Opening Line: "Julian Salvatore sprayed a steady stream of water at station five's ambulance, rinsing off the soapsuds and gyrating around the vehicle to "Life in the Fast Lane" blaring from the radio just inside the bay."

 

Hidden Fire is book #3 in the romantic, suspenseful and sexy firefighters of station five series. This time we get bad boy Julian Salvatore’s story. Often excluded by his fellow members in ‘A’ shift because of his aloof attitude and man-whore reputation, in actuality Julian’s hiding a terrible secret from his past and wants desperately to fit in with his crew. He’s also in love with a woman he met 2 books ago TRIAL BY FIRE A beautiful yet icy defence attorney who won’t give him an inch.

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 concussions/trips to the hospital/shootings/stabbings/drownings 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 slightly connected with updates from past characters and continuing story arcs. Here we get to catch up with Howard, Zach and fan favourite Captain Sean’s ongoing struggle with the bottle.

 

 

Grace McKenna’s been trying to avoid Julian’s irresistible Latin charm and ongoing advances, yet despite her all work no play attitude she can’t seem to stop thinking about him. After witnessing his almost frantic reaction to her latest client Grace finally concedes to a date, realizing that theres more to this sexy stud muffin then meets the eye. Julian is of course thrilled however this former ladies man has just fallen for a commitment-phobe and its going to take a long time for her to return those 3 little words he's dying to hear.

 

 

The opening of UNDER FIRE is super exciting and I can't remember ever reading a romance where the author actually kills the hero within the first few chapters. (Okay it was only for a few minutes but still) Jo Davis just loves to torture her men and by the end I truly felt sorry for Zack; he drowns, gets pneumonia, is shot, drugged, stabbed, tortured and hit in the head with a 2x4. It's exhausting. Through it all Zack maintains his nice guy persona and between hospital visits even manages to lose his virginity (I know sweet right, he was saving himself for the right girl)

               

 

His `right girl' is very likable, feisty, and independent plus she made me laugh with her sassy comments. Cori is also older than Zack and no virgin which was an interesting dynamic. Together they both have a ton of secrets and I kept waiting for the inevitable explosion of truths, particularly after Cori's crazed stalker entered the scene.

 

TRIAL BY FIRE was a surprisingly great read full of action and suspense, smoking hot love scenes and a complex yet tortured hero. The multi-layered plot kept me guessing throughout and the antagonist was genuinely evil. However the first few chapters are really silly and after having it pounded into my head every few pages just exactly how good looking, muscular, strong and enormous (6'6 240) Howard is and listening to internal dialogue with the words "Shazaaam and Ka-pow" I then had to wipe away the tears of laughter at having his man-bits described as among other things; a divining rod and renegade (there is also mention of Mt St Helen's) before resigning myself to just sitting back and enjoying a complete cheese-fest.

 

However it's at this point that author Jo Davis confused me by writing a great story with an actual plot. Somehow she's managed a perfect mixture of corny fun with thrilling action and heartbreaking post traumatic stress. It's also obvious that Davis has done her homework here and spent time within a fire hall and with real firefighters because her technical descriptions as well as those of life in the `house' and the feeling of brotherhood among the men are spot on. I also enjoyed the relationship between Kat and Howard and loved the fact that Kat embraced her curves and had no desire to be a size 2. Her struggle to get Howard to open up about his nightmares and abusive past without shutting down and pushing her away were well done and their relationship as a whole was believable.

 

 

My only real problem was with Howard's abrupt change in character whenever he got his freak on. Outside of the bedroom he never swears and is a giant teddy bear of a man however get him between the sheets, against a wall or in the hot tub and he turns into a sexual dominant with a nasty mouth. Thankfully we have also been introduced to the other hard-bodied men of station 5 and I can't wait to read their stories. UNDER FIRE, is next up in this scorching new series. Cheers

 

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.