Blaze

By: Joan Swan

Narrated by: Lucky Summer

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

With a man like him, every mission becomes personal…Ever since FBI agent Keira O'Shay started tracking a young boy named Mateo, she's felt a connection even her empathic abilities can't explain. She needs to save Mateo from the cult leader holding him hostage. Nothing can interfere with that - not even the reappearance of Luke Ransom, the hot-as-hell fire captain she's regretted walking out on for three long years. Losing Keira left Luke vulnerable - in every way. When they were together, the powers each possesses were mysteriously enhanced. But it's the sexy, surprising woman beneath the tough exterior that Luke's really missed. Even if she betrayed him utterly. And even if agreeing to help her uncover a government conspiracy means watching his life and his heart go up in flames again…

©2012 Joan Swan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Great & lots of action, Lil' but great romance

This story centered on a group of private and government security or law enforcement workers w/ varying paranormal abilities. The action-filled opening with a relationship conflict made for an enticing start. And the action-filled momentum continued. I enjoyed the strong heroine, Keira, and what—from my novice view—the law enforcement, tactical specifics the author included. The author seemed to know what she was talking about and added enough specificity to add flavorful layers and depth to the story. The addition of spoken Greek was another positive. I don’t understand it, but it added great realism. And the narrator seemed to do great with it; of course, I wouldn’t know if something was mis-pronounced, so…. The story was also full of witty dialogue. And it had well-developed characters and interesting side stories. More realism came from reference to some real cutting edge psyche-surgery with appropriate detail and usage. Keira is the best heroine ever, and the last, elongated action sequence of the book was SUPERB! I had ants in my pants, sitting on the edge of my seat, literally.
This story might be a little bit heavier on the action than on the romance, though the author really did a great job of having them both continuously intermingled. The chemistry between Keira and Luke was amazing. The sex was romantic; no explicit terms used. And there weren’t numerous sex scenes. When they finally got together—and it wasn’t until the 2nd half of the story—it was worth the wait. The story was romantic w/o being mushy. It was a pleasure to watch Keira and Luke get to know each other better and express what they feel for each other.
The one negative—very slightly negative—came near the end of the tale, with maybe 2.5 hrs left or so, when Keira reneged on a final decision thereby returning to an earlier decision. This vacillation is explained reasonably, but it got a bit tiresome. Still, it meant little in the overall story and my experience of it. Bring on more Joan Swan. And the narrator worked well for this story. Her depiction of the little boy speaking Greek was the best. Children can be hard to do, it seems, based on my experience having heard other narrator’s fail at it. An added bonus at the end is 20+ minutes of the 3rd book in this series, Rush.

Great continuation of this series

Any additional comments?

I knew after I read Fever (my first book by this author and the first in this series) that I'd want to read the rest of the books in this series. This book did not disappoint. The main characters had chemistry that kept the romance as intense as the suspense. Sometimes when the hero or heroine are continually indecisive regarding their relationship, I get annoyed. In this case there was just enough angst to keep the story going, but not so much that I got impatient.

Lucky Summer did a great job narrating. I wish she had been chosen for all 4 books. I put off buying the audio version of Fever because I wasn't sure I liked the narrator's voice. At the end of this book, there was a teaser for the third book. Probably won't be buying the audio version of that one; just the Kindle version. Wasn't crazy about that narrator.

So for me, this was well worth the money and the time!

I love you, I want you, but I can’t...

So much repetitive banter between Luke and Kiera about having kids - not having kids.
When Luke decided to get a vasectomy, I was cheering him on. Not because he wouldn’t be a great dad but so I wouldn’t have to listen to whiny Kiera saying for the 10th time, I don’t want kids, I’d never be a good mother.
And since Luke wasn’t going to walk away from Ms. K; get a snip quick, then at least the two of them could be together and more of the secretive soldier/lab experiment/special powers story could be told.
Overall a solid 4stars.

Wow

Enjoyed the emotional roller coaster ride of this couple.looking forward to the next book in the series narrator was fantastic