Redemption by Fire
by Andrew Grey
(By Fire # 1)
This was totally an impulse buy. I saw a review for the last book in this series on a blog that I love and follow and being the stickler I am for reading in order, I rushed and bought book one. Loved that it was a short story because I was feeling some m/m withdrawals in between all my "required" review reading so this hit the spot.
However, writing a short story I think has to be hard and as a reader it's difficult to connect on all levels with the story. I think that's what lessened my enjoyment of this story. This is the first I read by this author and it was very well written and I did enjoy what was presented. However, I felt that something was missing.
In a nutshell, Dirk is a firefighter who almost dies in a fire while rescuing a baby. He's always been an asshole and really none of his co-workers like him. While he's recovering at the hospital, the new "kid" at the station is the only one that goes to visit him. And the first thing he does is he throws in his face that he thinks he's gay and because he has to live in the closet, that's why he's such an ass.
Of course, Dirk is and he feels an immediate attraction to Lee. And while Dirk is recovering things heat up between them. And then Dirk has to deal with the repercussions of going back to work and whether or not he will come out to his friends and family in order to keep Lee, who is happily out.
I think there was a lot of growth for the characters that happened "off the pages" and that's what I didn't like because I felt that people just changed who they were so quickly and with no real reason as to why. But time had passed so I'm sure things and feelings prompted those changes. That's just something you lose when reading a short story and I think this one was affected by that.
However, that being said, I did enjoy Dirk and Lee together, as well as Dirk's turnaround with this co-workers and friends. I'm not sure if the next story will still be about the same couple since the issue of coming out to his father wasn't really addressed at the end of this book. But I will definitely continue reading the series either way. Quick, hot and entertaining read!
