Ghost in the Flames by Daisy Harris (Fire and Rain #5)
M/M Romance
July 7, 2015
Samhain
Reviewed by Helyce
Goodreads blurb: Seventeen years ago, firefighter Rick Turner kissed a boy, and he liked it—then he paid a horrible price. Now he spends his days running from who he is and what he wants, his nights hooking up with a man who doesn’t fill the aching hole in his soul.
Until one night, newly dumped, he gets into a fistfight and is picked up by a cop-and-counselor team…and the counselor is none other than the guy who gave him that fateful first kiss.
Stan Gable relishes serving people who actually want his help. When he encounters grown-up Rick—and oh my, how he’s grown—Stan’s first instinct is to step in and use his counseling skills to ease Rick out of his fears and out of the closet.
But Rick’s prickly temper and lack of self-acceptance make him his own worst enemy. Before Stan can help Rick overcome those obstacles, he’ll have to take a look deep inside…and heal his own guilt before he can heal the man he still loves.
I’ve been a fan of Ms. Harris’s M/M stories for a while. She does such a good job of combining emotion and angst while giving us sexy men and sexy times, often in under 200 pages. I enjoyed the first few books in this series but the last one didn’t work too well for me. When I learned that she’d written Rick’s book I had to read it.
Rick has been a bit of a caustic character throughout the series. He’s built this wall around himself and often comes off as extremely homophobic. Comments, expressions, and simple actions pushed us to believe that he was unhappy or uncomfortable with the fact that he worked with so many openly gay firefighters. But I knew there was much more to it, and I was right. I don’t want to give too much away, because experiencing the traumatic events through Rick’s memories are emotional and clearly explain the how and why of the man Rick becomes. He’s extremely closeted, but continues to explore his interest in men in secret.
When Rick comes face to face with Stan, the first boy he’d kissed before everything changed for him, he’s forced to look at his life. Stan is out, but is extremely sensitive to fact that Rick is not. They both find that they have feelings for each other and they begin the first rocky steps toward exploring those feelings. I liked how Stan was so understanding and patient with Rick even when he couldn’t help approaching Rick as if he were a patient he had to counsel. He doesn’t want to push, but at the same time, he can’t go on building a relationship with someone who can’t accept who he truly is.
Interestingly, it’s Stan’s patience that I think fuels Rick’s need to be honest with himself and others. But it seems to come too easy for a man like Rick who has spent so long projecting a persona to cover his true self. It was almost like he’d flipped a switch and just decided that he was going to shed the concrete walls he’d erected around himself and put his true self out there. After just a few baby steps, he ripped off the band aid and that’s all it took.
I felt this was a bit unrealistic after the mask that Rick had worn since he was 17 years old. At the same time, though, I can only imagine the relief a man might feel when he is finally able to make the decision to come clean both with himself and others. While it seemed out of character, it was still subtle in a sense that he kind of did it without actually saying the words. It was more in his actions that he let his true self come through.
I liked this story and once again I have to say how impressed I am that Ms. Harris is able to give us a strong, well rounded story in a short 150 pages. Almost all the characters from previous books make an appearance which is always nice in a series. I especially liked how Rick’s relationship with fellow firefighter Tomas was handled. Tomas could have been full of “I knew its” and “I told you so”, but we see none of that. Just some quiet support and acceptance which is exactly what Rick needed.
This is the final book in this series and I think it was the perfect way to end it.
Rating: B
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