Fired Up

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Fired Up

By Mary Connealy

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for a couple of months, and have pre-ordered the hard copy version, but I jumped at the chance to read it when the publisher offered it for review. I devoured the story, reading it in less than 24 hours. A couple days later, I read it again to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I loved it both times.

            It’s the sequel to Swept Away, the second book in the Trouble in Texas series. It shifts the attention from Luke Stone and Ruthy to Dare and Glynna. If you read the Kincade Brides series, Luke Stone is Callie Kincade’s (from Over the Edge) brother. This book focuses on Doctor Dare Riker and Glynna Greer from the first book. Dare doesn’t think of himself as a doctor, but he just can’t help himself. He is, even though he has no formal education.

Poor Dare (short for Darius). Someone’s trying to kill him. They tried three times in Andersonville during the war, and now someone has tried three times again, inflicting injury each time – through avalanche, through fire, and finally stabbing him with a kitchen knife in the night. His Regulator friends Vince, Luke, and Jonas can’t protect him 24/7, even though they’d like to. His romance with widow Glynna Greer has a lot to overcome, including her son Paul’s intense hatred of any man who comes close to his mother. Is he the one trying to kill Dare or is it a raving lunatic?

Dare is a vulnerable, yet very strong, hero. So what if he’s hurt, he’s still on his feet and helping others. Glynna finds strength she didn’t know she had through helping Dare. She is the self-proclaimed “second-best doctor in Broken Wheel.”

I hope in future stories more of the Regulators’ story in Andersonville comes out. Seeds of a possible third book are planted in this one between Vince and Jonas’ sister. That looks to be interesting as well. I actually hope there will be four, so that Jonas the preacher can find someone too.

The thing about all Mary’s books is the language she uses, like “mangy polecat” and “squawked like a startled chicken.” She breaks a lot of writing rules. (At least I can’t get away with ‘em.) But the humor makes you give her a break and enjoy the story just as she tells it.

I really liked this book as I liked Swept Away, and many other books by Conneally. In the past eight months, I’ve read nearly all of them.