Reviewed by Dee
TITLE: Prairie Fire
AUTHOR: Kayt C. Peck
PUBLISHER: Sapphire Books Publishing
LENGTH: 211 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 15, 2016
BLURB:
Judy and Kathleen were accepted, even loved, by their conservative ranching neighbors. Their world felt safe and secure until… until… prairie fire! The flames disrupted their lives, causing destruction and injury, but the community pulled together to face a common enemy.
When Kathleen’s unofficial “daughter” found herself homeless, Pookie joined that community, bringing to this simple world her black clothes and rebellious nature. Together, conservative and liberal, gay and straight, they were a community, ready to face fire itself. The surprise to them all was the unseen enemy from within, one that had the potential to destroy them all.
REVIEW:
It’s times like this that being a reviewer is a thankless and unpleasant job. I have put off reviewing this book for two days trying to find something good to say about it.
The blurb is one of the vaguest I’ve read and not a true indication of the content. Sure, it starts with a fire and Harold getting hurt, which leads to the rest of the story. Around the 50% Guy Guyette, (a name that drove me to distraction) enters the equation, and is appointed deputy on first appearance. Not surprisingly, as quickly as he’s elected the same people who voted him in question their common sense, or lack thereof. And at that point the story becomes about Guy, his mommy issues, how women mess everything up, especially those who act like men. I detested this part of the story! Oh hey, there’s something positive, this part of the story made me feel something, even if it was disgust.
Pookie, another not so cutesy name, but a cute character added some depth to the story and broke up the constant talk of the community gatherings and the ‘lesbian’ potluck dinners.
This story tried to be a lot of things and about a lot of people. Pookie and her girlfriend Terry, Kathleen and Judy, April and Sophia or was it Sophie? Both names were used. Harold and his family, Brad, the community, building a fire station, training the locals to fight fighters and the eventual show down with Guy Guyette.
The biggest issue for me, was the abundance of telling. So much so, I started doing word counts of hash tags – said x 518, answered x 96, responded x 80. The characters were one-dimensional, the dialogue stilted, and I struggled to keep reading. I guess you could say it lacked the ‘feels’ the emotion that makes you become invested in fictional characters as if they’re real people. A small example.
“The Kiss was long and slow, growing in intensity as the young women used tongues and lips to explore the intimate interior of each other’s mouth.” This should be sweet but who’s POV is it? No ones?
I kept reading hoping the plot would improve. When Guy makes a move things pick up a little but again what ensued required too much suspension of belief to move me, where as I should have been on the edge of my seat. I almost didn’t read the epilogue which is about Pookie, because I really didn’t care how things ended, but then I did so thinking it might tidy up some questions I had… it didn’t. OH and the ellipses just reminded me nearly every character in this story stutters at some time or another.
There are typos littered throughout and some sentences made little sense. However, I received an early copy so with any luck some of those have been ironed out, and people will have a better reading experience than I did.
RATING: 
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