Fired Up

"Fired Up"

     "Fired Up" by Mary Connealy is the second book in the "Trouble in Texas” series.  The first book is entitled "Swept Away", and the third is yet to release.  "Fired Up" was decent as a stand-alone too, but I have already read and reviewed "Swept Away".  This trilogy is published by Bethany House.

     Glenna Greer is recently widowed from her snake of a husband, Flint Greer, thanks to a group of Civil War veterans self-named the Regulators.  They call themselves this because of their history together keeping peace at Andersonville, a prison camp in Georgia holding Yankees.  The Regulators, in the previous book, helped one of their members, Luke, regain his captured ranch from Flint Greer.  In doing this, Greer was killed and his wife as well as her two children, survived.

     Dare Riker was one of the Regulator who helped save Glenna and her two children from her abusive husband.  He is the town doctor, and has an eye for Glenna since treating her wounds.  Will the tumult after Flint's death bring them closer together? Or will Glenna's past and a secret killer after Dare tear them apart?

     All in all, I was really expecting more out of this book.  I have liked this author for her sense of humor, so I was really expecting and on the lookout for this.  Needless to say, in that aspect, I ruined it for myself; "Fired Up" did not seem as good as "Swept Away".  In addition, the plot was exciting, but the relationship between Glenna and Dare seemed conditional to the situation, and more stemmed out of physical beauty and attraction than love and respect for each other.  Also, the conflicts toward the end were resolved hurriedly, as if the author was only allowed to write a certain number of pages, and, being swept away in her own story, remembered her page limit at the end of the book and tied off loose ends sloppily.  I do apologize, as I have truly enjoyed this author in the past.  "Fired Up" just didn't seem to be as enjoyable as the Kincaid Brides, or "Swept Away", some of her other works.

     Thank you so much to Bethany House for letting me read and review this book.