Customer Reviews

Hot as Sin: A Novel

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

 

 

Sam is a "hot shot" firefighter who battles forest fires for a living. His life is certainly exciting enough, but we didn't get to see him living it in this story. Instead he is helping his ex-fiance, a woman who skipped out on him 10 years earlier, search through the forest for her abducted sister. The author, Bella Andre, worked at making the story a fast-paced adventure. Unfortunately, she watered the whole thing down by making every page a repeat of how much the h/h are lusting over one another. It got ridiculous. The heroine is supposedly afraid of heights, but while climbing a steep cliff she could only think about how much she wanted Sam. Page after page of the couple thinking nothing but "I want to taste her", "I want to see if he's as good as I remember", etc. I got really bored. I finally skimmed the last chapter just to get it over with. I didn't see anything between the h/h except painful memories of the past and lust.

"Hot as Sin" is the sequel to "Wild Heat". The first book is better. Here is the link:
Wild Heat

This book was fair. I'll start off by saying that I don't like books where the hero and heroine were lovers in the past. I like to read about people meeting for the first time and falling in love, not getting back together. I found it improbable that Sam would go running off to the side of his ex-fiance whom he hadn't seen in 10 years even if he did hear she had a car accident. I also think they fell back into each other's arms too quickly. Three days after being apart 10 years was a bit short to be believable.

There was very little use made of him being a hotshot forest firefighter. If a book is about a firefighter, there should be more firefighting in it. I also don't like when authors get around telling you who the bad guy is by calling him "the man." It wouldn't have hurt a thing to use his name.

The writing was decent. The dialog was a little corny here and there. Still I'm willing to give the next one a try.

In a small Vail, Colorado café, television host Dianna Kelley meets her sister April who left home because her sibling was controlling and overprotective. Dianna wanted to make up for the years April was in foster care but she could not connect with her when April informs her she lives in a commune. Dianna explodes and April leaves; Diana drinks before driving and gets into an accident in which she is injured and the other driver dead.

In the Sierra Nevada range, firefighter Sam MacKenzie learns of Dianna's injuries. Although a decade has passed since she miscarried and left him, he runs to her side. When they meet again, the sparks that remained simmering for years ignites into a passionate firestorm. However both remain wary of being hurt so each hides their deep feelings from the other. Dianna learns April was kidnapped by someone seeking revenge. Sam swears he will rescue her sister, but Dianna insists on accompanying him on the arduous trek into the Sierras. On the dangerous journey, they realize not just how much love they share, but rejoice in revealing how much love they have for one another. However finding and rescuing April and surviving remain the goal.

Bella Andre has written a heated second chance at love romantic suspense starring a hotshot firefighter and a TV talk show host; each brings fear to their fiery relationship. April adds to the mix as a gutsy individual not waiting to be rescued. She makes the tale's thriller elements work with her courage and fortitude. Readers will relish this fine tale as April has choices to make and one wrong one could lead to her death.

Harriet Klausner

I very much enjoyed Bella Andre's first Hot Shots book - it was a nice surprise to find a book in this genre that was more than just hundreds of pages about washboard abs - and this follow-up is just as much fun as the first.

I very much loved the two leads in this story. The premise for the relationship - they were engaged very young when Dianna became pregnant, and then their relationship fell apart when a car accident led to a miscarriage - was emotional and interesting. It was such a pleasure to watch Dianna and Sam find each other again ten years later and realise how much they had matured in that time, finally seeing the mistakes they made. Dianna was a wonderful, admirable woman, and Sam was the kind of man any woman would want to be with.

This was such a satisfying read. As with the first book in the series this is a multi-layered story with many interesting, flawed characters.

For me, one star is lost because a large portion of the story was a bit of a wild goose chase, and I found that disappointing. Though it gave the leads plenty of time to heal their relationship, it did nothing to help them achieve their goal - find Dianna's missing sister. I would have liked to have seen all the pieces tie up better at the end. I would also have been nice to have seen the Hot Shot (fire-fighting) aspect play a bigger part in the story, as it did in the first book.

But all in all, I loved this book very much. Wild Heat was a pleasant surprise, and its follow-up Hot As Sin was just as good.

TV talk show host Diana arrives in Vail to visit with her sister April who ran away to join a commune and wants to stay. En route to the airport, Diana is in a head on car accident, which kills the other driver. Her former fiance, a hotshot firefighter from Lake Tahoe (who she has not seen in a decade) comes running to her bedside when he hears of the accident, not knowing if we will be walking into open arms. When they discover that April has been kidnapped, Sam insists on accompanying Diana to find her.

Let's see, heroine dumps fiance after losing their love child ten years earlier... gets into a head on collision.. then, with fresh injuries, traipses through the forest and scales mountains trying to find her sister, when if she had allowed Sam to go on his own, he would have covered a heck of a lot more ground in a fraction of the time. Is is just me or did anyone else roll their eyes? This story has so many holes and required such a suspension of disbeleif. The sexual passages were steamy, but the overall story was weak, the characters so juvenile, that I had a hard time sticking with it or caring about the protagonists. This story simply does not compare to its much better predecessor, Wild Heat.

I received this book quickly from when I placed my order and it was perfect!

Ten years ago Dianna Kelley and Sam MacKenzie were on the verge of getting married, when tragedy struck. Being young and not knowing how to cope, Dianna ran. The years have passed, Dianna has become a well-known TV personality, Sam is still a Hot Shot firefighter. When word comes of Dianna being in a terrible car accident, Sam forgets the past and knows he needs to see her to make sure that she is okay. Dianna is shocked to see him again, though not unhappy. But danger follows and their past is thrust behind as they scurry to find a kidnapper. Can these two overcome their past to forge a future together?

HOT AS SIN is definitely a scorcher. Bella Andre created phenomenal characters in a backdrop that was easy to slip into and follow along. I absolutely loved how Ms. Andre kept Dianna and Sam from keeping the past in the past, forcing them to bring their problems to the forefront, where they had to talk about them and work them out. Their chemistry ignited the pages with their smoldering passion, but not only that, we were able to see them as two people who had more in common than great sex. I was a bit perturbed that Sam's young age was continuously brought up when speaking of the past mistakes, but Dianna's even younger age wasn't mentioned until much later in the story. I was absolutely able to understand them both so much better when I realized just how young the were when they first parted.

I'm avidly awaiting June 2010, when Connor's story, NEVER TOO HOT comes out. Bella Andre is an auto-buy for me, and her Hot Shot series is not to be missed.

Reviewed for: Night Owl Romance

I read a few negative reviews on this book but still wanted to read it after reading the first book Wild Heat. Sam and Dianna's story was a good read and you felt for the up brining that both Dianna and April had. Sam and Dianna's previous relationship showed that they where not mature enough to be together and even though the 10 years they where seperated was not what either wanted the time to find their feet and then refind each other was a good read. My only disappointment was with the ending, you understand that they will work it all out but I wanted to know how they where going to stay together and still juggle thier respective careers? Maybe in Sam's brother Connor's book coming next she may touch on it? But my recommendation if you liked the first one go forth and read this one.

i love Bella Andre so naturally this book is awesome!!! i would definitely recommend this book to any modern romance novel fan.

Sam Mackenzie thought that Dianna Kelley was part of his past until he got the news that she was injured in a head on collision in Vail, Colorado. The ten years he had been without her fell away as he rushed to be by her side. He knew at first sight that she still held his heart. He also realized that as much as he still cared, she was now out of his reach. She was a celebrity, and wouldn't want to fit into his world as a firefighter. She had built a life that didn't include him, but couldn't help but notice the despair she wore like a cloak. Sam knew something was wrong, and was determined to help her.

Dianna had spent the last ten years trying to get over Sam. She had experienced the best and worst times of her life with him, but she had a goal all those years ago. The most important thing to her was the rescue of her sister from the foster care system. Their poor excuse of a mother had given her sister away without any hesitation or regret. Dianna had spent the last ten years trying to make it up to her. Now, she was in trouble in Colorado, and even with Sam's offer of help, didn't know if it would be enough to save her.

This was a good installment to this series! Dianna has suffered so much tragedy in her life; you just want a happy ending for her. I enjoy stories in which the lead characters have a history together, and as we learn of Sam and Dianna's, it is just heartbreaking. They are strong characters with very apparent chemistry. My criticism is the author's lack of research. If a story is going to be set in a real town, then proper research should be done to references in the area. As many times as Vail's hospital was mentioned, it would have only taken a minute or two on the internet to find the correct name.