Playing with Fire by Tamara Morgan
Paranormal Romance
Released: September 7, 2012
Entangled
Reviewed by May
Theirs was a classic tale- if classic played by Freudian rules. Boy spurns girl, girl sucks a lot of teenage cock, and thus begins a lifetime of bad decisions related to men.
Ian Jones is a scientist, and currently he’s working on some super secret stuff to try and help track down the Corrupted and keep the world a safer place.
Fiona Nelson took some conversion serum and got more than she expected – the power to create, aim, and destroy with fire. Not that she goes around destroying things – quite the opposite in fact. The woman who once was known as “Fingerbang Fiona” can’t be touched by anyone because her body temp is so high, and sex is out of the question too. She has spent the last eight years of her life trying to figure out how to control and harness her power so that she doesn’t hurt others, and she’s done a darn good job of it. Too bad someone is setting her up to look like a true villain, and that Ian Jones (her one time unrequited high school love) is hot on her trail an trying to prove that she is indeed “Fireball”
I love Tamara Morgan’s brand of humor, and the thought of her diving into superhero romance had me giddy and more excited than I’ve been to read a book in some time. Unfortunately, whether it was the characters themselves or the lack of time to develop them, this was a story that didn’t work for me in any way.
Fiona is a really low self-esteem heroine, and while I am ok with the heroine who finds her way in a story, I couldn’t buy it here, and it made it really hard to enjoy the story. I was really put off by her high school antics and that she was mad at Ian for not standing up for her back then – when she never once stood up for herself. Also, the moment she realizes that Ian can touch her without being burned she strips and begs for sex. While I get that she had gone a long time without, the way she throws herself at this guy made me cringe.
Ian seemed like an ok guy, but he was really boring and I never saw what was so special there, or why these two had such a connection. Speaking of connection, the humor was not working on any level in this story. I didn’t find her nickname funny, or the references to her low self-esteem antics, didn’t think the dialogue was sharp, nor did I ever giggle (as I usually do with her books), or even ever break a smile. I bring this up because I think the story was meant to be light and funny – for me it just didn’t work.
What did work, what I really liked, is her story on how people got super powers, and I would love to see this world explored more. I would like to get more in depth (longer) stories from this author that perhaps give more time and development to characters without sacrificing all that I love about a Tamara Morgan book to a fast paced plot that doesn’t have room for anything but action.
Grade: C-
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