Ride the Fire by Pamela Clare

It seems to me that the best books are often the hardest for me to review and, as is always the case with Pamela Clare’s books, Ride the Fire is no different. Once again this author has given us a deeply emotional story and characters we can’t help but admire. They are honorable, courageous people who understand that doing the right thing is often the hardest thing to do.

Nicholas Kenleigh is a man with a tortured past – literally. And as Ride the Fire opens, his torture is shown to us in explicit detail, but to truly understand the man he was, the choices he made and the man he became, we had to see that. We had to experience it with him. Every. Horrific. Moment. And let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to read so be forewarned. I wept for Nicholas and for Eben and Josiah. I can’t begin to comprehend the physical and emotional pain these men endured, but due to Pamela Clare’s amazing writing, I can certainly imagine it – vividly.

And years later, as the story continues, we meet Elspeth “Bethie” Stewart living alone, a widow, on the dangerous American frontier during the French and Indian War. It’s not easy being a woman alone, and to make matters even more complicated, she’s pregnant. Bethie is a brave and resourceful woman, and while she also has a nightmarish past she wishes she could forget, she’s quite capable of taking care of herself. Bethie’s life has been every bit as emotionally and physically painful as Nicholas’s was and I found myself once again weeping, this time for an innocent young woman who endured the worse kind of abuse imaginable, and was then married off by her family who blamed her, ridiculed her, and was ashamed of her. While deeply painful, their treatment only served to make her stronger, something Nicholas learned the hard way when he showed up at her homestead, badly injured, seeking shelter and aid. He thinks he knows what to expect from this little bit of a woman, but he finds out quickly that there’s more to her than meets the eye when he wakes up bound to her bed. Granted, he was badly injured, but not so badly that he shouldn’t have been able to keep that from happening!

And so the story begins and it’s a tale of two incredible people whose hearts have been broken and whose souls are deeply scarred. Fate has brought them together because they are each other’s only hope for healing, but before the healing can being, they must learn to trust one another. They’ll have to face their pasts head on to escape the nightmares which bind them to a life of fear and loneliness, keeping them from a life they so deserve - one of peace, happiness, and something neither of them ever expected to find – love.

Once again Pamela Clare has taken my breath away with a story that is touching, tragic, uplifting, full of hope and as always, comes straight from her heart. It’s exciting, intensely emotional, and very, very sexy and a book I couldn’t put down! And here I am going on and on and yet, I find I’m at a loss for just the right words, the words that will convince you to pick up this book. Please, just trust me and so many others who have read and loved Pamela Clare’s stories and read Ride the Fire. You'll laugh, you'll sigh, you'll cry, but above all, you'll come away with your heart full of joy for Bethie and Nicholas who are no longer fighting their demons alone, but who together have vanquished them once and for all and have found in each other a happily ever after for the ages.

5+/5 stars