Sunday Spotlight: Heart of Fire by Linda Howard

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be  raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

Rowena: This week’s Sunday Spotlight is on a book that is near and dear to our hearts. A book that Holly and I have spent plenty of hours in our early twenties fighting over. When I say fight, I mean we fought over the hero, Ben Lewis. We fought over him so much that he was deemed off limits and Heart of Fire was both of ours. Yeah, we were weird. Ha!

So if it’s any indication, we love the hell out of this book and out of the hero. Heart of Fire by Linda Howard is a book that I did not have any interest in reading until Holly forced me to read it. This book is all that and a bag of chips guys and we’re going to spend the entire time writing this post, showing you why.

Holly: I remember the first time I read this book. I was hooked from page one. On the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen as Jillian and Ben trekked through the Amazon, with her fighting her attraction and him determined to win her over. Ben’s snark and Jillian’s wit made for some of the best banter I’ve ever read. I absolutely adore Ben. He’s brash and apologetically male. I honestly don’t know how much I would have loved him if it weren’t for Jillian. She absolutely makes the book for me. He almost crosses the line a couple times, but he never did because Jillian either put him in his place or was so unimpressed he was knocked down a peg or two. If you haven’t already, you need to read this book. Really. Do it. You won’t be sorry.

Heart of Fire by Linda Howard
Series: N/A
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: October 1, 1997
Publisher: Pocket Books

A fabulous lost Amazon city once inhabited by women warriors and containing a rare red diamond: it sounded like myth, but archeologist Jillian Sherwood believed it was real, and she was willing to put up with anything to find it — even Ben Lewis. Ruffian, knock-about, and number one river guide in Brazil, Ben was all man — over six feet of rock-hard muscles that rippled under his khakis, with lazy blue eyes that taunted her from his tanned face. Jillian watched him come to a fast boil when she refused to reveal their exact destination upriver in the uncharted rain forests — and resolved to stand her ground. Neither of them could foresee what the days ahead promised: an odyssey into the fiery heart of passion and betrayal, and a danger that would force them to cast their fates together, immersed in the eternal, unsolved mysteries of love….

Order the Book:

AMAZON || BARNES AND NOBLE || KOBO 

Rowena: Holly mentions Ben’s snark and Jillian’s wit and she’s completely right. Their chemistry is off the charts and they’re a riot together. I loved the way that Jillian didn’t let Ben get away with anything and Ben tried to get away with everything.

Here are some snippets from the book that showcase why we love the book as much as we do.

“It’s not something I can control, damn it. Every man I know wakes up with a hard-on.”

“Maybe so, but they do not—repeat, do not—rub it on me.”

” ‘Every man I know’ wasn’t rubbing it on you! It was just me!”

“And it was just your hair that I pulled, wasn’t it?” she asked sweetly.

Ha! I love the way that these two go at it.

“I’m going to wash my clothes while I have the chance.”

“Good idea. You can wash mine while you’re at it.”

“You can wash your own.”

Wearing a pained expression, he placed his hand over his heart. “You’re an unnatural woman. Don’t you know you’re supposed to want to do things for your man?”

“I don’t remember ever claiming you as mine, so the issue doesn’t arise. But I can’t think of a reason why any woman would want a man who was too lazy to do his own laundry.”

Do you see how awesome Jillian is?

He said, “How long does this usually last?”

“What, my period, or your strange delusion that everything I do is planned specifically to keep you from making love as often as you seem to think you should? My period will last four or five days. I’ve seen no break in your delusion at all.”

He grinned. Ah, he loved it when she talked sweet to him.

“You make it sound as if I’ve been nagging you every step of the way,” she said.

“You have. Silently.”

She gave him a long, level look. “When I decide to nag, you can bet I won’t do it silently.”

He sighed. “No, I don’t guess you will.” Inwardly he felt cheerful at the prospect. With Jillian’s rapier tongue, it was bound to be entertaining.

She was one cool customer, so cool that he just might have met his match. The thought gave him a panicky feeling, because that meant his chances of having her were only fifty-fifty, and he wasn’t comfortable with that. Ninety-ten would be better, no, hell, why give her any chance at all? He wanted to be one hundred percent certain that she’d be his. Anything less was unacceptable.

This is Rowena and me with Ben. dreamy sigh

Giveaway: We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for one of this month’s features.

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Have you read Heart of Fire before? If so, did you love it like we did? Let us know what some of your favorite books are in the comments below.

About the Author

Linda Howard

Linda Howard is an award-winning author whose novels include the recent New York Times bestsellers Shadow Woman, Up Close and Dangerous, and Drop Dead Gorgeous, as well as the Pocket Books releases Kill and Tell, Now You See Her, All the Queen’s Men, Mr. Perfect, and Open Season. She lives in Alabama with her husband and two golden retrievers.

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