Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Fire

SERIES: Inescapable (Book 3)

AUTHOR: A. M. Rose

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 278 pages

RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2023

BLURB:

Fire is a racing prodigy. Well on his way to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best ones in history. His expectations of the new season were to train, race, and win, not to nosedive into the ground and injure his wing.
Forced to miss the rest of the season, he’s sent to schmooze with the rich and famous to stay in the limelight and keep the attention on himself. So he schmoozes. And wishes he could be literally anywhere else.
Until he walks in.
Nose in the air, disdain on his face, and secrets wrapped around him like an expensive suit.
Just figures Fire’s mate would be the most pompous little brat ever. On the plus side, riling him up should be fun, right?

Rio is a priority. He’s the main character. It’s what he’s used to and he will settle for nothing less than red carpets softening his every step.
He lives for the attention and drama, dreaming of a mate who will understand that Rio’s taste is impeccable and he just knows best.
Enter his mate.
Who disagrees with Rio every step of the way, makes him question everything he thought he knew about himself, but most of all, makes all the skeletons from his past resurface
So why doesn’t Rio mind it as much as he probably should?

REVIEW:

I am so thankful that I first took a chance on Storm and then this whole entire series. It’s a have-to-have, grabby hands series for me because I’m hooked!

Fire is the top racing prodigy and this injury is taking way too long to heal. Now he’s stuck doing PR and forced to attend these boring functions, and schmooze with the the most famous and richest of the rich, so he can stay in the limelight while his wing continues to heal…again, way too slowly. He’s not suppose to be doing this stuff all the time. He’s a racer that’s born to soar! Little does he realize that his life as he knows it is going to change drastically tonight. MATE!!! Uxorious Archibald Charmichael III loves to make a grand entrance. Fashionably late and all decked out in the finest and impeccably tailored suits and his wings adorned with his richest jeweled chains is his standard fate while representing the Charmichael family. Being taken by surprise at meeting his mate was not on the docket but fate had other plans!

This was a bit of a poor little rich boy meets injured sports superstar and I loved it. It moves a bit slowly and angsty but it all was needed before James (Fire)  and Rio (Uxorious) could possibly ever get their hard fought HEA.

I loved all the twists of this story. How Uxorious wound up living with his snobby and socially elite grandparents. How his grandmother was so uppity that she destroyed her relationship with her only daughter all based on her own preconceived ideals of whom was acceptable to interact with their level of power and fortune. She was truly a piece of work and his grandfather was a mealy piece of nothing with no backbone or voice. I really loved how Rio’s childhood intermixed with Fire’s idol and drive to become who his is. How Rio and James story followed so closely the past.

I felt for Fire and his recovery. Recovery from a major injury is slow and frustrating to a person. Add it to a skilled and star athlete and the pressure to heal and rise again is compounded. You become a commodity to your adoring public that you don’t want to let down. But your whole life has been focused on succeeding in this sport that you have been graced with the talent and ability to rise above all and it crashes down when you are injured. Your own self worth is questioned every moment. What am I if I’m not Fire, the racing protégée superstar? I felt for him having to live not only with these questions but Rio’s seemingly wishy/washy attitude concerning their mating.

And I felt so much for poor Rio. He had his life jerked out from underneath him already once in his life. Family, no matter what they were, were deeply ingrained in his needs. The need to belong no matter what was expected of him. And that need being threatened just because who fate chose to mate him with. I truly could not understand his grandmother. Her need for status superseded her own family was heartbreaking for me. That status and wealth was more important than her own flesh and blood. What a miserable old hag she will be with her money and no one else in her later years. Because you know those old biddies surrounding her will toss her aside the first moment she isn’t able to provide what they need from her.

I loved getting to know Vid, Fire’s human trainer and friend. I did hate that the trauma of Rio’s rejection almost destroyed Fire and Vid’s relationship. I am really looking forward to Vid’s book and hope that we see where Fire’s career goes. I am assuming that Rio took Vid’s advice and applied for the teaching position. He may not have had the drive and desire to follow his father’s footsteps but using that knowledge to teach, which he was really well suited and excelled at, was a great way to booster his own self-worth and become independent of his grandparents. This is a wonderful book and a fabulous series that I just can’t wait for more of by these two talented authors.

RATING:

BUY LINK:

Amazon