Wednesday Review

A Firefighter in the Family by Trish Milburn

I picked this book up because I’ve been following Trish Milburn’s blog for several years now. Her name was one of the first names I heard when I joined RWA because she was very active on the unpublished writers’ loops and because she was the National Pro-Liaison for RWA. She had also finaled and won several Golden Heart categories over the years (this is one of our biggest writing contests for unpublished romance authors).

When I heard she’d received a book contract, I was extremely excited. Then she sold another and another and another. Talk about a thrill. Even though it wasn’t me who had sold, I felt a kinship with this fellow writer because she had been kind enough to share her experience and knowledge with all of us over the past years. I bought the book because I knew who she was and was extremely happy that when I started reading the story, I COULD NOT put it down.

Three years earlier, Randi Cooke fled her Florida hometown to put a tragic accident behind her. But when fate calls the arson investigator back home to investigate a mysterious fire at a controversial hotel, the past is dredged up along with a mystery surrounding several unsolved fires. When her former friend and lover becomes a prime suspect, Randi finds herself having to choose between trusting logic and her gut instinct. Because it was her gut instinct that left her estranged from her own family years earlier, she’s not so sure that’s the way to go. Yet to go with the logic would mean Zac is guilty.

Zac Parker can’t believe he’s being accused of torching the hotel next to his bar. Just because he had words with the owner when the slime ball tried to buy him out doesn’t mean he’d resort to something illegal. But how can he convince Randi of that? Especially after she finds out he’d been accused of a similar fire two years earlier.

A Firefighter in the Family is a really good book. I had originally planned to buy it and set it aside for when I had more time to read. I drove around to five different locations before I was able to finally find it. When I flipped to the first page to take a peek at Ms. Milburn’s writing style, I found myself hooked. I literally couldn’t put it down. Randi Cooke grabbed my heart from the very beginning. I laughed in spots and even cried in others. This was an excellent story that ended with bang. I LOVED it!!! Great job, Trish!