Burning Up (Smoke Jumpers) [Paperback]

Anne Marsh (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 30, 2012 | Series: Smoke Jumpers

It takes a special kind of hero to be a smoke jumper. To take the greatest risks. To live or die in the raging heat of the moment. And it takes a special kind of woman to love him...Where There's Smoke...For Jack Donovan, smoke jumping is a way of life. He lives for the adrenaline rush - the thrill of flying over the burning California hills, the intensity of diving straight into the inferno, the glory of taming the forces of nature. Love is a distant ember compared to the feeling he gets fighting fires - until an emergency call from his hometown brings him face to face with the one woman he can't forget...There's Fire...Lily never got over the handsome rogue who once kissed her senseless - and then left. She vowed she was done with love-'em-and-leave-'em men and small town life. Until a series of malicious fires set by a stalker has her running home to hide. Now, their summer is heating up as Jack fights to save her from the stalker's fiery threats and to convince her to give the passion between them a second chance.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Kensington (October 30, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758266812
• ISBN-13: 978-0758266811
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #822,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After ten years of graduate school and too many degrees, Anne Marsh escaped to become a technical writer. When not planted firmly in front of the laptop translating Engineer into English, Anne enjoys gardening, running (even if it's just to the 7-11 for slurpees), and reading books curled up with her kids. The best part of writing romance, however, is finally being able to answer the question: "So... what do you do with a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures?"

She lives in Northern California with her husband, two kids, and four cats. You can visit her online at http://www.herfallenangel.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's all visit Strong California!! October 30, 2012

By Jackie Burris

Format:Paperback

Read on September 09, 2012

Book Synopsis

It takes a special kind of hero to be a smoke jumper. To take the greatest risks. To live or die in the raging heat of the moment. And it takes a special kind of woman to love him. . .
Where There's Smoke. . .

For Jack Donovan, smoke jumping is a way of life. He lives for the adrenaline rush--the thrill of flying over the burning California hills, the intensity of diving straight into the inferno, the glory of taming the forces of nature. Love is a distant ember compared to the feeling he gets fighting fires--until an emergency call from his hometown brings him face to face with the one woman he can't forget. . .

There's Fire

Lily never got over the handsome rogue who once kissed her senseless--and then left. She vowed she was done with love-'em-and-leave-'em men and small town life. Until a series of malicious fires set by a stalker has her running home to hide. Now, their summer is heating up as Jack fights to save her from the stalker's fiery threats and to convince her to give the passion between them a second chance.

My Thoughts

10 years after leaving Strong California Jack returns in response to a call from his adoptive Mother Nonna, after all when Nonna says something is an emergency than you can bet she is not exaggerating!

Lily Cortez also left Strong, carving a life for herself in the city of San Francisco. Lily has come back to the small town trying to escape a stalker and finds a lavender farm that she buys and in the process of making the farm into something of her own finds peace and a sense of home that she never really had before....

This is a vibrant story, it details the perils that firefighters face every time they put themselves in harms way to protect and defend property, homes and possessions that belong to someone else from raging fires that in a short span of time can turn everything in it's path to embers and ashes. In particular the scenes where Jake and his team of "smoke jumpers" confront the horrific destruction from the air, jumping down into the very heart of the inferno to fight a fire raging out of control that you cannot get to from the ground really puts into perspective the very special kind of person it takes to do this intense and deadly job.

From a personal standpoint I have always admired firemen, the ones that I have known were not paid but volunteers in small towns that had only a small amount of resources to fight with but they never backed down when the call came and gave everything they had to make sure a fire was controlled, contained and if possible put out before it could do more damage than it already had.

However this story is more than about the dangers of fighting fire, it is also about one man and one woman whose chance at romance 10 years in their past was never fully explored as Lily was too young and Jack was too scared. There are also elements of drama and mystery that involve the reason why Lily has come back to her hometown of Strong, the unknown stalker who drove her to leave San Francisco has followed her home and once again starts to leave a trail of fiery destruction behind which is the reason why Jack has come back.

What happens next will leave you breathless with anticipation, on the edge of your seat waiting to see if the villain is stopped in time and very much wanting the next book once you finish as there is still much left untold about the team of smoke jumpers and what the future holds.

This is a wonderful start to what I hope is at least a trilogy in the series, this first book details Jack and Lily's relationship which is hotter than the wildfires that Jack and his team fight! Also am totally in love with the town of strong, especially Nonna, Ben and Ma's honkytonk all make me want to visit and stay awhile so I can see Lily's lavendar farm for myself. I have always loved the idea of a field of lavendar but never seen one. I want to know more about what happens to the inhabitants of the town of Strong, where things go with Nonna and Ben but most of all what comes to pass with Jack's brothers Evan and Rio now that the team has a base setting up in the town of Strong.

This book is a strong contemporary romance with enough thrilling mystery elements to add a spice of danger to the mix. Where some questions are answered for the reader others are brought to light and it will be very interesting to see how the author handles them in books to come. I personally look forward to it very much as I enjoy the style of storytelling that Anne Marsh brings to each of her works, enjoy the honorable characteristics that she gives each of her heroes and heroines and most of all enjoy where her imagination takes the reader in each story that she pens so passionately and eloquently.

[Copy of book from author in exchange for honest review] Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Burning Up - Interesting series setup, but disappointing book #1 October 30, 2012

By Jess

Format:Paperback

Lily and Jack shared a kiss when they were younger, but Jack was restless and needed to get out of the small town of Strong. He went on to become a fire jumper, loving the adrenaline rush and leading the men in his company into dangerous situations to help get fires under control. His adoptive mom asks him to come back to Strong as a series of random fires, too early in the season to be considered "usual", have started and she's worried their small town fire department might not be able to handle it. Jack comes back and figures out that the fires are all centered around Lily and they may have a more personal connection then she wants to acknowledge.

Lily ran from San Francisco after a serial arsonist set their sights on her and literally smoked her out of her house. The fires were started using personal items of Lily's and she hit her breaking point when all her beloved books were set on fire in her kitchen. She caught a quick look at the man but didn't stick around for the next fire. She went back to Strong, put all her time and money into running a lavender farm and is trying to make a go of it back home. Now, the fires are starting up again and the pattern is all too familiar. She knows the same man is back, stalking her again, but Jack is there to help her whether she wants him there or not.

I had a hard time connecting with this story and the characters from the start. I liked Lily. There's a sweetness about her and all she wants to do is make her little lavender farm grow into a profitable business. Jack, on the other hand, came off very badly to me. He's high handed and so back and forth about what he wants, it got to the point where I just didn't care what he wanted anymore.... He takes over making Lily's property more fire safe, which is fine, but he doesn't consider Lily's request regarding her own property (he ignores her) and the things Jack was digging up and destroying all because he knew best. Maybe this was so, and maybe what he did with regards to this specific moment was correct, but it's how he came off on page that was a big turn off.

There were other random things that came up that had me shaking my head. This stalker is after Lily, an obvious arsonist who they know is casing out her home and all the men that Jack brought into town rush off to fight another fire that's threatening their town, but no one sticks around to protect Lily. It's little things like that in a romantic suspense story that make me cringe. A small detail? Sure, but I guess I just want the characters to be smarter than that. The story felt filled with these little moments that ultimately pulled me out of the story and made me not connect with it.

Jack's background was intriguing. As an orphan, he met two other young boys, Rio and Evan. Three young boys without a home, all with hard pasts who find a mom in Strong and she wants them all. I'd have loved for this to have been expanded on, especially for Jack. He hates being enclosed, needs to be outside to be comfortable and I wanted more on this; more history for him, just more details to make it easier to "get" him.

I was ultimately disappointed with this one. The setup is there, I still might pick up the next books in the series as I assume we'll get stories for Jack's brothers and possibly the other men on Jack's jump team. While I liked Lily well enough, I never warmed up to Jack and not being able to buy into a lead character makes it hard to enjoy the story.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't Light My Fire October 31, 2012

By Tracy TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

The last thing smoke jumper Jack Donovan wants to do during an active fire season is ground his team and return to the small town he left ten years ago, but the phone call he receives one afternoon takes the options out of his hands. He may not be happy about it, but Jack cares too much to ignore the request from the woman who took him and his brothers into her home when they were children, then made them her own.

And when Nonna mentions the fires that have sprung up around the tiny town of Strong, fires that are too frequent and too controlled to be caused by anything natural, Jack does what any responsible son does. He goes home.

He's not back a day before Jack realizes that all is not right in Strong. The fires are more than just suspicious in origin, they are also occurring in a very definite pattern. One that surrounds a small farmstead under new ownership. When Jack finds out the name of the new owner, he realizes that this summer is going to burn hotter than any raging wildfire - and be just as dangerous.

Lily Cortez is back in Strong, the same Lily who haunts his memories, even after ten years. The Lily that he kissed the night before he put his hometown in his rearview mirror. And she seems to be the target of an arsonist.

Even as the battle in him rages between concern for her safety and trepidation about his control, he can still feel the press of her lips against his, remember the fit of her body to his. And in dreams and memories, he still tastes his need for her on his tongue. Seeing Lily again will leave Jack with not one doubt that this summer's fire season is going to be one for the record books. In all sorts of ways.

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As soon as I read the blurb for this book I wanted to get my hands on it.... A romantic suspense series is always a good bet for me, but one that features smoke jumpers? Hell yeah, now that's a veritable cornucopia of hot, alpha male goodness. That's like...firemen times four on the Sexy Meter. I was all in.

And before I make it sound like I was totally disappointed by the reality of this series debut, I have to admit, there was plenty of smoking-hot sexiness and alpha-male yumminess to be enjoyed. There were also a couple of great scenes in which the smoke jumpers were doing their thing against raging wildfires, and those were as chilling as they were deadly hot (the not-fun kind). I certainly have a whole new respect for anyone craz....er...dedicated enough to tackle that as a career.

I also had, though, a few pretty big issues with the story. I was never too keen about Jack as the lead character, first of all. He was sexy, yes, and had that whole bad boy thing going for him, sure, but I didn't like him all that much, either. Especially at the start of the book.

When we meet him he's annoyed and feeling put-out, wishing that he hadn't taken the phone call from Nonna because he feels his job is way more important than any piddly issues the town of Strong could possible have. His attitude, frankly, rubbed me all sorts of wrong ways. Then we find out that not only is Nonna the only mother he's ever known, but the man on whose behalf she's calling is the closest he's ever come to an uncle...yet Jack has not once deigned to visit either of them in the ten years since he left town. Even this time he seriously begrudges returning to a town that he seems to hate (for no good reason I could ever figure).

Yeah, at that point the first impressions weren't painting him as my kind of romantic hero. And it got worse before it got better.

Fortunately, there was Lily. And though there were times I questioned some of the actions she took and felt that some of her reactions to the Bad Guy seemed a bit off for someone as strong as she appears to be, I liked who she was as a person quite a lot. I loved that she went toe-to-toe with Jack more than once, thought she was fabulous when she was furious, and felt she handles Jack's return to her life with appealingly adult sensibility.

She was certainly more sympathetic and easier to relate to than Jack, especially at the beginning.

Another bone of contention I had was in the narrative. Most notable in the first half but present throughout, there was quite a bit of repetition that over-emphasized plot points and story elements. It got tedious. Jack and Lily's history was mentioned many, many times, Jack's determination to leave town at summer's end came up over and over, and I didn't need to be told Jack didn't like having walls around him quite as often as I was (though it would've been nice to find out the hows and whys of that phobia). Those and several other points were hashed and rehashed, and it cost the story the page space that could have been better served adding complexity and depth to the plot of both the romance arc and the Bad Guy's story threads.

Some contradictions in the story and a few minor holes in the plot were also troubling, though I enjoyed the concept behind the Bad Guy. Marsh handled the psychology of his character and the escalation of violence both consistently and believably. I wish he'd had a larger role in the storyline, because he posed a serious and significant threat to the characters, one that I would have enjoyed seeing expanded further.

I wish the characters had been better developed and fleshed out more than they were. I don't think there was enough detail provided about Jack's past, and I don't think the secondary characters had a large enough role in the tale. It seemed like as soon as Jack locked eyes on Lily again he didn't stray far, and Nonna, Ben, even his brothers almost completely ceased to exist for most of the story. None of that made the story or the characters feel particularly well-rounded.

For all those issues, though, Jack grew on me later in the book and I liked him with Lily. The fire scenes were handled well and the stalker/arsonist was dangerous and grimly entertaining. Other than the repetition, always a hot button of mine, the book wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't complex enough in story or character to be consistently entertaining. I'd have to think hard about continuing the series, because the super-hot smoke jumpers just weren't enough for me in this one.

Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me for review. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.
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