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AFTER
THE FIRE
Kathryn Shay
Berkley Sensation
November 2003
ISBN 0-425-19304-7
Contemporary Romance
The Sinco
Automotive fire changes the Malvaso family forever. Mitch,
Jenny, and Zach barely survived the fire that ended up taking
the lives of
several of their Hidden Cove Fire Department colleagues. After
facing
possible death and the deaths of each other, the Malvasos decide
to clean
up their lives. And there's a lot to put right.
Mitch Malvaso is in a nowhere marriage to an emotionally
unstable woman
who terrorizes their teenaged son and daughter. After the Sinco
fire,
Mitch promises himself to be more available to his kids, work on
building
a better father/child relationship, as well as working on his
marriage to
Cynthia. Though he feels the marriage is dead, he doesn't want
to leave
his kids at her mercy, so he stays, determined to make things
better. Then
newly arrived police detective Megan Hale arrives in Hidden Cove
and
arouses feelings in Mitch that can't be denied.
Jenny Malvaso wants a baby. She's thirty-six, twice married and
divorced. After the Sinco fire, she turns to Grady, her best
friend since
kindergarten and long-time housemate with the idea of artificial
insemination. Sex might sour their excellent friendship, a
friendship that
lasted through both of their marriages and disappointments in
life.
Nothing is more important than their friendship. Yet Grady
decides he
wants the baby conceived the normal way, and despite this, they
swear not
to let their friendship be ruined. Suddenly as they look forward
to
creating a baby together, a new element enters their
relationship--desire.
Zach Malvaso had been divorced for two years before the Sinco
fire. He'd
repeatedly cheated on his wife Angela and kept his distance from
his
children. Then the Sinco fire caused him to rethink his
priorities and see
clearly what he had lost, what he had let slip from his life.
For the
eight months since the fire, Zach has worked to rebuild his
relationship with his children, and to prove to Angela that he's changed. Yet
Angela
doesn't want him back in her life other than as the father of
her children.
She doesn't want to risk the hurt again. So Zach hopes that by
showing her
how different he is now that there would be a chance for them
again.
Angela, however, begins dating, and Zach's new lease on life
might
not win him a happy ending with her.
As the Malvasos work on changing their lives, they go about
their daily
routine as firefighters, repeatedly risking themselves to save
others.
Mitch, Jenny, and Zach also have to clean up their tenuous
relationships
with their other brother and sister, Paulie and Connie. As
well as deal with the
delayed stress syndrome, and unite to make Megan Hale's pet
project of
starting a camp for the children of police and firemen killed in
the line
of duty a reality.
AFTER THE FIRE is the first in Kathryn Shay's new Hidden Cove
trilogy.
It is a superb contemporary romance that grabs you in
the prologue and won't let you go until you've read the final
page. It's a
realistic look at the lives of the public servants who face
death on an
almost daily basis and how it effects them and the people around
them. It
immerses you completely in the lives of the Malvaso
brothers and sisters of
Hidden Cove, New York. Once there, you won't want to leave,
you'll be
counting the days until book two, ON THE LINE, comes out next
July.
Firemen are Ms. Shay's specialty, and her respect and expertise
is
lovingly evident on every page. Bravo, Ms. Shay! |
Reviewed by Debora
Hosey
Rating:
 
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