Chasing Fire Review

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts

3.75 Stars

Synopsis:

There's little as thrilling as firefighting-at least to Rowan Tripp. The Missoula smoke jumpers are in Rowan's blood: her father is a legend. She's been fighting fires since her eighteenth birthday. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home-even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering.   Fortunately, this year's rookie crop is one of the strongest ever-and Gulliver Curry's one of the best. He's also a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kids' arcade.

Everything is thrown off balance when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year's tragedy. Rowan knows she can't complicate things with Gull-any distractions in the air or on the ground could mean the end-but if she doesn't find someone she can lean on, she may not make it through the summer. . . .

Review:

For the most part I really enjoyed this story.  It sucked me right in from the beginning and the life of a fire jumper was fascinating to read about.  Roberts did an excellent job there.  

I instantly liked Gulliver Curry.  He was charming, friendly and all-around-good-guy.  I struggled a bit more with Rowan Tripp.  I think she’s been the center of her dad’s universe her whole life, so she tends to be a bit self-centered.  She can come across a bit abrasive at times.  And though I knew stuff about her, I never fully connected with her character.  I related better to Gull or even Ella and Marg.  I did, however, enjoy the interactions between the fire jumpers.  The ribbing and loyalty amongst the crew was well done.  I knew they would give their lives for each other, but go down with one final wise-crack on their lips.

I picked out the killer pretty early on and was correct.  Still there were some parts that seemed off to me, after it was all said and done.  Some things were a little too convenient or it didn’t jibe well with the character.  With that being said, the ending was a bit more exciting than the last two Roberts books I’ve read.  So points there.

While I enjoyed most of the story, it had the tendency to get hijacked by the fire jumping.  There were times I found myself forgetting that there was anything else going on in it, like murders (which should be a hard thing to forget).  The romance was enjoyable, and I loved watching Gull work to win over Rowan.  Dobie was one of my favorite parts of the story, great character, always good for a laugh.  And there were some emotional moments also, Roberts did well with the gut-wrenching.   Overall, good story and I’d recommend it to anyone.

--monica