Reread Challenge for June

Ride the Fire by Pamela Clare

Why this one: AL did a recent review of it and it started calling to me. I hadn’t read it for a while so I figured it was about time for another reread. You are probably getting sick of me talking about this one – but truly, it’s worth it!

My thoughts: I’m not going to give an outline since I’ve done that before and so have others. Instead I’ll just try and encapsulate what makes this such a powerful read for me.

One of the reasons this book is so compelling is the time period and the setting. I live in SW Ontario and when I was young one of my best vacations was a trip to all the old forts around the area. I’ve always loved history and was captivated by the history surrounding those old forts. I still remember a reenactment they did during one visit. I think my parents got quite a chuckle out of my excitement.

So reading a book that took place during this time period; the French Indian War against the British, takes me back to my youth.

And I can’t not mention the too die for hero in this book either. Nicholas Kenleigh is one of my very favourites of all time. From the very first when he is described as having hair down to his waist I perked up. Now I know this description doesn’t do it for everyone – heh heh heh but it sure does for me. Nicholas is one of the best tortured heroes I’ve ever read; both literally and figuratively. Because of what he went through he is pretty dead inside when he first runs into Bethie, the heroine. The author does such a fantastic job of slowly bringing him back to life while falling in love with Bethie. It’s not too hard at all imagining someone like Daniel Day Lewis in his Hawkeye role in Last of the Mohicans as Nicholas – nope, not too hard at all.

Bethie is also a great heroine. Wendy, SuperLibrarian put it well in a recent review she did of this book – a book she read due in part to my constant nagging – and she liked it. I quote: What I appreciated was that while she was alone and scared, she wasn't cowering in a corner waiting for someone to attack her. Oh no! Girlfriend knows how to use a rifle, and matches wits quite well with Nicholas when he shows up wounded on her doorstep”

I like how she puts that *g*.

The love scenes are soooo good. Pamela writes such great ones in all her books. The vibes between her couples in all her books are different and she really does reflect that in the scenes of intimacy that she writes. A lot of times when reading the sex scenes in a book I skip over them because there is nothing really unique about them. But in Pamela Clare’s books, each one is different and well thought out. You can tell she doesn’t just add them a sex scene for a sex scenes sake (try saying that three times!) Rather she takes who they are and what they are to each other into consideration and Ride the Fire is no exception. As an author, I’m sure they aren’t easy to write sometimes and they don’t necessarily add anything to the story, but in Ride the Fire, this isn’t the case. Bethie has been traumatized in the past and Nicolas sees this and is very patient and very tender with her. The full consummation doesn’t take place until later in the book, but before that he slowly shows her how good it can be between a man and a woman.

If you haven’t read this book or if you have it in your TBR pile just sitting there, I urge you to find it, to move it up. It really is a wonderful reading experience. It has been for me each time I’ve read it and this last time was no exception.

Grade: Always has been and always will be – 5 out of 5 and a true keeper