This review contains mild spoilers.
When I read the premise for Wildfire – an environmentalist and a construction worker fall in love – I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I found the book lacking in all the critical areas. When the epilogue is the only part of the book you like, that’s a big problem.
Joanna Webb dedicates her life to preserving natural habitats for animals, which puts her directly at odds with those looking to pave over every last inch of wild space. Joanna and her colleagues negotiate with everyone from government agencies to real estate developers, but often it’s a very frustrating, uphill battle.
Ryan Stewart devotes his life to his family’s construction company, and has never really given any consideration to the impact their business has on animals or their habitat. When the company takes on the IC building project, he finds himself directly at odds with the Animal Conservation Trust – and Joanna Webb.
The best way I can sum up Wildfire is that it’s two-dimensional – in just about every area. When the book opens, the plan is for the Trust to try to negotiate with Ryan’s construction company to stop the project. But Joanna doesn’t even attempt to negotiate with Ryan when she first meets him – unless calling someone an egotistical bastard is “negotiating.”
Which brings me to the characterizations: Unoriginal and lacking in depth. Joanna spends most of the book acting like a mildly psychotic bitch, screaming at Ryan about how evil he is on several occasions. Never once does she take into consideration the fact that some e-e-e-v-i-l construction company out there built both the house she lives in and the office building she works in. Hypocritical, much? Even worse, she continues behaving like this even after Ryan demonstrates that he’s a nice guy. As if that weren’t enough, she’s a virgin – for no apparent reason – who just jumps into bed with the first guy she finds attractive.
Ryan, on the other hand, is level-headed and pleasant – although he’s not much more than that. God knows why he continues pursuing Joanna in the face of her irrationality and insistence that they’re mortal enemies. Both characters are also given “tortured” pasts, which often works for me, but in this case felt cliched and melodramatic.
In addition to Joanna’s insistence that they can’t be together, Ryan faces conflict on the home front. Apparently the construction workers are worried because Ryan is having sex with Joanna. Yeah, right. Maybe it’s because I work in a testosterone-filled environment, but I just don’t buy it. Most of the guys I know would be giving Ryan high-fives for “giving it to the crazy tree-hugger” and not worrying about whether the owner’s son will suddenly abandon his entire belief system and dismantle the company just because he’s getting laid.
Thinking back over my reading experience, most of it boils down to the story not being fleshed out. I’m not sure why Wildfire is only 144 pages long, as it’s not part of an anthology, but in this case, less is definitely not more.
-- Katie Mack
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