Consumed (1) (Firefighters series)

While I am a fan of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood and Black Dagger Legacy series, I find that I am not a fan of her contemporary romance and unfortunately, Consumed was not for me.

“Stay in the present with me. I don’t want to waste a second of this if it’s my only chance.” - The Reception (The Wedding From Hell #2)

While the story is detail rich (so many details I found myself skimming), it is lacking in regards to the characters. I don't feel any connection to them or their connections to each other. And I personally would like to follow the two main characters, Anne and Danny, rather than multiple side stories that occur simultaneously within Consumed. (That's an issue I've started having with her BDB series as well now that there are so many characters.) I feel like I'm missing huge pieces of information into these characters backstories and know so little about them that I don't understand their motivations. The best character in the book is Soot, the dog! The lack of character focus and building emotional connections really hurt the story.

I was interested in the story when I began the freebie (at time of posting) prequels, but Consumed just didn't work for me. I found myself skimming after a certain point just to find out the ending. Consumed has great detail (some of it extremely traumatic), good suspense, but no romance, and no character development. It felt very sterile with it's details and lack of emotions.

I am an outlier though, since there are many favorable reviews for Consumed . If you haven't read J.R. Ward before I'd recommend the BDB and BDL series over her contemporary romance. I struggled through The Bourbon Kings book #1 and never continued that series.

The Rehearsal Dinner (The Wedding From Hell #1) 2 stars
The Reception (The Wedding From Hell #2) 2 stars
Consumed 1 star

I was so excited when I was given an advance copy of the new J.R. Ward book that was coming out. I liked her vampire series so I was looking forward to see what she would do with firefighters. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. Anne and Danny are firefighters that work together. Something happens at the beginning of the book that changes things for them. There were so many problems with this book I am not sure where to start. My main problem was I was told what I was supposed to be feeling instead of feeling what the book made me feel. The book starts out with the fire that changes everything instead of leading up to the fire where you got to know the characters first so you were able to care what they were going through. Then she had so many random characters that were hard to keep up with and I can only assume she is setting up for a series. The "twist" at the end wasn't much of a twist and I didn't care anyway because we never really got to feel how these people felt for each other. The ending was like a Lifetime Movie on steroids and then not much of a conclusion after that. We are told they are best friends but not shown why or even much of a back story. We are told they love someone but you don't know why. I struggled so hard to get through this book so I could give a honest review but I honestly can't believe I made it. It truly pains me to give this review but not as painful as it was trying to read it.

As an avid reader of the BDB books, I went into this new series thinking there had to be something to catch me up in it. I was wrong. The protagonist, Anne, was such a nasty person that I just didn't like her. The book reads like a Firemen 101 manual with all of the lingo which was frankly boring. Couldn't finish the book and won't be buying any more in this series.

J.R. Ward, is obviously an accomplished writer as you can tell by her technique and structure but I feel that her editor failed her with this novel.

The writing itself was good. However, there was too much time spent on the trivial details and that left the plot and characters feeling underdeveloped. Subplots within the novel were started but just as abruptly ended without resolution. In addition, there were several tertiary characters introduced with fervor but ended up having no value to the plot. I anticipate that these characters will play significant roles in future books, but the set up and execution here for this novel did not lend to the plot.

This novel has the structure to be great but the other noise happening was too distracting. This coupled with the intertwining of not one, but two, dark, moody main characters left me deflated.

Consumed was my first J.R. Ward novel. I didn’t necessarily have high expectations, but I did expect to enjoy it since she’s a fairly prolific writer and the synopsis for Consumed is exciting. Unfortunately, Consumed is a boring story with bland characters that reads like a first draft.

The main reason Consumed reads like a first draft is because of the lack of direction in terms of the plot. The synopsis paints the picture of an arson mystery within a romance. I expected Consumed to mirror what Lisa Renee Jones did with If I Were You where the romance is the main focus at the expense of the mystery. Unfortunately, Consumed focuses on everything and anything. There were moments when I wasn’t sure if Anne and Danny were the main characters since Ward spends a lot of time on other characters, presumably to set them up for their own novel in the future.

Throughout Consumed, there are so many pop culture references that never land and always feel out of place. They all feel and had me rolling my eyes or cringing at their ridiculousness.

I rated the novel two stars instead of one because there is a good romantic mystery novel buried under all the useless plot and character development that ultimately goes nowhere. I will definitely not be reading the sequel and I don’t think I’ll read another Ward novel.

Ugh don’t bother

I was expecting more from J.R. Ward. I love the earlier books of her Black Dagger Brotherhood series but lately, I haven't been as impressed with those either.

I wasn't happy reading Consumed. I didn't find any of the characters particularity likeable. Anne was okay for the most part but her relationship and anger towards her mother baffled me. I didn't like Danny AT ALL. The most lovable character in the book was Soot. I did appreciate the twist to our "mystery" but overall, I don't think I'm going to continue with this series from Ward.

This is my first read by this author. I will say I read a library copy of the book, hoping I had found a new author to enjoy.

I found her writing skills lacking; - many sentences I had to reread seeking clarity, only to find none. I assumed the main plot of the book was arson, but that was nearly forgotten until the end. I am surprised to learn she is a bestselling author. It surely wasn’t based on this book.

The book was well-written and certainly had its share of action, suspense, romance, etc. The story is basically a story of a female fire-fighter who is looking to make it in in the very difficult, male-dominated world of fire fighters. She comes from a family of successful and heralded fire fighters and is well on her way of climbing the same ladders. Unfortunately, she gets separated from her partner in a fire and gets trapped in a collapsing building. While she and her rescuer are saved, her injuries force her to retire from fighting fires. She works to reinvent herself in the fire inspection field and soon finds herself embroiled in a cat and mouse game to find a criminal arsonist.

Many will really enjoy this book. For me, the foul language and the graphic depictions of injuries were a little too much. Without those, I would easily give the book four stars.

With a strong ensemble of characters and a well-written plot. J.R. Ward newest series Firefighters takes into a world of betrayal. Starting off the series we are introduced to a strong female character who is Consumed. Anne Ashburn who was on her way of building her own legacy as a firefighter, when one bad decision at a warehouse fire changes her life and set her on a new career path. Her first assignment to find the person or person responsible for setting the warehouse fires. The Anne’s investigation led her to betrayal at the highest proportions. I love J.R. Ward’s “Black Dagger Brotherhood” series. So, when I had the opportunity to read her newest book in a brand-new series about Firefighters. I thought why not. By the end of chapter one, I knew this wasn’t going to be one of J.R. Ward’s normal romance that I was used too. Though Consumed was dark at times, the story was entertaining from start to finish. Consumed, the first novel in J.R. Ward newest series and a fantastic start to the Firefighters series. A definite must-read for any fans of J.R. Ward and or fans of mystery suspense, thriller romance.