The Fire Inside

Title: The Fire Inside
Author: Julia Talbot
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M Paranormal romance
Length: 113 pages
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Jenre

THE BLURB

Nick is just a working man, trying to get his job done. When a routine job goes sour, though, he knows just who to blame; the guy who threw himself in front of Nick’s car. Ty.

Ty’s in trouble, and he’s hoping Nick will help him. He’s not sure what forces brought them together, but he knows they’re meant to be, and he’s willing to use his talent for generating heat to keep Nick at his side, ready for more of his special gifts. And ready to defend him from anyone who wants to hurt him. Will these two be overcome by the fire inside?

THE REVIEW

This book is set in a world similar to our own but with the added idea that some people are born with paranormal abilities.  One such person is Ty, who appears to be able to absorb and throw out fire.  This ability is not without its setbacks as once he has set fire to something or whenever he uses up too much energy, Ty needs to replenish heat within him.  This can either be done by standing near heat or absorbing someone else’s body heat.  Ty also has a range of other minor abilities, one of which is that he can pick up the thoughts of certain people.  There are men after Ty, who want to use his abilities and when we first meet him he is on the run from these men.  He jumps in front of Nick’s car and begs him to help him escape.  Nick also has paranormal abilities in that he is able to ’sense’ things about people.  As the story progresses and he spends more time with Ty, he is able to increase these abilities so that he can hear the thoughts of other characters.  The story follows this unlikely pair as they fight to stay one step ahead of the bad guys, find out who these bad guys are and keep Ty from burning out.

As you may have gathered from the above, this is one of your classic chase books.  Nick gets dragged into the chase by Ty, who Nick is convinced needs his help and can’t possibly survive without him.  They move around from location to location avoiding the goons and one rather clever, amoral guy, Devon, who has the ability to find people just by touching something which has been touched by his quarry.  All the characters in the book are quite secretive in their own ways.  Nick is the most open, but has still deceived himself over his own paranormal abilities.  It’s only when Ty challenges him, that he admits that he can hear Ty’s thoughts and uses his ‘extra sense’ in his job.  Ty’s connection with Nick is strong almost from the get-go.  He can hear Nick’s thoughts and instinctively knows that he and Nick will one day be an item.  This rather took away any sexual tension, as Ty then maneuvers things so that he and Nick get together.  Having said that, one of the cutest bits in the whole book was the way that the two men could hear each other’s thoughts and how this enhanced their relationship.

It was rather difficult to dislike any of the characters – even the so called bad guy, Devon, is redeemable by the end.  I did occasionally find Ty a trifle annoying, especially as he is constantly described as ‘bouncing’.  His youthful exuberance grated on my nerves a little at times and he reminded me greatly of a puppy.  Even his thoughts were chaotic and all over the place and I found it amusing that Nick has to tell him to ’stop thinking so loudly’ several times.  Nick has a dry internal voice and world weariness about him which contrasted nicely with Ty.  When we first meet him he is feeling rather disillusioned with life in general and I liked that meeting Ty and helping him managed to dispel some of that.

My only complaint about the book was some of the gaps in the world building.  Ty’s range of abilities were never properly explained and even the big reveal at the end left me with questions as to why Ty was being chased and what exactly his fate would have been had he been caught.  The end was also rather conveniently concluded and I remember thinking ‘is that it?’ when the big climax had died down.

Having said that this book was made up of a series of breathtaking chases and action sequences followed by satisfying quiet periods where the heroes got to know each other and cemented their relationship and I’d recommend The Fire Inside to all those who enjoy action books or paranormals.