Consumed by J. R. Ward

J. R. Ward has given us another hot one! Full disclosure-I own the entire Black Dagger Brotherhood, Fallen Angel, and Bourbon Kings series. I fell in love with her writing with Dark Lover and I have been a devoted fan ever since.

Another full disclosure-I’m married to a firefighter. To The Chief. Of course I bought this book. He also dropped everything to grab his gear so I could play around with my camera.

Ann Ashburn comes from a family of firefighters and she has the skills and courage to be one of the very best. During a sketchy warehouse fire, Ann makes the decision to leave her partner and venture out on her own. Not only is this completely dangerous, it’s against protocol. When the building begins to collapse, Ann becomes trapped. Luckily, Ann is saved by her fellow firefighter Danny Maguire, but it’s how he saves her that changes them both forever.

Spoiler-not-a-spoiler: He cuts her hand off! With an ax! Her hand was completely trapped and there was no other way to get her out before the flames completely took them over.

But once Ann is safe, things become incredibly dangerous for Danny. After handing Ann out to the fellow crew members for medical treatment, the building collapses on Danny. When Danny is finally found, his injuries are so severe that no one can understand how he survived.

Both Ann and Danny required months and months to recover. Now that Ann has only the one hand, she can no longer work as a firefighter with her crew. Unable to leave the profession completely, she throws herself into her new career-arson investigator. Nearly a year later, Ann is investigating a series of suspicious fires that forces her to cross paths with her old crew, and most importantly, Danny.

This book was everything I was hoping it would be! Ward writes very strong female characters I really enjoyed Ann’s character. Ann is smart, tough, resourceful, and is willing to work to get what she wants. She’s fearless as an investigator and refuses to be intimidated. On her first investigation, she rescues a stray dog that is hurt and hungry. I love the way the relationship between Ann and Soot, the pup, is written.

Danny’s character is a little predictable-tough but injured guy is medicating himself with alcohol and OTC meds. After Ann’s accident, the two of them don’t speak for nearly a year but she is constantly on his mind. He becomes more and more dangerous and is constantly putting himself in danger. With that said, the way he is with Ann completely redeems all that. He is never pushy, never overbearing, and he completely appreciates Ann for her strengths and her mind and not just for her amazing abs.

If you’ve never read Ward before, I would highly recommend you start. Consumed just came out last week so you’ll have plenty of time before the next book comes out. If you’re into paranormal romance her Black Dagger Brotherhood books are amazing. They’re almost soap opera-ish ( I truly mean this in the best way) and follow a great group of characters across almost 20 books. Definitely start with the first one, Dark Lover.

Have you read this yet? Let me know what you thought of this one.

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