Consumed
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4.4 • 22 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and “master of contemporary romance, with heroes so hot they set the pages on fire” (Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author), a steamy romantic suspense novel about arson investigator, Anne Ashburn, who is consumed by her troubled past, her family’s scorched legacy, and her current case: chasing a deadly killer.
Anne Ashburn is a woman consumed…
Strong-willed and brash, Anne relished the thrill of fighting fires. But when one risky decision at a warehouse scene changes her life forever, she must reinvent not only her job, but her whole self.
Despite the desire to move on, Anne finds her new career as an arson investigator a pale substitute for all the adrenaline-fueled buzz she left behind. She doesn’t believe she will ever feel that same all-consuming passion for a job again—until a string of suspicious fires endangers the lives of her former colleagues.
Danny McGuire is the best fireman in the city but in the midst of a personal meltdown. He’s taking risks like never before thanks to a reckless death wish—until he teams up with Anne to find the fire starter. Passion flares between them—not for the first time—but as Anne narrows in on her target, the arsonist marks her as the next victim in this firestorm of a novel.
With heart-pounding suspense and sizzling romance, Consumed is a compulsively readable novel that “you won’t be able to put down” (USA TODAY).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The prolific Ward is best known for the bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood paranormal romances, so that might be why this first-responder thriller is marketed as romance, but its true heritage is gritty TV dramas. Characters have sex, but there's nothing like a romantic story arc. Anne Ashburn is the only female firefighter in her New Brunswick, Mass., station. She's the daughter and sister of firefighters, but she despises her family and won't admit her continuing attraction to Daniel "Dannyboy" Maguire, the station's bad boy and her recent one-night stand. Sexual angst becomes moot when a catastrophic fire ends Anne's career and sends Danny into a PTSD spiral. Refashioning herself as an arson investigator, Anne discovers that the fire has suspicious links to others. Meanwhile, her former colleagues won't let her leave Danny in the past. There's a lot of explicit injury, trash talk ("Amy, don't be codependent. It makes your ass look big"), bad behavior excused because it's done by the good guys, and sneering at "the Instagram set" and other caricatures of weak, whiny liberal elites. For readers who consider "Do your department a favor and just put a bullet in your head" to be pithy advice for a suicidal lover, Ward's facility with topical one-liners will make this a hit, but readers seeking actual romance would do well to avoid it.
Customer Reviews
suspenseful, detailed and dramatic
CONSUMED is the first full-length instalment in J. R. Ward’s contemporary, adult FIREFIGHTERS romantic, suspense series. CONSUMED is the continuing storyfocusing on firefighters Anne Ashburn, and Danny Maguire of the NBFD 499. I recommend reading the FREE prequel novellas The Rehearsal and The Dinner for backstory and cohesion.
Told from several third person perspectives including Anne and Danny CONSUMED follows the acrimonious relationship between firefighters and partners Anne Ashburn, and Danny Maguire of the New Brunswick Fire Department (NBFD) 499. Following an warehouse fire wherein both Anne and Danny were wounded, the story line picks up ten months later as Anne embarks on her new career as a certified fire inspector, a career change that has left her bitter and insecure. No longer working alongside her fellow firefighters from the 499, Anne struggles to find a place without the camaraderie and companionship of the men who had always had her back including the man who had stolen her heart. A tightknit group of friends, the firefighters of the 499 are more like family than the blood family back home.
Danny Maguire battles PTSD and remorse in the aftermath of a warehouse fire that went horribly wrong. Never ones to follow orders both Danny and Anne found themselves in a dangerous situation, a situation that was about to affect the rest of their lives and careers. What ensues is the rebuilding friendship and relationship between Danny and Anne, and the fall-out as an arsonist hits too close home, and accusations of another nature threaten the already tepid relationship between our story line couple.
JR Ward pulls the reader into a story of family, friendship, betrayal and power. Anne Ashburn comes from a family who have loved and lost in the line of duty but not is all as it appears to be as the perfect façade begins to crumble as secrets are revealed. Danny Maguire struggles to make sense of where everything went wrong but release does not come easy as the guilt of what happened weighs heavily and long.
All of the firefighters previously introduced in the prequel novellas are present and accounted. Anne’s brother Chief Thomas Ashburn struggles with his tentative hold over a collapsing department, a department he fears no longer respects the position he holds. Danny’s best friend Robert ‘Moose’ Miller is always ready with a helpful hand but it is his new bride Deandra that threatens Moose’s stability, and those of the people working the 499.
CONSUMED follows the breakdown of leadership, the loss of control, the drama and fall-out of a department threatened by an unseen power that is determined to win at all costs. The premise is suspenseful, detailed and dramatic: the characters are flawed, wounded and broken; the romance struggles in the face of pride, betrayal and demons from the past. CONSUMED sets the stage for a potential power match between law enforcement, business and the political elite-a powerful and volatile combination of chaos and command.