March's Book Club Discussion: The Fireman and the Cop by: RJ Scott

Hey everyone!  Welcome to this month's book club discussion.  The book this month was The Fireman and the Cop by RJ Scott.  This is book one in the Ellery Mountain series.  Before we get to my review, and leave a comment, please read the following guidelines"


PLEASE READ BEFORE LEAVING A REVIEW

Please leave your review in the comments section.  You may do this anonymously or provide your name/online handle.

Please refrain from bashing the author, even if you didn't like the book.  There are tactful ways to deliver your review without trashing someone.  It's okay if you weren't fond of the story.  I'm just asking that you have a point to why you didn't like it without swiping the author's face on the floor. You know what I mean?  Keep it clean boys and girls. ;)

We'll be rating the book on a five star scale, five being you loved it, one being you did not.  You can include your rating with your review.

If you have not read this book, please try not to skip down to the comments section.  This is your warning that there will most likely be spoilers.

If you have read this book and intend to leave a spoiler, please write SPOILER at the beginning of your review for the naughty ones who have not read this book.  ;)  I'm just kidding.  But no, seriously, label your review SPOILER.

When you're done with the discussion, please take the time to post your review on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, or even at the main publishing site should they allow reviews.  This helps the author out by giving new readers a glimpse of what they're in for and boosts sales, not to mention leaves warm fuzzies for the author to see.  It will only take a minute to copy paste your comment from here to there.

The last thing I ask is that you guys suggest a book for next month along with your review.  I'm looking for books that have been published this year or will be out by the first week of April 2013.  All suggestions must be M/M. When I have enough suggestions, I'll post them in a poll next week.


Onto the main event...

***I have included a few spoilers in my review this month. If you have not read this book, please wait to read until you have.  Thanks!***

Max is a former big city firefighter from Nashville.  He moved to Ellery to get away from the homophobic attitude of his Nashville coworkers.  Finn is a small town cop in need of saving.  When a fire breaks out at the local police station, leaving Finn trapped inside, Max follows his instincts, and runs through the flames to save Finn from a fiery death.  Near out his mind with the effects of smoke and pain, Finn gives his savior a half-coherent pick up line, leaving Max wanting more.

For the first book in this series, I saw a lot of potential spin-offs and am anxious to here the other stories coming next. Hint, hint...Daniel, please?  :D  Finn and Max worked well together throughout the story in my opinion.  I'd read a lot of reviews on GR before I read this story, and I don't see why people found Max too aggressive.  If anything, I thought Finn did most of the pushing.  And oh did that lead to one hella sexy romp in the kitchen after only knowing each other a few days.

But it wasn't trashy in the least.  The author did a great job giving off a small town vibe, where it could easily be conceived by a reader that Finn didn't see a whole lot of action until Max came along, with his pool of pickings rather small, save for his two best friends.  The sexual awakening between Finn and Max was great, but I wished their first time would have been a little more passionate than what we were given.  That's not me being greedy.  I just thought the first 'real' time scene fell a little flat for me.  It was good, but it just lacked that needy feeling between the couple, after waiting to have sex for that long, coupled with the anxiety to crawl into each other's arms after having been through so much trauma in such a short time.  I hope that made sense.  lol

Another thing I would have liked to see was a little more explanation on the villain.  I get it.  It's a novella and it's like seventy something pages, but I think a lot of 'huh what' would have cleared up if the ex boyfriend would have said he just got out of the mental hospital and had been thinking of Finn the entire time.  That would have made a whole lot more sense to me.  I felt like he was just there and then he wasn't. And you had so many questions left unanswered.

The last thing I'll point out was the strange time jump where I felt like we came back to two completely different characters.  Between the time that the villain was taken out and the time in which we returned for the last scene where Max replaced Finn's truck, I was left re-reading those few pages, hoping I'd left something out.  I gathered that Finn had some flashbacks from his his time with Neil and he was experiencing anxiety from the attack, but he was angry with Max and I couldn't figure out why.  When he finally stated the reason he didn't feel they could be together, I was like....um what?  But I'll leave that up to you guys for discussion.

I will say, that minus those tiny things that were probably just me, I did enjoy Finn and Max and was very happy to see their happy little ending.  That last line cracked me up.  Good job, RJ.  I love a good giggle and an even better ending.  I'm giving this book 4 stars.  What did you guys think?

~xX Night 

P.S. Who the hell is about ready to claw up the walls waiting for Lover at Last to come out tomorrow?  If you haven't pre-ordered....you might want to.  I'll probably be up at midnight on FB, leaving a gasp, oh my god, or a few naughty emoticon winky faces for all those reading with me.  LOL  *Squeeeealllllsss*