Narrated by Tad Branson
Johanna Lindsey is one of the authors responsible for my love of the historical romance. Her books featured the typical arrogant heroes defeated by the rebellious heroine who refused to give in to their demands. It’s been fifteen years, and with Wildfire in His Arms, that formula’s still there.
Wildfire in His Arms picks up almost immediately after the events in One Heart to Win. This book’s focus is not on the Warren and Callahan families, but on the mysterious and dangerous man who kept the peace between them: Degan Grant. (If that isn’t enough to jog your memory, he’s the man in the scene with Tiffany where she’s washing dishes and talking about pigs.) Now that the feud has ended with a marriage, Degan is free to pursue his options. Except he hasn’t got any save avoiding his home in Chicago.
He randomly decides to go to California, taking the long way up and over. It’s a place he’s always wanted to see but hadn’t the opportunity to do so. En route, he stops in the Montana Territory and meets the US Marshal that saved his life several years ago. The marshal’s in a bind; he needs to complete several assignments or face the consequences and his mother is deathly ill. Degan owes him so agrees to bring in three offenders. One he knows is already dead. The other, Max Dawson, he saw that very morning leaving the window of whore house.
Degan captures Max easily, after all he left a more than obvious trail for Degan to follow. What Declan didn’t expect to find was Max was really Maxine. It poses all sorts of problems for a gunfighter’s honor and a man who wants no encumbrances.
The story was classic Lindsey. I like a bad boy and Degan certainly was that. He was dark and brooding but considerate. As for Max? She was okay. And that’s all I can tell you because five minutes after finishing the book, I forgot most of her character and the plot. The writing was smooth and there weren’t any gaps in character that threw me out of the book. There simply wasn’t anything remarkable about the overall premise and its execution. I’ve read every single Lindsey novel published, including the ones written before I was born. This book felt like a mashup of several of them. Those books I could describe in detail and name each character. I wanted more uniqueness or something that made it different from her last few books.
Wildfire in His Arms was my first opportunity to listen to Branson. I have to say his performance as Grant was spot on for what I thought a gunslinger would sound. In the beginning, his voice is low and monotone, reflecting Declan’s world weary cynicism and unconcern about anything and everything. As Declan becomes more involved with Max, she brightens his day and his voice (slightly) warms and his word choices become friendlier. Not to say he gushes when he’s around her but I felt there is a noticeable change in his presentation.
His female performances weren’t that great however. He lightened his pitch so you knew it was a female speaking but it was the same tone for all females. Well, I take that back. Maxine’s voice wasn’t very feminine. The screw-the-world attitude came through loud and clear with his performance (so kudos there). The downside was it made her sound like Will Swill, a bad guy from the show The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. It was disconcerting, to say the least. I may give him another chance but not with a romance.
Diana
Narration: C
Book Content: C
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence Rating: Minimal
Genre: Historical Romance (Western)
Publisher: Recorded Books [jwl-utmce-widget id=32435]
Historical Romance Audiobook Review
