Line of Fire by Jo Davis

Line of Fire is book four of the Firefighters of Station Five series and ended up liking much more than I thought I would.

At 23 years old, Tommy Skylar is the youngest member of Station Five, and everyone treats him that way – not like a kid per se, but they’re always watching out for him and in fact, they do call him “kid.” He’s a sweet, easy going Brad Pitt lookalike who gets along with everyone, so he’s come across as kind of wimpy in the other books. But the thing about Tommy is that he’s known some serious grief in his life, so his experiences have made him a mature, wiser-than-his-years man, a side of him which we finally get to see now that he’s got his own book.

Shea Ford is a 28 year old ER nurse who happens to be on duty when Tommy is brought in with a head injury he received during a rescue. Tommy hasn’t hidden his feelings for Shea, and even though she’s pushed him away time and time again, when she sees him this way she can no longer fight her feelings, and things really start to heat up between them.

The story was pretty interesting, with a corrupt politician and a home grown terrorist trying to set up house in Sugarland, TN, but even so the most exciting things that happened actually took place during the scenes with the firefighters on the job. But one thing that really bugged me - and it’s a plot detail so don’t peek unless you’ve read the book, but (view spoiler)[ when Tommy went back into that building the last time and was hit over the head and left to die… how was it the person who attacked him was able to lay in waiting for him in a dangerously burning building? How could said attacker see through the smoke to know that it was Tommy there, underneath all that gear? And last but certainly not least, how could Tommy’s murder have been planned in this way when they had absolutely no way of knowing he’d be the one going into the building? (hide spoiler)] Now, did I miss something there? If so, please set me straight! So anyway, while I love these books and I find Jo Davis’ writing to be exciting and easy to read, in each book there’s been something that takes away from the overall story. It might be coincidences that border on unbelievable, or some other things that happen which leave me shaking my head with more questions than answers, but book after book, it’s there.

Fortunately, those hot, hunky firefighters of Station Five always make the stories worth reading and in fact, they’re the only reason I read these books. In typical Jo Davis fashion, Line of Fire is an incredibly erotic non-erotic book, and it turns out that Tommy has some kink lurking beneath the surface which made for some very steamy sex scenes. And as with the previous books, there was at least one close encounter of the anal kind, which has me wondering if perhaps there’s something in the water…

4 of 5 stars