Blog Tour: A Firefighter's Flame + Teasers & Giveaway!

Released On: March 17, 2014

A Firefighter's Flame

by Dani Hart

3.5 stars

This story accounts the journey of a woman from her teens to her adult life. It accounts Lennox’s relationship with Dean—their budding love, separation, and eventual marriage.

This is a very emotional story. It’s not a clear-cut love story, as is usually the case with novels that begin from teens to adulthood. It shows the difficulties that young people in love experience. First there’s that magical beginning that makes them think their boyfriend or girlfriend at the moment will be their happy-ever-after forever. Eventually, they grow older and begin to develop habits and interests that diverge from one another. Distance forms between them, physically and emotionally, until finally they realize that there are other things they want which they cannot have if they settle with the same person early on. If these two young people are truly meant to be together, they will gravitate towards each other in the later years.

This is Lennox and Dean in a nutshell. But like I said, their story is not a clear-cut romance. Just like in real life, Lennox is at facing a crisis. She is settling. She has identified herself as the firefighter’s wife. And although she understands the significance of Dean’s job, she’s tired of just sitting at home playing housewife, waiting anxiously at home whenever Dean is out for days during his shifts, and praying with the kids that he be safe and be able to come home the next day. 

My gut starts to clench when she thinks back on her “one that got away”, Braedyn. She also keeps thinking about that weekend where she apparently did something that she’s very guilty about. I’ve always been very vocal about my dislike of stories with cheating, so I thought oh no… I honestly had to push myself to finish the story to give it a fair rating.

Although I was relieved that the story didn’t take that turn that I’m very strongly against, I still couldn’t really enjoy it. Perhaps it’s because it’s written in a kind of melancholy tone… The novel is narrated through Lennox’s point of view and it goes and forth from the present to events in the past. The constant switching made it difficult for me to really connect with Lennox. 

One reason is that… it’s like all her worries are about her love life. It also didn’t help that there’s only one significant secondary character in the story: her best friend, Kylie. She’s not the worst best friend there is, but she’s definitely a questionable one. Fine, some of her actions can be dismissed as the stupidity of youth, but just when I’m thinking she’s finally grown up as a responsible adult, she does another stupid thing. It’s tiring to read about her, all the more to read about Lennox continuing to be friends with her.

I wanted to read and review this book because of two reasons: the hero’s a firefighter :D and I was interested in how the characters will rekindle their marriage. The story, however, focuses more on Lennox and her personal struggles. I would have wanted Dean to be on the forefront of the story too, but he’s more of a backseat character. Nevertheless, this is an emotional story and I thought it shows readers exactly what wives and families of people with dangerous jobs, like firefighters, go through every single day. 

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