~REVIEW of Jo Davis' LINE OF FIRE~

 

Line of Fire (Firefighters of Station Five, #4)

stars

Opening Line: “Go wide! Go wide! Come on Skyler pass the ball!”

Line Of Fire is book #4 in in the romantic, suspenseful and sexy firefighters of station five series. This time through we get apparent Brad Pitt lookalike Tommy Skylar’s story. At 23 he’s the youngest member of ‘A’ shift, a former star quarterback, Tommy had dreams of going to the NFL until the death of his brother in Iraq changed everything. Striving to make his parents proud Tommy joined the Fire Dept but still isn’t sure it’s where he wants to be.

So far I’ve really enjoyed this series, I mean how could you not? With hard bodied firemen heroes, smoking hot love scenes, and exciting action-suspense storylines it’s always a great ride. Part of the fun in reading these books is also the anticipation of how many trips to the hospital our heroes will have to endure before they get the bad guy and win the girl. Jo Davis just loves to beat up her men and it’s become a bit of a game for me counting the injuries. I also like how all the books are connected with updates from past characters and continuing story arcs. Here we get to catch up with 6-Pack, Zach, Julian and their Captain Sean’s ongoing struggle with the bottle.

 ER nurse Shea Ford has been trying to avoid Tommy’s irresistible charm and ongoing advances. She thinks that he’s way too young for the strong feelings he brings out in her and that she’d be much safer dating Prescott, a boring city planner. After Tommy lands in her ER (the 1st time) Shea finally concedes to a date and the two fall for each other pretty quickly after that.

Of course while all the romance is taking place we also have an arsonist on the loose and while I didn’t find his POV particularly interesting, his bad guy antics do enable Sean to finally hit bottom and land Tommy in the hospital again, this time with surprisingly devastating injuries. Ironically I had just been saying to myself; Davis is taking it easy on her hero when whammy a burning building collapses on him, changing his future forever.

All in all a pretty good read although I have to admit it’s my least favourite from the series. I had a tough time feeling the connection between Tommy and Shea or believing that he was ready for a HEA at 23 especially when he read like such a mama’s boy. And then there was the gratuitous anal sex scene at Tommy’s parents house which I suppose was meant to show the depth of their love (?) in a Lora Leigh sort of way however I found it unnecessary and weird especially considering Shea‘s dark secret. A lot of times this just felt like Davis was going through the motions with stilted, fluffy dialogue and an almost repetitive story line. Still I can’t wait to read Sean’s conclusion to this series next in RIDE THE FIRE.