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A review by bookandcoffeeaddict
In the Fire by Eileen Griffin, Nikka Michaels
5.0
Not going to lie, when I first read the description of this book I was more than a little surprised and thrown off. When we last left Ethan and Jamie at the end of In The Raw, the two up-and-coming chefs were very much in love and facing their six month separation with so much hope for the future – to find out they had broken up not too long after and have been apart for eight (eight!) years was startling and upsetting. I almost didn’t want to even read this book, worried that it would break my heart as I really loved these two guys together, but I had to know what had happened. So I bit the bullet and read In The Fire – and I’m glad I did, because this sequel is even better than the first!
First, the big question: Why were these two men, who were so obviously in love, not together anymore? It pretty much boiled down to miscommunication and lingering feelings of self-doubt, helped along by distance and one meddlesome roommate/best friend.
Now, eight years later, Jamie and Ethan are no longer simply culinary students, but established chefs in the culinary world – and the gulf between them has never been wider. Jamie is a famous celebrity chef, authoring best-selling cookbooks and starring in his own tv cooking show. He’s fallen back into old habits of letting others dictate the direction he takes, he’s overworked and lonely and he wants nothing more than to take a break and find his way back to the simple joys of cooking – nothing more, that is, until he sees Ethan again. When the two men finally see each other again after their long separation, it’s clear that under a veneer of old resentments and anger, they still harbor some strong feelings for each other. Ethan is still the embodiment of everything Jamie wants – someone so raw and brash, who couldn’t care less what others wanted him to do or what they thought about him. Ethan’s experiencing some problems of his own, the restaurant that he’s made his whole life, which he’s so close to buying from the owner, is being hit with some majorly expensive setbacks and possible sabotage. And while he should be focusing on that, he can’t stop thinking about his ex-lover and his re-emergence in his life.
Loved. Loved. Loved.
The pacing is fantastic, the emotions are higher, and the relationship being rebuilt between Ethan and Jamie felt more real and lasting. It really was a great read and I can now honestly say that the authors knew what they were doing by going in this direction. The added angst only made the connection between Ethan and Jamie seem stronger and the separate ways their lives had gone only showed how much better off they would both be with each other in their lives.
Don’t be scared off by the time jump and the seemingly out of nowhere break-up, this book was an absolutely needed step in the journey of these two chefs to become the men they needed to be, both for themselves and for each other. If the idea of a break-up and long-term separation in the middle of a romantic series isn’t for you, even though the break-up and separation are off the page, no worries as In The Fire can be read as a standalone, or even before In The Raw, essentially treating the first book as a prequel.
And to set your mind at ease, while the first book ended with a Happy For Now ending (which obviously didn’t last), In The Fire ends in a much, much more solid Happily Ever After. There’s a third book planned for the In The Kitchen series and I will eagerly await its release with total confidence in whatever direction the authors take these characters.
*I received an ARC of this book to review. You can find this review and others like it at BookAndCoffeeAddict.com, along with recommendations for a fantastic cup of coffee.
First, the big question: Why were these two men, who were so obviously in love, not together anymore? It pretty much boiled down to miscommunication and lingering feelings of self-doubt, helped along by distance and one meddlesome roommate/best friend.
Now, eight years later, Jamie and Ethan are no longer simply culinary students, but established chefs in the culinary world – and the gulf between them has never been wider. Jamie is a famous celebrity chef, authoring best-selling cookbooks and starring in his own tv cooking show. He’s fallen back into old habits of letting others dictate the direction he takes, he’s overworked and lonely and he wants nothing more than to take a break and find his way back to the simple joys of cooking – nothing more, that is, until he sees Ethan again. When the two men finally see each other again after their long separation, it’s clear that under a veneer of old resentments and anger, they still harbor some strong feelings for each other. Ethan is still the embodiment of everything Jamie wants – someone so raw and brash, who couldn’t care less what others wanted him to do or what they thought about him. Ethan’s experiencing some problems of his own, the restaurant that he’s made his whole life, which he’s so close to buying from the owner, is being hit with some majorly expensive setbacks and possible sabotage. And while he should be focusing on that, he can’t stop thinking about his ex-lover and his re-emergence in his life.
Loved. Loved. Loved.
The pacing is fantastic, the emotions are higher, and the relationship being rebuilt between Ethan and Jamie felt more real and lasting. It really was a great read and I can now honestly say that the authors knew what they were doing by going in this direction. The added angst only made the connection between Ethan and Jamie seem stronger and the separate ways their lives had gone only showed how much better off they would both be with each other in their lives.
Don’t be scared off by the time jump and the seemingly out of nowhere break-up, this book was an absolutely needed step in the journey of these two chefs to become the men they needed to be, both for themselves and for each other. If the idea of a break-up and long-term separation in the middle of a romantic series isn’t for you, even though the break-up and separation are off the page, no worries as In The Fire can be read as a standalone, or even before In The Raw, essentially treating the first book as a prequel.
And to set your mind at ease, while the first book ended with a Happy For Now ending (which obviously didn’t last), In The Fire ends in a much, much more solid Happily Ever After. There’s a third book planned for the In The Kitchen series and I will eagerly await its release with total confidence in whatever direction the authors take these characters.
*I received an ARC of this book to review. You can find this review and others like it at BookAndCoffeeAddict.com, along with recommendations for a fantastic cup of coffee.