review || FULL BLAZE

Full Blaze by M.L. Buchman

Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca (12/2/2014)

Series: Firehawks

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Source: NetGalley

Buy It From Amazon (Kindle) | BN/Nook || Goodreads

My Rating: ★★★★

These wilderness firefighters battle more than flames
The elite fire experts of Mount Hood Aviation fly into places even the CIA can't penetrate.

She's just jumped square into the heart of the blaze
When Australian helicopter pilot Jeannie Clark rescues wildfire photographer Cal Jackson from a raging burnover, she doesn't know she's bringing aboard a firebrand. Cal is quickly recruited for MHA's covert operations that reach far beyond the flames. Together Jeannie and Cal are assigned to an overseas operation with a lot more at risk than burning trees. And they'll need all the skill, love, and trust they can muster if they're going to survive the heat of this jungle battle.

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When I started this book, I think I maybe knew that Emily flew for this firefighting gig 'these days', but it was a super distant memory -- enough of a distant memory that I was super pumped to see her and Mark's cameo(s) -- and their growing family! I almost did a lot of the reading for them, not for Jeannie and Cal.

But no worries, Jeannie and Cal had their share of good times, too!

I liked everything about Jeannie -- her accent, her fierceness, her characterization... I liked Jeannie.

And while I didn't not like Cal... his characterization bored me a tad. I loved that he was once a hotshot; loved-loved that he was a photographer. Oh my goodness, the way Buchman described his pictures (especially the one he never had published...) -- I can see them so clearly in my head. However, the Cal parts in the beginning of the book didn't grip me as much as the Jeannie parts did.

But true to many books I read, once I got past the first few chapters, I was pretty engrossed -- once the 'action' happens, I'm all about the book.

When Buchman writes, he does a lot of detail. He does a lot of thought. He does a lot on internal dialogue. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it bores me. This book kind of went both ways. The entire back half of the book -- total fan, over here.

And, ok, let's be honest, I was a pretty big fan of the beginning and Jeannie's distaste of Cal's camera saving techniques.

One thing that I appreciated about FULL BLAZE was it's gradual relationship growth, with lack of a 'fight', per se. Absolutely, the end is a terrible thing to go through, and they fight through it together... but it's not like a traditional romance.

Also -- 'baby' and 'doll' and 'sweetheart' sometimes get old in way of petnames (ok, 'sweetheart' is totally acceptable all the time), but Jeannie and Cal? They call eachother Hotshot and Helitack; both are semi-standard nicknames for their chosen professions, but they work in a cute way.