Fires of Innocence

By: Jane Bonander

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

The wilderness of Yosemite Valley is no place to be caught alone. When Scotty MacDowell rescues a wounded stranger from a fierce blizzard, she is thinking only of saving a lost traveler. She never expects to find a passionate lover in Alex Golovin through nursing him back to health. Seven months later, Alex returns to Scotty's tiny cabin in the wilderness, but not to take her back into his arms. Instead of the man she loved, Alex returns as an angry lawyer, determined to run Scotty off of her beloved land. Caught between passion and responsibility, Scotty and Alex endure a daily struggle to stay true to their hearts, no matter the cost.

©1994 Jane Bonander (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Everything a lover of romance could ask for and more." (Penelope Williamson, author of The Outsider)

Enjoyable if cheesy at times

3.5 stars actually, but rounding up since I did enjoy this even though it was far from perfect.

I tend to be a fan of angst and this was much more fluffy than my usual fair. The heroine had a pet raccoon and a Indian friend who spoke like Tonto (cringe). However, it was engaging. The beginning drags a bit with the two being stuck inside her isolated cabin, but after that it definitely picked up. What I liked was that my predictions were either dead wrong or not exactly what I'd expected and that kept me interested.

Basic storyline: the heroine is living alone in her isolated cabin located on what is now Yosemite Nat'l Park. Her father had recently died and that left her and her assortment of animals alone. She knew the government was trying to evict all settlers in the area to make it a national park, but she thought she had the winter since the passes close due to snow.

The hero makes it through just before the big freeze, however. He shows up at her door bleeding from a gunshot wound inflicted by an angry evictee and she nurses him back to health. She is very young, naive, and sheltered. She has no idea how a young lady is supposed to act so she just says and does whatever she feels like. The hero, who's in his 30's is obviously attracted to her but feels he should leave her alone due to her age, inexperience, and the basic situation. However, it doesn't happen that way. And that's about all I'm going to say. I won't spoil the rest. However, I will say that the h was a virgin and there were no multiple partners. I know those are a biggie for some.

A few weird things: There was one sex scene that was lol worthy. If you read it, you'll know exactly which one I was speaking of. Another odd thing was the story takes place shortly after the end of the Civil War and the hero was in the war. He mentions at one point being 'with Jackson'. I really didn't get that, since I automatically think of the Confederate General 'Stonewall' Jackson and don't see why the hero (a native Californian with no ties to the South) would have been in the Confederate army to begin with. If he was, why/how was he being employed by the U.S. government to be their legal representative in evicting the settlers so soon after the war? It just doesn't make sense on several different levels. Possibly I heard wrong, but I could have sworn he mentioned 'Jackson'. *shrugs* Also, the heroine had all these cutesy little folksy sayings and it was WAY overdone. I think she should have just spoken plainly in many places to avoid overkill.

On a side note: the cover is a gigantic fail. The heroine is quite definitely described as someone with very dark hair, not a a blond. Also, she is only 18 and that figures heavily into her personality, actions, etc. The lady on the cover is lovely, but too mature and too blonde. Seriously, couldn't the publishers at least look at the old covers and take a clue from that before picking the characters from their revolving stash of stock photos used these days? Is that too much to ask?

Re: the audio: The narrator should not try to do accents. Enuf said.