Fan the Flames

April 11, 2016
In the second of Ruggle’s fast-paced romantic suspense series set in the Rocky Mountains, firefighter Ian Walsh (a minor character in Hold Your Breath) is named a suspect in a murder previously discovered by a Search & Rescue team. Rory Sorenson, the pretty but shy proprietor of the local gun shop—where she sells both legal and illegal weapons and is constantly fending off violent customers, with no one to help her or back her up—has cherished a crush on Ian for years and is certain he is innocent. Having grown up without much family, Ian appreciates the brotherhood he found in a motorcycle club, but when the more extreme members threaten Rory and her business, he recognizes the danger they pose and takes Rory’s side. Her bizarre, sheltered upbringing by her survivalist parents adds a tender element to their developing romance. When Ian is arrested, Rory’s indignation finally empowers her to step out from the shadows and fight for a future with him. Ruggle delivers a longer and more developed story in this installment, full of surprisingly violent characters as well as romance. Readers may cringe at the depiction of Rory’s job, which makes selling firearms look implausibly unsafe, and wonder how her offer to volunteer at the fire station somehow leads to her fighting a fire without any training, but the soap opera aspects of the ongoing story will keep them eager for more revelations about this small Colorado town.

May 15, 2016
The second in Ruggle's Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue series features a romance between Ian Walsh, so handsome that his nickname is Beauty, and Rory Sorenson, the shy, socially inept owner of the local gun shop. Ian has basically been raised by his motorcycle club, but prefers his fire-department colleagues. Rory was homeschooled by paranoid, survivalist parents and lives in a bunker under her store. When Ian is accused of a murder he did not commit, Rory tries to help him, running violently afoul of his club members. This is all complicated by several warring motorcycle gangs seeking access to her inventory, and as she hides out from them with Ian, their friendship turns to romance. The ending is almost too indefinite, setting the stage for the next in the series, but this is worth reading for Rory's characterization alone. Implausible though she seems, one roots for her to overcome her social ineptitude and catch a great guy, and she does!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)