Reviewed by Tammy

TITLE: Cleansing Flame

SERIES: Rekindled Flame #2

AUTHOR: Andrew Grey

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 200 pages

RELEASE DATE:  

BLURB:

Life has been grinding Dayne Mills down almost for as long as he can remember. First, he lost the love of his life in an accident that also left him with a permanent injury, and then his mother passed away a year later. When his house burns to the ground, it’s the last straw. He can’t take any more, and if it wasn’t for kind and handsome firefighter Lawson Martin offering him a hand up and a place to stay, he doesn’t know what he’d do. Dayne would love for his relationship with Lawson to evolve into something beyond charity, but he knows going after a man so far out of his league will only lead to yet more heartache. It’s best to just keep his mind on his research.

It’s that research that leads Dayne to an old student journal that not only provides clues to the Native American heritage Lawson has been searching for, but chronicles a century-old love story. The tale that unfolds might be just what Dayne and Lawson need to remind them that no matter how dark life becomes, love can find a way to shine through.

REVIEW:

Dayne Mills is closing in on graduating from college with a degree saying he is able to teach. Some days Dayne is barely able to walk around the college because the damage done to his legs because of a major car smash several years prior. Dayne knows he’s lucky, he’s alive whereas his partner, the love of his life died as a result, a year later his mother died as well. Now, Dayne has just found out that his house has burned to the ground! You could Dayne’s life is crumbling around him.

Whilst watching his house burn Dayne meets firefighter Lawson Martin. Lawson has seen Dayne at the town library before so he feels comfortable going over to talk to him. When Lawson says he’s sorry for the loss of his house Dayne breaks down completely and sobs his heart out, something he’s never done before. Lawson makes the offer to Dayne to stay at his place until he gets a response from his insurance company.

Luckily Dayne had his laptop and text books with him so he’s able to continue his studies. Dayne’s latest assignment was to write a paper on the former Carlisle Indian School, school where Native American children of all ages were taken so they could be trained to be as “white” as they could get. Lawson happens to be part Native American, he is trying, without success, to find his uncle who was one of the children taken to Carlisle Indian School and as part of their routine Dayne reads to him from the journals of the Indian children. The more they learn the more Lawson wanders why he can’t find any information on his uncle.

From the get-go, Lawson made his interest in Dayne very clear, although Dayne finds it impossible to believe anyone as good-looking as Lawson being interested in a cripple like him. It takes a long time, a lot of love and patience to get Dayne to believe Lawson loves him yet there are a lot of external issues as well. Dayne is constantly fighting his insurance company as they’re saying there’s something fishy about it. There’s Dayne’s constant terror every time Lawson walks out the door to go to work, then Lawson gets hurt in a fire and Dayne almost shuts down. While Lawson is, in hospital recovering from his accident Dayne must go in for surgery to get a new hip, so they then must recover together!

Honestly, Andrew’s story telling is getting so unbelievably good, the emotions, the complexity of his characters are getting so much deeper that he has me on constant watch for his next book!! You really need to get your copy of Cleansing Flame it will be well worth your while!

RATING:  

BUY LINKS: 

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon