Smoke And Ashes (Harlequin Large Print Intrigue, #1640)

by Danica Winters

[Nadz@Totally Addicted to Reading]

The story grabbed my attention from the moment I began reading.  I was eager to find out what was going to happen next. The prologue raised my expectations for this story.  However, as I delved further into the story I was disappointed with how the events unfolded. 
 
Smoke and Ashes is classified as a romantic suspense, however, it was woefully lacking in both the romance and suspense aspects.  Based on how the story began I was expecting to be wowed, but it never delivered. It took a nosedive after a couple of chapters and it never regained its momentum. It had the potential to be a great story, however, it was riddled with a lot of issues.
 
The pacing was slow and I did not get that edge of your seat vibe that one would expect from the romantic suspense genre.  Discovering who the villain was came as no surprise. In addition, the motive for starting the fires did not make much sense to me.  I didn’t, particularly like the characters.  My initial impression of Heather Sampson, the female protagonist, was that she was weak, easily manipulated and not very smart. That impression did not change much even after the story ended.  It is obvious that she is in a relationship where she has been verbally and emotionally abused. Her husband made her feel inadequate and worthless and such I found it strange that she would beg him to stay when he asked her for a divorce. She is always making excuses for his actions.  During all of this, she is daydreaming about her hunky next door neighbour.  Her actions were confusing and there were times when I wished I could knock some sense into her. I could not believe that one could be so clueless.
 
Kevin is a fire inspector and a single father. He has the task of juggling his job and raising two children, which he is not handling that well. The emotional well-being of his children took a back seat to his job. It was not intentional, but it was obvious that he could not manage. In addition to that, he is fantasizing about his married next door neighbor. 
 
It would have been good to know how Heather reacted when she discovered her ‘best friend’s’ betrayal. The author failed to expand on that aspect of the story, but knowing Heather she would probably blame herself for her ‘friend’s’ actions.  Also, it would have been nice to find out how her husband reacted when it came out that the very thing he was accusing his wife of doing, he was guilty of.
 
The good thing about this story was the capture of the arsonist and the fact that Heather grew a little backbone and stood up to her pompous jerk of a husband.
Verdict: Smoke and Ashes did not work for me.  It left me with a bad taste. I like when the heroine is strong and smart and Heather was sorely lacking in these areas. 
 I received a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.