Review: A FIRE IN THE BLOOD by Shirl Henke

A Fire in the Blood
by Shirl Henke

Genre: Historical Romance
Setting: Wyoming, US, 1880′s
Publisher: Leisure Books
1st Pub. Date: January 28, 2000
Pages: 448
Format: eBook; Out of Print

A Fire in the Blood is definitely a fitting title for many reasons. Not only does it represent the passion and sexual tension between two mis-matched protagonists, but also represents the fire of hate and fear blazing deep in topic of racism and deadly games of greed, envy, and malice.

As much as I enjoyed this story, it ironically starts off with a Prologue that didn’t exactly set up the story in a way that made me want to keep reading. But I did, and I’m glad.

One of the aspects of this story that really caught my attention right away was the plot set up. Lissa Jacobson is a rich, spoiled, only child, white girl, the heir to her daddy’s cattle ranch, who becomes immediately intrigued by and drawn to the  forbidden “half-breed” that suddenly rides into town to save her daddy’s ranch. Jess Robbins has had run ins with the same kinds of women as Lissa; he becomes a distraction and forbidden play thing, but never a truly wanted man. And he sees right through every single one of Lissa ploys to seduce Jess, but Jess can only withhold his own desire for so long.

The chemistry between these two characters is definitely present. Shirl Henke knows how to create some great sexual tension and passion! When these two are finally “discovered”, Jess does the right thing by marrying Lissa. The only problem is he doesn’t want to be married to her. Not that he doesn’t care for her, he does. Both the characters had slowly started to develop stronger feelings than lust along the way, but Jess doesn’t want to subject his wife – and now child on the way – to a miserable life being a half breed. What Jess doesn’t realize however, is just how deep Lissa’s love for Jess and their child goes.

While the lust turned to romance relationship unfolds, outside antagonists that the reader never really knows their identity keeps uping the malicious and destructive attempts to ensure that Jess leaves town, that Lissa’s ranch runs out of cattle, and that Lissa herself never gets her hands on the property through inheritance.

The main issue I had with this western read was the constant denial of affections on Jess’s part, and the heroine’s stubborn personality for the first half of the story.  However, what I did enjoy is the complete 180º turnaround the heroine seemed to do by the end of the book. She had to grow up – and she accepted and embraced that change and challenge. She was no longer the spoiled, pampered young lady, but a women who was forced to deal with the ‘real world’ hardships. Jess was a little harder to emotionally crack. True to most bodice ripper novels, Jess withheld his declaring love until the very end. But, despite the lengthy wait, it made for a good resolution to the dynamic relationship between himself and Lissa.

This was a hard book for me to give an opinion rating on because some aspects I could rate higher due to personal preferences, and some aspects just didn’t work for me.

The recommendation: For historical, western fans who love a good forbidden love between a white girl and racially mixed man, whose love brings forth a whole lot of ramifications from small town, southern society. There is definitely a lot of drama in this story. Some he said, she said, some I don’t believe you really love me, and some I don’t trust you, going-ons. And, of course, some great sexual tension and more sensual scenes.

Giveaway Details:

This post is part of the Bodice Ripper Revival Weekend at Novel Reflections! The winner of this weekend’s event will choose from either an ebook of You, and No Other gifted via Amazon.com or an ebook of A Fire in the Blood gifted via Amazon.com. {The review of A Fire in the Blood was posted yesterday.} *Both books are out of print.*

To enter, please leave a comment on this post. For an extra entry, leave a comment on the review tomorrow, too. Entries will be accepted until 6/4/2012 @ 11:59 pm EST. Good luck!