Customer Reviews

Set the Dark on Fire

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

 

 

I was very happy to discover this new to me author with Crash into Me. I actually thought this one was even better than the first book, and I like that one very much. I really liked the female and male leads and the way their reluctance to open romantically to each other played out in the midst of all the sexual tension and wild life/small town killing plot.

In rural Southern California, the mountain lion killed the woman. Thus interim Sheriff Luke Meza of the Tenaja Falls Police Department, accompanied by wildlife expert Shay Phillips, stalks the beast; they kill it before it hurts anyone else.

However, Shay and Luke are stunned to learn the victim was dead before the mountain lion approached her. A human predator murdered her and others as more corpses surface. As Shay and Luke team up to find the two legged predator, their attraction ignites, but misunderstandings place both in jeopardy from a clever serial killer who is watching them with the fierceness of a wounded stalked mountain lion.

This is an exciting romantic suspense starring two likable protagonists working together to initially hunt a mountain lion, but quickly realize the predator is two legged. The back stories of the lead pair adds to the understanding of the flaws and desires of each of them; for instance Shay raises her teenage brother whose entire brain contains one icon: females. Fans will enjoy the hunts to include that of the hearts as Luke and Shay SET THE DARK ON FIRE.

Harriet Klausner

After reading Jill Sorenson's first Book Crash Into Me I put her on my auto buy list. I wasn't let down. The book is very good and all I can say is the fertility cave, priceless.

Well-done romantic suspense with the emphasis on romantic. The suspense plot was good, but took a back seat to the character development and the romantic relationships. (That's not a problem, just an FYI.) Ms. Sorenson handled the transitions between the four major characters well, and the book read smoothly. I didn't quite buy into the speed at which the relationship between the adult protagonists progressed (pretty much the entire book takes place over four days), but I can suspend disbelief for that. One heads-up: as in Crash Into Me, there is a parallel story involving two teens, one 17 and one 18. While I feel Ms. Sorenson handles these characters and their relationship realistically, I would prefer a "fade to black" approach to teen sexual activity. If you're like me and don't want to visualize a naked 17 year old, then be forewarned. Otherwise, Set the Dark on Fire is a better than average romantic suspense and I look forward to more from Jill Sorenson.

I haven't read any books by Jill Sorenson before but have just bought another one before writing this review - that tells you that I was very impressed.

It's not that there's anything particularly original in this story. It's a romantic suspense, a story about a new Sheriff investigating a woman's death by a mountain lion which is clearly more complex than just a wild animal going rogue. The Sheriff, Luke Meza, enlists the help of a member of the Department of Fish and Game, who happens to be Shay Phillips, a woman who has brought up her brother singlehandedly and who is confident and independent. Unsurprisingly, sparks fly.

There's a subplot in this story of Shay's brother Dylan and his attempts to woo his neighbour Angel, during which he finds himself drawn into what becomes a murder investigation. I felt that the scenes with Dylan were perhaps less successful to me, but the central romance between Shay and Luke was really well written and believable.

The book touches on issues of relationships between the Anglo, Indian and Mexican communities in Nevada, family tensions, a boy coming of age and more. It was a really exciting read that I didn't want to put down and I liked both central characters very much. Thumbs up for this book!

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2011

The book is set in a small California town called Tenaja Falls. The two main characters have amazing chemistry even though their first impressions of each other turn out to be wrong. Shay Phillips is a mountain lion loving biologist and Luke Meza is the interim sheriff who thinks Shay is another used up party girl. Shay's little brother has a romance of his own, with the neighbor girl, a gorgeous eighteen year old, Angel Martinez.

A womans body turns up mauled by a mountain lion, a fire is set deliberately on an Indian Reservation, an influential business man is scalped and a rattle snake is delivered to Shay in an unmarked box. The towns secrets are spilled when the new Sherriff comes to town and Jill Sorenson wrote this book with thrilling detail.

I read Crash into Me and decided to buy this book because I liked that one so much. It was different but still amazing and now I am looking forward to buying her next book when it comes out.

This is my second book by Jill Sorenson and unfortunately, I did not enjoy it as much as Crash into Me, which I loved. It starts out engaging the reader quickly into a suspicious death and brings in sassy, strong, and beautiful Shay to help the police investigation due to her animal tracking and ranger skills. There she meets Sheriff Luke who she's immediately attracted to but gets the sense that he thinks he's too good for her. The suspicious death turns out to clearly be a mountain lion attack and the park with its no kill tolerance, orders Shay to hunt down the lion and kill it. The only lion in the vicinity according to GPS is Shay's favorite whom she helped raise as a cub and she's completely torn up about having to take him down. Regardless, she does her job quickly and efficiently only to find after DNA testing that her favorite lion isn't the one who killed the woman. This is the only part where I any felt emotion for the book. Regardless, Shay and Luke have to continue working together to find the right lion and find their attraction to one another, too much to resist. As they get closer and closer to the truth, Shay and Luke find themselves in several life threatening situations and have to figure things out with a town full of suspects including a jealous ex boyfriend, an angry brother, and a sketchy police deputy.

With this book, I did not care about the side characters as much as her other. The side story of her brother loving the girl next door was distracting and unfulfilling. The romance is steamy but way too fast and unbelievable in that they throw caution to the wind and don't care about birth control by day 1 and fall in love by day 4. The unfolding of "whodoneit" is lack luster and meaningless. Regardless, it's still entertaining. The writing style is strong, but the content was not. This book will be long forgotten once I've finished this review.

Indepth character development will make you recognize people in your own life from the 'I'm a loner' guy to the "I'm just trying to get along" girl to the "I'm miserable" teenager. And the 'I'm not smart' young lady stole my heart. And the mystery isn't bad either. If you love people and romance and a pretty good 'who don it', you will love this book.

Luke Meza is acting sheriff in the small town of Tenaja Falls. He figured it was the best way to still work and be able to have some quiet time to figure out what he wants to do next with his life. But, quiet is not what he gets. Only a few days into the new job he has a bizarre death on his hands. When he finds out the local authority to help him with wildlife is a woman who looks like she is a little too much of a party girl he is bothered. He is bothered in more than one-way; he hasn't had his blood race this fast in a long time. But, he is determined to not act on the attraction, especially as she is almost a decade younger than he is.

Shay Phillips knows her town and local area. She has lived there for her entire life and now has a job studying the mountain lions in the area. She is also raising her younger brother, Dylan, who has defiantly hit the age where he is testing her limits, not to mention her patience. She is stunned when a local woman is killed by a mountain lion. The only one in the area is one that is close to her heart. There is something slightly wrong with the crime scene though. Not one drop of blood. Shay knows this means there is more going on than a local wild cat acting out of character.

With suspects ranging from local sheriffs to Shay's kid brother how will the two be able to navigate the potential minefield of an investigation. Furthermore what will happen if they decide to act on their lust filled thoughts?

Wow - Set the Dark on Fire is a fast-paced, action-filled romantic "who done it". I love how Ms. Sorenson has the characters start out with first impressions (some bad) and have to learn more about each other quickly. Shay and Luke are both characters who have strong personalities and who have overcome more than many people give them credit for. I was intrigued by the mountain lion information as well as the "who done it" part of the story. I have found a new must read author! I Joyfully Recommend Set the Dark on Fire and think any lover of romantic suspense will love the depth of Ms. Sorenson's characters.


Tanya
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

STORY BRIEF:
As a detective in Las Vegas Luke made enemies of powerful casino groups. He decided to leave Las Vegas and took a temporary job as a sheriff in Southern California. A woman was killed by a mountain lion, and then someone moved her body to another location. Shay is a field research biologist working in the nearby State Preserve. She's an expert on mountain lions. State law requires her to find and kill any lion who kills a human. Luke accompanies her to find the lion. Another murder and other crimes occur which affect Shay or her brother.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
This book was ok but not as good as "Crash Into Me" to which I gave 5 stars. However, I liked her writing style enough to buy her next book "The Edge of Night" coming March 2011.

I didn't care for the developing relationship between Luke and Shay. He was silent, insensitive and hurtful. She acted like she didn't care. For much of the story they kept denying their feelings for each other. Two examples follow. Page 242: "Luke hated himself for hurting her, even though it was for her own good. If they slept together again, he wouldn't be able to remain emotionally uninvolved." Page 270-271: "Realizing her feelings for him went deeper than she'd thought, she panicked ... Taking a deep breath, she returned to the office, preparing to hurt him before he could do the same to her." Their relationship consisted of negatives through most of the book, and then all of a sudden they admit they love each other. I would have preferred seeing interactions causing them to learn about each other and grow to like each other.

There are some deaths and crimes committed with unusual elements. On the one hand, these were creative and different. On the other hand, I had trouble buying into the motives and logic for some the actions, especially the one where a person hits Shay and takes her someplace. Some of the actions were to throw suspicion on others, but they weren't well thought out and didn't throw suspicion as intended.

DATA:
Story length: 401 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 22. Setting: current day southern California. Copyright: 2009. Genre: romantic mystery.

OTHER BOOKS:
To date, I've read one other book by Jill Sorenson. My 5 star review of "Crash Into Me" Copyright 2009 was posted 8-20-09.