Wild State #1.5
Edie Harris
Historical Romance/Western
Published 2013
H/h - Delaney Crawford/Moira Crawford
Setting: Colorado Territory, 1866.
Read in Dec, 2013.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
Wild Fire is sort of a short sequel to the first book of Wild State series, Wild Burn,
even though in the author’s note, EH called it an ‘extended epilogue’
for Del and Moira, our protagonists from book 1. I really enjoyed the
first book and was only glad to have more to read on them.
If you haven’t read Wild Burn, I’d suggest that you definitely read it before Wild Fire. In there, we were introduced to the sexy Delaney Crawford, who was a hired killer for dog soldiers. Before that, Del has been a soldier. Even though he’d had a blessed childhood, born and raised in a rich family, Del lost everything in the war. The memories after that hadn’t been pretty and Del had been fighting nightmares of incidents, haunting him every day. So when he met Moira in the wild town of Red Creek where he was called in to hunt down some rogue Indians, Del thought he had found the missing piece of his life. His soulmate. Their meeting was rather awkward IMO but the attraction was there since the beginning. Moira Tulley, an Irish ex-nun, had her own demons-of-the-past to fight; demons that returned to haunt her again as the story progressed. And as their relationship became intimate, a whirlwind courtship followed and both knew they can’t really live without each-other anymore. It was all about two lonely, tortured souls finding peace in each-other’s arms.
If you haven’t read Wild Burn, I’d suggest that you definitely read it before Wild Fire. In there, we were introduced to the sexy Delaney Crawford, who was a hired killer for dog soldiers. Before that, Del has been a soldier. Even though he’d had a blessed childhood, born and raised in a rich family, Del lost everything in the war. The memories after that hadn’t been pretty and Del had been fighting nightmares of incidents, haunting him every day. So when he met Moira in the wild town of Red Creek where he was called in to hunt down some rogue Indians, Del thought he had found the missing piece of his life. His soulmate. Their meeting was rather awkward IMO but the attraction was there since the beginning. Moira Tulley, an Irish ex-nun, had her own demons-of-the-past to fight; demons that returned to haunt her again as the story progressed. And as their relationship became intimate, a whirlwind courtship followed and both knew they can’t really live without each-other anymore. It was all about two lonely, tortured souls finding peace in each-other’s arms.
But was that their HEA? Wild Burn ends on a positive note, mind you and Del and Moira get married too. But things, as we see in Wild Fire,
aren’t the same. It’s as much a truth for their beloved town Red Creek,
which is soon going to be engulfed in a deadly wildfire that is fast
heading their way, as their marital life.
Moira has been
having self-doubts about her abilities to keep Del happy. She knows how
much she needs Del but maybe, he’s better off without someone like her.
To not to spoil what happened to Moira, I’ll just say it was bad enough
that a girl would doubt herself. Moreover, she wants a baby with Del (I
can definitely see why Moira, I’d want a baby with him too *sigh*).
Since she hasn’t conceived in the past year, Moira thinks she might
never in future. She begins conjuring up distressing thoughts in her
head, about Del being disappointed... unhappy and at some point, leaving
her. Gradually, she starts being distant to Del but if only she knew
how much her stiffness is hurting Del, who isn’t sure what the hell
wrong with his wife. There was no doubt that the man was crazy about
Moira and he’s often distracted with thoughts and his own doubts. What
can be wrong in their marriage? He thought everything was going great,
so what’s happening? Del means to talk to Moira once and for all to find
some answers; however, the wildfire is now their most immediate worry.
They need to save the town and themselves first in order to take care of
their marriage.
I loved seeing how Del, now the sheriff of Red
Creek, took care of everything. Loved seeing all the people coming
together to help out in a day of dire crisis, especially a glimpse of
Marshal Alonzo Hood *wink*. There was no way they could put out the
wildfire, so the only option was to move to a different place from the
edge of the town where the woods lay.
It’s when Moira loses her
own beautiful home made by Del with his own hands that she finally
breaks down. She was already worried about Del not returning to her in
time (everybody was busy with their chores, admittedly Del was the
busiest of all), yet, the relief of him finding her washes away all her
doubts. This crisis clears the picture and once again proves that
they’re stronger together in love, and not apart.
I wish it was
longer, but I understand why it’s only about 40 or so pages long after
reading the ‘author’s note’. The author is truly talented to put so much
in such a short story, still make me crave more of it. In a good way of
course. The last 20 pages are excerpts from author’s other books, yet
the best thing was to find some news about the next installment in this
series, called “Wild Chase”, which is (hear me *squeeeee*)... Alonzo’s
story!!!! I hope it comes out soon because I totally dig Mr. Hood. Lol
4 stars.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
◈Thank you for visiting :)◈