Review: Fire at Twilight (The Firefighters of Darling Bay #1) by Lila Ashe

From Goodreads.com 

Grace is a fixer. She's good at it, too. In her acupuncture practice, she fixes the community of Darling Bay, and in her personal life, she's rescued her sister too many times to count. Her love life, though . . . Grace doesn't think she needs help, especially not from a man whose very nickname is unhealthy.

Tox Ellis is the hazmat expert at the Darling Bay Fire Department, and he knows about harmful substances. He knows what gases to keep apart to prevent explosions. Why, then, can't he seem to stay away from Grace, the woman who seems to think he needs fixing?

Is Darling Bay ready for the chemical reaction Grace and Tox generate whenever they're in the same place at the same time? And who will be standing by to put out the flames? 

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 My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

A few minutes into this book, I was ready to throw my kindle across the room. Yes, I was that annoyed. Maybe I should start off by explaining that I grew up in the local fire department. Literally. My dad was a firefighter before I was born, so I had more "uncles" than I knew what to do with. Then when I grew up, I married a firefighter, who later would become Chief of the department. So when I read a book about firefighters and the passage reads "She turned to see a huge man in some kind of yellow jumpsuit coming at her. He had shaggy blonde hair and a jaw like a cliff....." you make some pretty interesting faces. And you contemplate tossing your kindle into the rubbish bin as you would with a paperback book. If you're going to write a book about firefighters, please do your research and get your details right. She would not have been able to see his hair and jawline due to the hoods and mask that would have been worn inside a smoke filled building. And the "yellow jumpsuit" is called turnout gear. I'm just saying.

Three days (and another book) later, I decided to give this one a second chance, especially seeing all of the 4 and 5 star reviews left by other readers. My initial annoyance aside, this was a pretty cute book. There was plenty of action and suspense, but there was also humor and one instantly lovable four legged companion. 

Overall, the characters were likable, but the plot seemed a bit rushed. I would have liked to see their relationship develop a bit more than it did, and I definitely would like to have known more about Grace. How is she able to deal with her compulsion to "fix" (or control) everything? And what of Tox's health problems? Did he find relief from them or are they still plaguing him? 

The ending of this book seemed a little sudden, like the author just ran out of steam with these characters, which after every else was disappointing. I felt like there could have been more, even an epilogue "A couple of months down the road" to show how the characters overcame the problems they were faced with,something to give the reader a better sense of closure, and of their story having a happy ending.

I did decide to give this author another chance, and downloaded the second book in this series, Fire at Dawn, so we will see. 

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 Fire at Twilight (The Firefighters of Darling Bay #1) is available from Amazon.com