"Through the Fire" by Shawn Grady

**I'd like to thank Jim Hart at Bethany House Publishers for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.**


From Bethany House's website:


Firefighting burns in Aidan O'Neill's blood, but his innate gift for reading flames has made him overconfident and sometimes puts lives in danger. When one call goes horribly wrong and a rookie is hurt, Aidan ends up suspended and finds himself questioning everything.


It couldn't have happened at a worse time.


An arsonist is targeting Reno, leaving a scorched path of destruction. The department needs Aidan back, but his return is troubled. The gift he relied on for so long has gone silent•and it's as though the fires are coming for him, hunting him down. Teaming with a beguiling fire investigator who may know more than she's saying, Aidan must discover where his trust rests as the flames burn ever closer.


My Opinion:


Blown away! This is Shawn Grady's debut novel and it's a winner, "Through the Fire", is a superbly written book. From the first page I was pulled in to this fast moving and action packed book about fire fighter Aidan O'Neill. Even though I wasn't taken with the drinking (there are mentions of bar scenes and beer) the overall book was excellent and something I wouldn't have expected from an authors debut novel. With twists and turns that you won't expect this book will draw you in to the well developed characters and you'll feel yourself swept up into the life of a fire fighter and his friends.


There is a fire fighter in my family and I never understood much of what they do, except run into burning buildings and put out fires and rescue anyone trapped inside - but reading "Through the Fire" has made it more real. Despite it being a fictional work Shawn Grady makes the reader feel as if they are right beside the fire fighter's and seeing what is going on. This isn't hard for him to do since he, himself is a fire fighter/paramedic for Reno for ten years. He has written what he knows and it comes through clearly in "Through the Fire" because I could feel the tension and adrenaline each time the trucks pulled up on a scene.