her job right. Well-researched, well-written, wonderfully paced...This review I’m attempting to write can never do the book justice.It was typical Nora. The “picture painting” was awesome, I really felt like I was there, in the middle of the wildfire, in the black, waiting for the siren to scream, walking the base alongside Rowan and Gull, running on the track...It all felt real, from the flaws and imperfections of the characters, the banter (God, how I loved the banter), the danger, the thrill...Not many authors have the ability to write a story that can suck me in like this one did, and I loved every single moment of it. It was long, but I actually wanted it to be longer. I never wanted to stop reading.It wasn’t just for the romance, which is the main reason why I love romantic suspense. Don’t get me wrong, Rowan and Gull (and even Lucas and Ella) had a wonderful romance going, explosive tension, gripping attraction, smokin’ hot passion...And they were great together as well as separately. I loved Rowan and her snarkiness, her sarcasm, her “butch” attitude, and I adored Gull and his idiosyncrasies, his vocabulary and his ability to use it, his seemingly bottomless well of seemingly unimportant knowledge, his protectiveness, his sense of humor...What this story was about, almost leaving the realm of romantic suspense, was the smoke jumpers and their love/hate relationship with her, the fire, the dragon. Because you have to love it a little to be good at what these men and women do. And I’m talking real people, here, not fictitious ones.Nora Roberts made me appreciate these daredevils even more. Putting their lives on the line to preserve the wilderness, save lives even at the cost of their own. I’ve always admired firefighters, but these smoke jumpers, boy, they’re in a league of their own. Can you imagine hurling yourself into the fire? It must be a mix of excitement, dread, terror, exhilaration...And Ms. Roberts, with her book, delved a little deeper into the “would-be” psyche of such characters, revealing what might make them tick, their secret love of the chase, of the jump, of the danger...of the grueling work it went into “killing the bitch”.Gosh, I really loved it. So loved it, in fact, it took me quite a while to finish, since I kept going back, re-reading some scenes, reliving the thrill.Enough with the inadequate review. Go read this book!