Customer Reviews

Blaze

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

JoAnn Ross's newest novel, Blaze, is a page-turning romantic suspense that you won't want to miss. The dynamic main characters, Tess Gannon and Gage O'Halloran, connect the instant they meet at the sight of an arson fire/murder scene. Tess is a fire cop, whose fiancé had been a victim of the chilling Flamemaster, who is torching buildings in Somersett, South Carolina, with murderous intent. Gage is an ATF Special Agent (or had been until his job collided with his personal life, with fatal results for someone close to him.) When Gage learns about the Somersett arsonist, he joins with Tess and her partner in a quest to stop the Flamemaster.

Tess is a hard-working, intelligent woman, who is unaware of her own beauty and sexuality. Gage is all male - hot, tough, and smart. Together, they hunt down the arsonist, while at the same time, explore their sexual attraction. The burning chemistry between Tess and Gage is omnipresent, and the love scenes set fire to the pages! As Gage resolves the painful issues from his past, and Tess learns to welcome new love into her life, the hero and heroine find more than just the killer they seek.

The vivid descriptions of Somersett, especially its local cuisine, make the setting a character unto itself. The insight into the lives of firefighters gives the reader a sense of familiarity with main characters. The detail about how fires spread, the ways in which the villain uses explosives, and later, the eerie description of San Quentin's death row, enrich the already intricate plot. From the Low country to northern California, this fast-paced race to stop a killer is a must-read. And as an added bonus, look for a twist at the end!

Blaze by JoAnn Ross blends a tale of intense passion and the dangers of firefighting.

Tess Gannon is excelling at her job as an arson inspector. It was an adjustment after she lost her finance and fellow firefighter to a fire a few years ago. She is now hot on the trail of a serial arsonist when a hotshot ATF special agent comes to town.

Gage O'Halloran is a burnt out ATF agent. When similar fires that torn his life apart start happening again Gage rushes to Somersett, South Carolina to lend a hand. Tess and Gage don't start out on the best of terms but forge an uneasy alliance to stop the fires.

Tess and Gage partnership turns into an explosive passion that neither can ignore. As their passion escalates so does the danger until it strikes much to close to home.

Blaze is a story with pulse pounding suspense and white-hot passion that is not to be missed. Tess and Gage feel like people you know and you route for them to find a way to survive on all levels.

I was hopeful. Blaze started out like a house-a-fire, and then dwindled to a few cinders. We have here two individuals who have lost spouses to violence and who have spent years getting over it, who meet each other and immediately go bed-ballistic. Sorry, I couldn't buy it. Just a little too staged. Zero chemistry. One reviewer claimed that Nora Jones fans' would love it; well, I'm an NJ fan, and it seemed shallow and undeveloped compared to NJ's complicated characters.

Story was just an artifice for the sex. Perhaps my disappointment was greater because I had just come down off a Jack Reacher binge, where the plot-to-sex ratio is inversely proportionate to that in this novel. I longed for a little complexity. I wanted a serious plot, not just an excuse to throw two adults together. I wished for some hard-core technical details, some precision, some dead-ends and a few incredibly arcane details that pulled the whole story together, and there was NOTHING there I couldn't have found in a single google. I wanted some meat, by golly, and what I got was a sugar-high.

Oh well. Back to Jack Reacher.

If you like fast pace, adventure packed romantic suspense, this book is for you. Ross has penned a tale of terror, redemption, and love in this thriller that follows a deadly arsonist on a fiery tear through Somersett, South Carolina. Tess and Gage are two damaged souls who, together, find the strength to not only stop a deranged killer, but also to overcome the hurts of their pasts and find love with each other. An engaging and exciting story!! Definitely one for the "keeper shelf", but then again, I ALWAYS keep JoAnn Ross's books!!

The Flamemaster feels quite good as he dials from a distance the explosion that enables him to watch the fire that burns Paddy's Pig Restaurant and Dance Club. The Somersett, South Carolina fire department struggles with the blaze in which rescue team member Daniel McGee dies in the inferno. His last message is to his fiancé, firefighter Tess Gannon that he loves her.

Two years later, former ATF Agent Gage O'Halloran learns the impossible that the Flamemaster lit a blaze in South Carolina. Gage knows that Randolph Griffith is locked away in prison so a copy cat is out there. Arson investigator Tess looks at a new fire in which a woman died while being tied to a bed when Gage arrives and pompously tries to take over. He thinks a link exists between a strip joint fire, a deadly warehouse inferno, and the latest arson-homicide. Gage informs Tess that he wants sex with her, but also says the rope is the not known signature of the Flamemaster who is in San Quentin. They work together trying to learn who the copycat is and how did this person find insider information on the Flamemaster even as their attraction burns each other with desire.

Mindful of Kathryn Shay's fabulous firefighter's series, BLAZE is a terrific romantic suspense that keeps the audience anticipating a showdown, but wondering with whom. The lead couple need one another; however he at first sounds crass and she has not gotten past her loss, so her leaping into bed with him right away seems off kilter; their reasons to avoid commitments on the other hand augments this exciting fiery intrigue.

Harriet Klausner

Two years ago, firefighter Daniel McGee was killed in a warehouse-turned-nightclub fire that has never been solved. He left behind his fiance, fellow firefighter Tess Gannon, his last words over the radio he carried telling her that he loved her and that the years they'd spent together were the best of his life. Now she's a member of the fire police, a virtual fireman type cop who investigates the cause of fires, and Danny's death still haunts her-especially now that an arsonist calling himself The Flamemaster is setting fires around the town of Somersett , South Carolina , and sending letters to the local newspaper threatening more fires.

At the scene of a burned down apartment building, Tess is brought face to face with Gage O'Halloran, a man dressed in jeans and cowboy boots, talking with a distinct western drawl, calling her sweetheart. Tess is soon taken to task, however, when O'Halloran flashes his ATF badge at her. Now there's two fire investigators on the scene, one from ATF and one from the FBI. Gage, though, knows better than most what type of pyromaniac they're after-he's pretty sure that Somersett's Flamemaster is connected to an arsonist serial killer who murdered his own wife.

Now Tess and Gage are facing an arsonist who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. As Tess realizes she needs to face her past and the loss of Danny, Gage discovers that attempting to keep his heart out of his feelings with Tess isn't as easy as he'd thought it would be. A killer stalks closer and closer, and an attraction grows as big as the fires they both try to prevent. For Tess and Gage, finding out who the copycat arsonist-and murderer-is before it's too late is their combined goal.

JoAnn Ross has written another winning romantic suspense tale, with a backdrop of fire and murder. Tess still isn't completely over the loss of Danny, and Gage hasn't come to terms with the death of his wife. His laid-back, alpha cowboy attitude grates on Tess's nerves at first, and Tess's inability to focus on anything except her job drives Gage crazy. As these two fight the passion that burns between them, they never lose sight of their real goal-caching the lunatic who is setting fires all over town, causing death and destruction. But once the danger is over and the threat has passed, will the feelings that Tess and Gage felt for each other during a time of high-adrenaline be able to last?

You'll have to read BLAZE to find out, but it's definitely worth it!

Still heartbroken from the loss of her fiance two years earlier, fire inspector Tess Gannon gets an unsolicited guest at the scene of her latest case. Burned out ATF agent Gage O'Halloran has arrived in an unofficial capacity at the request of his former partner, since the similarities between a case he put to bed three years ago and a series of arsons in Somersett, South Carolina are a little too coincidental and could be a copycat.

The last thing Tess needs is a federal cowboy mucking up her investigation, but soon the two are working side by side and trying to extinguish their smoldering attraction to each other. They travel to San Quentin, where Randolph Griffith, aka the Flamemaster, is serving a life sentence. He may be able to help them apprehend their copycat. Soon the investigation starts to lead a little too close to home and Tess appears to be at the apex of the copycat Flamemaster's plans for destruction. Can their intense passion lead to a relationship when the investigation is over?

While the story is filled with scorching passion and tension as the two search for the copycat, the implausible ending and unlikely culprit make the story fall flat and ruins an otherwise great action-packed and emotional story, which could have easily garnered 5 stars.

After Tess Gannon is thrown out of a burning building and looses her fiancé to the same fire she decides to change her career path. She has decided that being a "fire cop" aka a Fire Investigation Marshall is where her talents are best used. After 2 years she and her partner have the highest percentage of closed cases in the county.

Gage O'Halloran is a widower who lost his spouse to a horrific arsonist who targeted Gage specifically. He took an extended leave from the ATF after the trial that convicted this killer/arsonist.

When Gage's former partner brings him a copy of a recent arson case that Tess is working on he is immediately struck by the signature being the same as the "Flamemaster" that he put behind bars. Gage hops on a plane and heads to South Carolina, without being asked. Tess first meets him at the scene of the most recent Flamemaster fire and is taken back by his strong, egotistical, superior personality along with his sexual innuendo conversations. But, she is also drawn to him for the same reasons, something that hasn't happened since her fiancé was killed. Add this to the fact that he thinks the new fires are related to the one that killed her fiancé and she finds herself teaming up with him, even when she finds out he isn't still an active ATF agent.

Things are heating up for the pair. When they travel to California to talk to the Flamemaster in jail it gives them the time to be alone together and let their sexual tensions play out. It is also the opportunity for the "Flamemaster" that is in SC to booby-trap Tess's house which causes a huge fire, and destroys her house, when they are back in SC. Tess and Gage are now on a race against time to determine the identity of the "Flamemaster" that is plaguing SC before they kill Tess and more people she cares for, including Gage.

This story so enraptured me that I found myself staying up way past midnight to hear the outcome, which when you have to get up before 6am makes it hard. The initial fire where Tess looses Danny made me tear up and wish for revenge. I thought the characters were all very well developed, even if Gage was a little to unbelievable it worked with the overall story. I didn't guess who the flame master was until the very end, as it was revealed. Great romantic suspense.

Have recently started reading some of ths author's work and very much enjoyed this effort.

This was my first JoAnn Ross read, and I loved it! She kept me interested right to the end. And theres lots of steam, so if your anything like me, you'll love it. I can't wait to read more from this great author.