Customer Reviews

Into the Fire (Sensual Romance)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story is great. Full of wit and affection. Great if you can read it straight through. The pace is fast and the two main characters are loveable. This was my first book by this authour,so I shall make sure it is not the last.

...I want to jump right INTO THE FIRE with Lacey and Nate! Leslie Kelly is romantic comedy at its best...but she adds a spicy sensuality that takes this book straight to the top! Nate is a yummy hero, like a layered parfait with more to him than meets the eye. Lacey is such a loving, caring woman that her weaknesses are her strengths, putting her in the middle of an almost impossible dilemma--but one she overcomes with honesty. And the secondary characters are awesome. Bad-girl Venus, aging playboy JT and scheming Raul make this book one too good to miss!

Aptly named, Into the Fire sizzles with more chemistry than a high school science lab. Even before the main characters meet, the author teases us with a glimpse of how a classic tryst between strangers will ignite into a hotbed of conflict when they learn that they've jumped on the trampoline of love (quite literally) with their sworn enemy. Like her previous Harlequin Temptation romances, Leslie Kelly treats her readers to the very things we want most when we pick up a Temptation: witty banter, plenty of conflict and a bonfire of sexual tension. Nate Logan is a romance reader's dream hero -- self-assured enough to be deliciously cocky but sweet enough to eat with a spoon and a side of Rocky Road. Lacey Clark's determination not to get involved with the very man she has publicly ridiculed is adorably tested by some very colorful and memorable secondary characters..and by one very persuasive hero. This is a definite keeper for Tempation fans and if you aren't one yet, you will be after you read Into the Fire. Highly recommend.

Leslie Kelly hits all the right formulaic plot beats in her novel Into The Fire, but I cared little about the frequent hot sex and was happy to put the book down by the end. Why?

I suspect it is the characters. Lacey Clark and Nate Logan, rival columnists at different magazines owned by the same publisher, are at war, arguing in print about sex. Every month he pushes the virtues of mindless passion while she insists on the necessity of true love. They hate each other, though they've never met. So-surprise!-they fall in lust at a party and have wild sex without knowing who each other is. The rest of the novel is about how they deal with the truth of their identities once they discover it.

It's a nice premise, but the plot plays out predictably. Kelly could have upped the tension by putting the characters more through the wringer, making us believe for at least a moment that there was some doubt if they'd end up together.

Still, plot predictability is not the main problem-it's the lack of fresh characters. Everything Lacey and Nate think, say or do is predictable. Their dialogue is mostly flat and indistinguishable from one another. Their `witticisms' are generic, clearly coming from the writer rather than from the characters' personalities.

I do not recommend this book. Even in tightly defined genre fiction, the characters need to be fresh and surprising at times, to come to life with more individuation and complexity than is here. They need to be larger than life in more ways than just their voracious sexual appetites.

Loved it. It was great to read, very funny. The scene's in the gym was brilliant, very hot. The secondary characters, especially Venus had me in stitches with some of her escapades. I can't wait to read her story (wicked & willing). But before that we have the next in the series "Two to tangle".

From the beginning, the attraction between them is overwhelming and intoxicating. From the moment she glimpses him across the crowded room, Lacey Clark feels a sexual sizzle. When she escapes the cocktail party momentarily, she doesn't know that Nate Logan watches her as she jumps on a trampoline in garters and her little black dress. The forbidden glimpse of her overwhelms Nate with intense, instinctive desire. They come together as strangers in a heated encounter; they part as enemies when each learns the other's identity.

For months a fiery feud has raged in print between Lacey and her nemeses. Lacey believes in soul mates and responsibility, blaming men for screw-ups. Nate pushes sexual freedom and exploration, blaming women for what ever goes wrong in a relationship. When they each realize they've made love to their nemesis, fiery passions ignite. J.T., the owner of both magazines they work for, sees the possibility of publicity and profit, pitting them on opposite sides of the battle of the sexes. Now their jobs thrust them together as partners in "the battlefields of the sexual revolution."

Author Leslie Kelly demonstrates her masterful ability to blend passion and humor in INTO THE FIRE. A simple, anonymous encounter backfires as the powerful hero and heroine step in the fire of desire. But the question remains if they can continue their exposure without getting burned. Secondary characters likewise sparkle from the irrepressible Venus, the Amazon goddess, to the not-so-secret spy Raul. Once again Kelly delivers a romance filled with sensual pleasure, comic humor, and fabulous tension. This is an author who always delivers! Very highly recommended.

Their accusatory gender feud crosses the magazines that each one writes for despite the fact that they never met. Now Lacey Clark and Nate Logan are co-award recipients at the same event. However before they meet they see one another across a crowded room and feel a magnetism that makes it seem to both of them that they are sharing cocktails for two. Lacey escapes the party and jumps on a trampoline with Nate watching her. Unable to resist the lure, the duo comes together and shares the best sex of their respective lives.

Both are stunned to learn they have made love to their worst enemy on the planet. As each runs for cover, their mutual boss J.T. sees incredible profits if his two stars partner a modern day sexual war in print. Reluctantly, Lacey and Nate work together and fall in love. How can they find a consensus position when each has taken the extreme in the gender battle?

INTO THE FIRE is an amusing contemporary romance that readers will enjoy though it is difficult to accept that neither the hero nor heroine had an inkling what their greatest foe looked like. The story line is fun and the secondary characters provide depth especially best friend Venus, publishing mogul J.T. and insider advisor and mole Raul. Leslie Kelly provides her audience with a humorous tale filled with sexual tension that that never cools off until the novel is finished.

Harriet Klausner

I'm not a huge fan of Harlequin romance. I puchase them every once in a while for some light, thoughtless reading. I don't really expect to thoroughly enjoy the purchase. I have found that Leslie Kelly has surprising plot twists, a great sense of humor, and enjoyable fast-paced story lines. I loved this book and will probably save it to read again.

From the beginning, the attraction between them is overwhelming and intoxicating. From the moment she glimpses him across the crowded room, Lacey Clark feels a sexual sizzle. When she escapes the cocktail party momentarily, she doesn't know that Nate Logan watches her as she jumps on a trampoline in garters and her little black dress. The forbidden glimpse of her overwhelms Nate with intense, instinctive desire. They come together as strangers in a heated encounter; they part as enemies when each learns the other's identity.

For months a fiery feud has raged in print between Lacey and her nemeses. Lacey believes in soul mates and responsibility, blaming men for screw-ups. Nate pushes sexual freedom and exploration, blaming women for what ever goes wrong in a relationship. When they each realize they've made love to their nemesis, fiery passions ignite. J.T., the owner of both magazines they work for, sees the possibility of publicity and profit, pitting them on opposite sides of the battle of the sexes. Now their jobs thrust them together as partners in "the battlefields of the sexual revolution."

Author Leslie Kelly demonstrates her masterful ability to blend passion and humor in INTO THE FIRE. A simple, anonymous encounter backfires as the powerful hero and heroine step in the fire of desire. But the question remains if they can continue their exposure without getting burned. Secondary characters likewise sparkle from the irrepressible Venus, the Amazon goddess, to the not-so-secret spy Raul. Once again Kelly delivers a romance filled with sensual pleasure, comic humor, and fabulous tension. This is an author who always delivers! Very highly recommended.