Customer Reviews

Night Fire

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

 

 

I have read almost all of Catherine Coulter's books and find this to be one of the most lacking. The small meeting between Arielle and Burke... well it is difficult to imagine it leading to such an obsession on Burke's part. Also Coulter should have allowed Arielle some regression to at least get in touch with her counter feelings for Burke because I felt up until page 150 or so... well I felt Arielle really did want NOTHING to do with Burke. Hmm... I read it through but I had to force myself. I appreciate the reality of the situation but I think Jane Feather did a much better novel similar to this in The Diamond Slipper (I think that is the correct title). I will continue to read and admire her novels but this is by far my least favorite series.

In "Night Fire", you find a touching and intense love story between Arielle Leslie, and the man she had an interest in as a teen, Burke Drummond. You will ride along with them as they conquer Arielle's troubled, and painful, past marriage. You can get involved in the Drummond family, and come to love them as I did. It is a great example of how abuse was dealt with in the past, and a better example of how to deal with it after the fact. So, sit back and enjoy!

This is one of the very first romance novels I ever read. A friend of mine stole it from her mom and lent it to me in Eighth grade. Years later, my best friend and I were discussing our favorite romance novels, and this one came up. It took me 3 weeks to find it, but now that I have, I'm thrilled that it's back in my collection! This is the book that made me want to read more romance novels. I love the characters and the story, as it is very different than any book I have ever read. Arielle's character is very touching and you want her to be strong and get over her fears. Burke is one of the best male characters around. He's not rude or mean or in any way a jerk. I recommend this book for any historical romance fan!

I have just started to write my reviews on this website. I always read the other ones before I write my own. I love how Catherine Coulter writes so differently from other historical romance writers. Her books always have taboos and serious issues. According to a lot of the reviews I read about Catherine Coulter on this website, alot of people are always putting her down for writing about things that actually did and do happen to women all over the world. I don't enjoy reading romance novels that are sugar coated, so her books always make me rush to the book store to pick them up. If things like domestic abuse and over bearing men offend some women, then quit reading historical romances. Besides, it's only fiction anyway.

I have read all three books in the Night Trilogy. I like it when Catherine goes back and cleans up a book or even adds to it. I personally like the orginials. This book is no exception to her skills. It was kind of hard for me to read through the abuse part but at least she had some one to love her completely.Its not for those who like your typical girl meets boy amd fall in love. I felt sorry for the nanny who lost her mind and became a murdering psycho who turns on her charge.Then there's the sister who keeps her husband with sex. Talk about a screwly family. Its a must read.

Hurray to an author who can caringly deal with difficult issues even for suave and savvy readers of modern times. This book gave me hope for all abused women and men. Hope, that curelities can be put where they belong, in the past and left there. Granted not everyone will have a Burke Drummond to help them through difficult times but Night Fire did help me understand that we each have the power within ourselves to heal and live happy productive lives.

I remembered really liking this book when it first came out, and I bought it again on Kindle because I remembered that it was one of my favorite Catherine Coulter books. I'm not sure why my opinion is so different now - maybe its because I'm in my 30's now and I was a teenager when I first read this.

I remember thinking that this book was a lovely story about one man's love for a girl who was badly abused, and how his love for her helped her become strong enough to facedown her enemies. It had that element to it, but wow, was this story told in a terrible manner.

The Good: Burke really loves Arielle and wants to help her get over her fear of men and life after she was terribly abused by her first husband. There were some sweet scenes where he tries to court her, and takes care of her when she's ill. Arielle seems like a real sweetheart, and a nice person who deserves better than what life has heaped on her. She was married to an old lecher at age 15, and when he couldn't get her pregnant, he tried to give her to his illegitimate son. Poor Arielle. It was a terrible life, but I still rather liked her as a character.

The Bad: All the rest of it. When Arielle turns down Burke's attempts to court her, he proceeds to try to take advantage of her financial ruination, kidnap her, force her to marry him when she is delirious with fever and doesn't know what she's agreeing to, and then when she isn't "strong" enough soon enough for him, he uses reverse psychology to scare her (an abuse victim) into standing up for herself. But he makes sure she knows that she can only stand up to him because HE allows it (because he's just that great of a guy). Sadly, I remember Burke being one of Counter's sweeter, gentler heroes.

Worse, you read about Arielle being abused starting on the first page, and it doesn't end until almost the last page. It's hard to tell on a Kindle, but there's a torturous abuse sequence when the dead husband's son gets hold of her, and it goes on and on for 30 pages. This is supposed to be a ROMANCE novel. I don't want to read sexual assault passages that are 10 times longer than the love scenes.

Finally, I got irritated reading some of Coulter's strange dialogue. She likes her characters to describe what they're going to do in an overly literal manner, and it can make for some gross passages, especially during the neverending sexual assault scenes. Also - Sometimes Coulter just doesn't make sense at all. "She appeared exactly the same. Or even more so." Huh? What does that even mean? How can you be "more so" the same? That's contradictory.

So Arielle gets 5 stars. Burke gets 3 stars. The story gets 1 star. Great premise. Terrible execution.

If you read it, plan to skip a lot of passages. I recommend just reading the parts about Burke and Burke/Arielle as a couple so it'll be less traumatizing.

In the begin I liked coulter, but after reading night fire, and then remembering to plot of warrior's song... I'm starting to think she has this weird thing about abused women, and women getting abused, is that a good thing? While warrior's song was flat out rape and then the guy becomes a hero...at least this abuser died. Coulter is really starting to scare me with her writing. Also the dialog is always sooo boring.

Airelle is certainly a young lady with a sad and horrific past and she is so fortunate to have someone like Burke Drummond to have fallen in love with her 3 years before, and devoted and patient to find a way to achieve marriage between them. This is such an unbelievable love story - I think the only weakness is perhaps the development of how Airelle began to change her feelings for Burke. Certainly he was patient and unbelievably caring and devoted and seemed to do all the right things - just on an emotional level I am not exactly sure what caused Airelle to actually accept Burke's love. And the ending with the crazed nanny and Entinne - that would have seemed to immediately drawn Burke and Airelle together - to skip then to the wedding 3 weeks later and they are still coming together just seemed a little weak - I mean most of the time when there is such an intense scene as almost dying in the fire couples cannot bare to be away from one another. For the most part though I love Coulter books and look forward to the others in this series!

This was a quick and interesting read about Burke and Arielle Drummond. This is the first in the night trilogy. Night Shadow is my favorite and Night Storm can be tossed in the trash. Catherine gets a little too explicit with her 'lust' scenes, though, and I feel no real love matches were made in these books. I found myself championing for Arielle in the end.