Fire on the Mountain by P.D. Singer ~ Audiobook

61AfZRxvdVL._SL300_Title: Fire on the Mountain
Series: Mountain, #1
Author: PD Singer
Narrator: Finn Sterling
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 7 hours and 8 minutes
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (09-25-14)
Heat Level: Mild to Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.75 Hearts
Blurb: Take a break from academics, enjoy the Colorado Rockies, fight a fire now and then. That’s all Jake Landon expected when he signed up to be a ranger. He’ll partner with some crusty old mountain man; they’ll patrol the wilderness in a tanker, speak three words a day, and Old Crusty won’t be alluring at all. A national forest is big enough to be Jake’s closet—he’ll spend his free time fishing.

Except Old Crusty turns out to be Kurt Carlson: confident, competent, and experienced. He’s also young, hot, friendly, and considers clothing optional when it’s just two guys in the wilderness. Sharing a small cabin with this walking temptation is stressing Jake’s sanity—is he sending signals, or just being Kurt? And how would Kurt react if he found out his new partner wants to start a fire of a different kind? Jake’s terrified—they have to live together for five months no matter what.

Enough sparks fly between the rangers to set the trees alight, but it takes a raging inferno to make Jake and Kurt admit to the heat between them.

Product Link: http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Fire-on-the-Mountain-Audiobook/B00NUDDRMC

Reviewer: Tams

Review: Jake Landon takes a job as a park ranger to bide his time until he starts pharmacy school. He expected to be partnered with someone older and more seasoned, to pass his time waiting with working and fishing. He did not expect the distraction that is Kurt Carlson. Jake made the mistake once on acting on his attraction to another man, a friend, and it didn’t turn out so well. He is not about to make that mistake twice. In fact, Jake is so intent on ignoring his attraction to Kurt that he completely misses the signs pointing to that attraction, being a mutual feeling.

Kurt as well shared his feelings with someone in the past, only to be shot down and hurt in the process. And while Kurt doesn’t wave his rainbow flag, he is a very confident young man who tries to subtly tell his new partner he would like to put out HIS fire, not just the ones popping up on the mountain. It takes Kurt getting hurt and their lives endangered by an out of control fire before Kurt finally asks Jake for something more. When the danger subsides, Jake is left questioning if Kurt’s feelings were real, or just a mistake made in the heat of the moment.

While there was a lot of action and drama, and the backdrop of the picturesque mountains added a beauty to the storyline, the relationship between Jake and Kurt felt either forced or lacking at any given time. I wanted more of a connection between them. And what little they had didn’t come until toward the end of the book, and even then, it just didn’t fit with their personalities. A couple of times the words or phrases they chose to use seemed too juvenile for them as well. They were both very intelligent and driven, so I didn’t connect with them when they spoke like twelve-year-olds.

The thing that really saved this story for me and kept me going through to the end was the narration. I love the little nuances and inflections that Finn Sterling adds to the stories he tells. So I loved the scenery set in the Colorado Mountains and the narration, but the story itself was not quite there for me.

* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *