Wild Heat (Northern Fire #1)
by Lucy Monroe
Blurb:
Sometimes old flames are the hottest
of all . . .
In
the quaint little town of Cailkirn, Alaska, it's impossible to keep a secret,
especially one as juicy as the unexpected return of Kitty Grant. Tack MacKinnon
remembers her wild red curls and even wilder spirit—and still feels the sting
from when she shattered his heart in college. But there's a pain in Kitty's
gorgeous eyes that guts him to the core, and Tack is determined to do whatever
it takes to see the woman he still loves smile again—even if it means taking on
her demons as his own.
After
fleeing an abusive ex-husband, Kitty decides that the best way to heal her
broken heart is to come back home. But she gets a whole new shock when she sees
how undeniably sexy Tack has become. More handsome, more muscular, more
charming—more everything—he's impossible to resist. Before she knows it,
they're reigniting sparks that could set the whole state of Alaska on fire. Yet
trust doesn't come easy to Kitty anymore, and as things heat up between her and
Tack, she can't help but wonder if one of them is going to get burned . . .
Themes: contemporary
Rating: 3.5 stars
Heat Rating: 
Review:
An all new series by one of my favorite
authors has arrived. I love the premise
of this series mainly because it is set in one of my all-time favorite places
to read about and one that I am determined to visit someday, Alaska. The series begins with a story of rekindled
love between two former best friends.
The almost decade they have been apart has changed them both in some
pretty drastic ways, but at the heart they are still made for one another if
they can find a way to get past their hurts and fears. I am a huge fan of Lucy Monroe and went into
the story with really high expectations, which might have been the
problem. While I really enjoyed the
story, there was little of the greatness I have always experienced with her
writing. I liked the characters well
enough, but there just seemed to be an emotional disconnect for me and a little
bit too much choppiness to the story to make their tale truly believable. I am looking forward to the next in the story
and hope to have a return to the expected level of loving it, but for long time
Lucy fans, I warn you to not expect too much or you might end up
disappointed. That being said the story
was complicated in a lot of emotionally dramatic ways so maybe the problem was
that everything was just too intense.
Caitlin
“Kitty” Grant is returning to her small home town to lick her wounds and find
herself again after an abusive relationship and battle with illness almost cost her
life. She knows there are lots of fences
to mend, but seeing Tack MacKinnon her childhood best friend and the one person
she most betrayed with bad choices in the past, rekindles a desire that she
thought surely dead for good. Tack never
imagined Kitty would be returning to their small town, and never imagined she
would be as wounded as she is. When she
kicked him to the curb 8 years earlier he put as much space between them as
possible in hopes of protecting his heart from her, but seeing her again,
battered but not broken, is heartbreaking and terrifyingly wonderful at the
same time. When they can no longer resist the chemistry between them, falling
into a sensual and wonderful affair, neither of them are really able to protect
their hearts anymore. But can they
overcome the past that once tore them apart and find a way to survive the wild
heat of their hearts?
What
to say about Kitty… Kitty was an idiot. Ok maybe that’s too harsh, being that
she was a young woman with serious issues, but pushing her best friend away for
some controlling man left her with no one to fall back on when the world
crashed. She made some really bad
decisions, but thankfully knew when to finally get the hell out of the
relationship that almost killed her.
When she comes home she is determined to help herself and find a way
back to normal, but her mistake again is in not sharing her fears and issues
with those she loves. Dealing with Tack
and finding herself craving him at every turn gives her a sense that she is
finally finding herself again as a woman, but it quickly becomes more than her
fragile heart can handle. As she returns
to her old self, her spunky nature and determination bring her to face the fact
that being Tack’s dirty little secret is just not enough for her. I loved seeing her exploring her sensuality
and standing up for what she wants, growth leading her to some pretty startling
discoveries. I wish the story had been a
little longer, giving Lucy more time to share the baby steps of change, but the
jump into love is sometimes unexplainably fast I guess. In the end I liked her
more for embracing her vulnerabilities and fears enough to demand what she
wants and deserves from her man.
Tack
was an ass. I get that he had his heartbroken as a young man when the girl he
loved pushed him away for another man, but running away with his tail between
his legs and never bothering to check back on the girl he claimed to love was
not cool. Learning about the hardships
of her life, Tack is understandably upset that Kitty was so abused, but it
takes him way too long to come to terms with the simple fact that he could have
helped, even as a friend, if he hadn’t been throwing a tantrum and burying his
love for almost a decade. It is obvious
from both actions and words that Tack still cares about her, but he denies it
at every turn, even using sex as an excuse for protecting Kitty from her own
vulnerabilities. But he isn’t able to
take that final needed step of forgiveness until it is almost too late. Sexy alpha males are a dime a dozen, but it
is obvious to me that Tack is a really loving guy once he lets go of his hang-ups. He does everything in his power to look out
for those he cares about, even standing up to his own mother in an effort to
comfort Kitty, but he withholds the most important part of him, his heart, out
of fear, almost causing him to lose the girl he loves again to his own stubbornness. But in the end he finds a way to love again
and give her his all, maybe a little too quickly as things move from casual to
committed in a heartbeat, which was odd to me.
Wild
Heat is one of those stories where I love parts of it and the promise of the
great story it could have been, but something just doesn’t click right as I
read it. Tack and Kitty were obviously
made for one another, but the way they go about changing their
relationship—which is already complicated by their past—was just too abrupt and
seemed heartless to me. I enjoyed seeing
them embrace a physical relationship and don’t get me wrong those portions of
the book were hot, but the emotion was missing for me a lot. Tack
seems heartless a good bit of the time, very closed off and unwilling to share
himself, but overall seems to be a good guy.
He cares for those around him and is a good man in general, but when
faced with any emotional turmoil he seems to shut down and use physical
attraction and chemistry to put a distance between himself and Kitty. Kitty too has a lot of issues which she needs
to work through and I don’t think she worked through them enough in my opinion,
instead compensating for them or pretending the issues weren’t there. She does finally get some perspective and
help, allowing the healing to continue which leads her emotions to be invested
in her relationship with Tack, but it all happened too abruptly for me. In the end, I think had the story been a
little bit longer, with more emotional growth before the HEA it would have
struck a deeper more emotional connection for me. I am looking forward to the next story,
hoping the connection and fire returns for me, and wondering if we will see
more of Kitty and Tack. Lucy remains
one of my favorite authors, but this book was not one of my favorites of hers.
*eARC provided by publisher (via
netgalley) for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.
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