Consumed by J.R. Ward Narrator: Hillary Huber, Jason Carpenter, Jim Frangione, Peter Simonelli
Length: 11 hrs 27 mins
Series: Firefighters #1
Published by Simon & Schuster on October 2, 2018
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 416
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I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Anne Ashburn is a woman consumed...
By her bitter family legacy, by her scorched career as a firefighter, by her obsession with department bad-boy Danny McGuire, and by a new case that pits her against a fiery killer.
Strong-willed Anne was fearless and loved the thrill of fighting fires, pushing herself to be the best. But when one risky decision at a warehouse fire changes her life forever, Anne must reinvent not only her job, but her whole self.
Shattered and demoralized, Anne finds her new career as an arson investigator a pale substitute for the adrenaline-fueled life she left behind. She doesn't believe she will ever feel that same all-consuming passion for her job again--until she encounters a string of suspicious fires setting her beloved city ablaze.
Danny McGuire is a premiere fireman, best in the county, but in the midst of a personal meltdown. Danny is taking risks like never before and seems to have a death wish until he teams up with Anne to find the fire starter. But Danny may be more than a distraction, and as Anne narrows in on her target, the arsonist begins to target her.
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After reading the two prequel novellas, The Rehearsal Dinner and The Reception, I was very excited to dig into Consumed. I felt like I had gotten an outline of Anne and Danny’s characters and now I wanted to see them in real life.
J.R. Ward jumps right into the adrenaline-filled life of a firefighter and put our characters straight into a life-changing and story-changing situation. I think because of reading the prequels I was even more devastated by this situation the 499 find themselves in. It puts a huge damper on anything we thought might happen coming out of the prequels!
After that powerful and intense scene, we end up jumping forward quite a few months. Our characters have gone through some major changes and I wondered whether the situation I wanted was going to work it’s way out. The jump puts Anne in an investigative position which helps get the “suspense” part of this romantic suspense series going. It’s an adjustment for Anne, but Anne is determined to make her life work. Anne finds herself in the midst of an investigation that could put her in a deadly situation. The adrenaline of that really fulfills that part of Anne that craves and misses that rush. In a way you really feel for Anne and her struggle, but that helps you cheer for her as she makes progress towards getting her life back. I love that she found a friend that she could lean on. That friend is a favorite part of the story for me.
Danny is still the maverick at the 499 and is dealing with his PTSD over the traumatic incident months before. I loved Danny. He may not have been at his best but he was still all that I wanted for Anne.
Ward does a great job introducing all the characters and establishing the connection and relationship between them all. Anne’s family and work struggles as well as those surrounding the guys at the 499. The investigation into the warehouse fires from the previous years drops into place leaving just enough pieces that we don’t have concrete evidence of the hypothesis. However, by the way things start happening to Anne, you know that she has to be on the right path.
Then it happens. The bomb I didn’t see coming. It blew the book out of the water. I was so surprised and shocked I had to stop and try to wrap my head around what happened. It was stunning. Ward really pulled that surprise at the right time and laid the build up perfectly. I was a big fan of the Bourbon Kings series but I think I enjoyed this even more. It was an emotional ride with these characters that kept me glued to my Kindle. Ward has me hooked and I can’t wait to see how the next one plays out, what more can these characters be put through? I highly recommend this new series and can see book two being a preorder. As if a Ward book wouldn’t be on my preorder lineup!
About J.R. Ward
J.R. Ward is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with more than 15 million novels in print published in 25 different countries around the world. The books in her popular Black Dagger Brotherhood series have held the #1 spot on the New York Times hardcover, mass market, eBook, and combined print/eBook fiction bestseller lists and have debuted in the top 5 on the USA Today bestseller list. Prior to her writing career, Ward worked as a lawyer in Boston and spent many years as the Chief of Staff of one of Harvard’s world-renowned academic medical centers. Ward currently lives with her family in Kentucky where she has learned to enjoy and appreciate all things Southern.
