Book Review: Redemption by Fire by Andrew Grey

Title: Redemption by Fire
Series: By Fire, Book 1
Author: Andrew Grey
Genre: Contemporary Romance, M/M Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: review copy from publisher
Published: May 2012 by Dreamspinner Press

Dirk Krause is an asshole of the first degree. His life is a hell of his own making, and he makes everyone around him just as miserable. When he's injured on the job while fighting a fire, he's nearly unbearable to the hospital staff, and of course no one from his unit cares enough to visit. Lee Stockton is the new guy at the station, so he gets saddled with the job of bringing Dirk a sympathy bouquet from the guys at the firehouse. To Dirk's surprise, Lee sees through him like a pane of glass and doesn't take any of his crap. Lee's determined to get Dirk to stop being a dick just to push everyone away. When their fighting turns to fucking, will the fireworks shine brightly on a possible relationship or leave them with nothing but ashes?

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: Great short novella about the transformative power of love—all with gay firefighters! What’s not to love there?!

The Set Up: Dirk was injured in a house fire where he saved a child. Lee is the new firefighter at the station and the only one to visit Dirk in the hospital. Dirk has pushed everyone away for fear of them figuring out he’s gay but he can’t push his attraction to Lee away and he doesn’t really want to.

Why I Read this Book: The Book Vixen herself got me hooked on firefighter characters when we did a joint review of Hot Head and I’ve been hunting MM firefighter books since.

What I Liked: I love both Lee and Dirk. Dirk’s prickly antagonism was hard to read at first as he tries to push Lee away. But I love Lee’s strength of character to be true to himself and expect the same from Dirk. There is an honesty to Lee that includes more than just his comfort with his sexuality and I really like his character. Dirk’s reluctance to admit his homosexuality is believably described and nicely developed. This short novella is certainly erotic but as Lee says, “this is about intimacy and care, not getting off…” I like heart with my heat and this novella offers that in a perfect snack-size portion.

What I Didn’t Like: This is novella one in the By Fire series and Lee and Dirk’s relationship clearly needs further development. I’d recommend readers have novellas two and three on standby.

IMO: No MM romance fan will be able to read just novella one in this great MM firefighter series!

J9’s Rating: