Review: Flashpoint by Jill Shalvis.

Posted February 28, 2009 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Hero: Zach Thomas
Heroine: Brooke O’Brien
Grade: 4 out of 5

Zach Thomas risks his life battling flames every day. But since sexy EMT Brooke O’Brian joined the crew, he can’t resist playing with fire. Brooke is feisty, a little uptight…and sexy as hell. And as Zach soon discovers, she’s definitely hot stuff between the sheets. Still, every firefighter knows that the hotter the blaze, the faster the action’s over….

After the whirlwind ride Zach’s been taking her on, Brooke is ready to do anything for this man–in and out of bed! But she knows footloose and fancy-free Zach doesn’t do commitment. So she plans to build up a five-alarm fire between them. The kind he won’t ever want to put out…

In keeping up with my book challenges, I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished in the last two months. This book is my second entry into KMont’s Year of the Category Challenge and also Brie’s Contemporary Romance Challenge. I’ve read plenty of contemporary this month but since I forgot to tag one for Brie’s challenge I’m going to tag this book twice for two different challenges and comfort myself with the knowledge that I’ve read more than one contemporary this month and am really proud of myself. =)

I really enjoyed this book.

Jill Shalvis writes great contemporary novels where I get all involved in the stories. One thing that I’ve noticed with Jill’s books is that her heroines are usually the button up type heroines who needs to loosen up and that was the case in this story with our heroine, Brooke O’Brien. I love her heroes, in this case, Zach Thomas. He is exactly the kind of guy that I lust after. The surfer boys, the guys that are laid back and have that easy going attitude but are uber sexy and got it going on. The guys that are sexy and confident and just yummy.

I was reading articles on the Oscar’s and one of the articles talked about Slumdog Millionaire stars, Dev Patel and his girlfriend, her name slipped right now but the writer said that the two stars of SM should be in a stew because they are delicious and when I read that, I immediately thought of Zach. He was delish in this book and I really enjoyed his character.

So this story is about Zach Thomas and Brooke O’Brien hooking up and falling in love. Brooke is a permanent newbie and she moves around a lot because it’s what she knows. Her Mother is a free spirit and she wanders from city to city but when Brooke’s grandmother dies and leaves Brooke her house, Brooke picks up her life and moves to Santa Rey to box up the old lady’s house and put it on the market. She takes up a temporary EMT job to get by and that’s where she meets the delicious for stew, Zach Thomas.

Zach has got his own plate full of all sorts of craziness. He’s got his own issues that surround the death of his parents, why he became a firefighter and then there’s the crazy business that’s going on with the fires around town. Questions start forming and Zach wants answers but is frustrated that none are forthcoming. Zach starts investigating things on his own and doesn’t like what he’s finding out. On top of all of the things that are vying for his attention, Zach can’t get New Hire #7 out of his mind.

The relationship between Zach and Brooke was fun to read. Zach is a gorgeous stud muffin and Brooke is the button up girl that he wants to ruffle up. Each scene that these two were in made me smile, laugh or sigh in frustration. They liked each other but Brooke wants more than a one night stand and then has to eat her words because she wants him too much and then settles for that one night of passion…only it becomes more than one night and soon they’re sleeping together and she’s broken her own rules by falling in love with Zach. She’s a big girl though, she knew that he couldn’t give her what she wanted and she went after him anyway so she’ll deal with her feelings and she’ll try to stay away from him…only it doesn’t work because Zach’s feelings for her are crowding him as well so time after time and to be honest, all of the back and forth kind of got to be too much after a while. The book is pretty short but it still packed in a bunch of great characters (can’t wait to finish Christina and Dustin’s story) and a page turning story.

Shalvis delivers another witty and funny stories. She delivers a great cast of characters and her sense of humor shines in this story. Her stories tend to be character driven and I like that about them. Zach and Brooke were great characters that worked through their issues like any normal, regular person would. They made mistakes, they acted a fool but in the end, they got it right and I enjoyed reading their journey. I recommend this to anyone who’s in the mood for some sexy firefighters (there are more than one in this bunch) and just a great book that will have you rooting for the main characters. This book is a fun one.

This book is available from Harlequin Blaze. You can buy it here or here in e-format.