Review: Playing With Fire - Gena Showalter

Playing With Fire – Gena Showalter

Grade: A+

Author: Gena Showalter

Series: Tales of An Extraordinary Girl #1

Publication: Harlequin Books (September 1^st, 2006)

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Format: Mass-Market Paperback, 379 pages

Earth, Wind & Fire aren't just a band anymore . . .

Used to be my greatest achievement was holding a job more than three days. Now suddenly I can shoot fireballs, chill your drink, or blow-dry your hair at fifty paces with a blink of my eye!

It all started when this crazy scientist dropped something in my Grande Mocha Latte. Of course I got wicked sick. Next morning I'm waking up with this total hottie bending over me. He tells me 1)his name's Rome Masters, 2)he's a government agent and 3)I can control the four elements with a thought.

He seems even less pleased by my (apparently irreversible) transformation than I am . . . Because now he'll have to kill me.

I gravitate toward paranormal romances, and I first read this book years ago when it came out; but it’s the kind of book you reread often. It’s hilarious, well-written, passionate, fast-paced and highly enjoyable.

24-year-old Belle Jamison isn’t having a good time. She works like crazy to support her father, who worked himself nearly to death when she was a teenager to give her nice things. But, she can’t seem to hold a job for longer than a couple weeks. Everything changes when a strange man runs into her cafe ranting about being in danger and leaves behind a small gift...a formula in her mocha latte that changes her from a normal woman into a four-element wielding marvel-esqe hero.

Enter Rome Masters. He’s the sexy-as-hell agent sent in to neutralize the danger Belle now poses to society; but finds he can’t do it due to:

A)     Being madly attracted to her; and

B)      Knowing that if he kills her he leaves her father on the streets.

So, what follows is a delightful rush of hot, hot passion; daring escapes, plenty of bad-guy action, and charming witty characters.

What I loved:

·         The chemistry between Belle & Rome, there’s never a moment you’re not aware of the attraction, and the back and forth banter is delightful; it leaps off the page

·         Tanner, a horny recently orphaned teenager who wears Crazy 8 Ball contacts and  dyes his hair blue. He helps Belle out and becomes something of an honorary team member. He’s hilarious and adorable; I want a Tanner for myself

·         Rome. Big, dark, sexy jungle-cat man. Enough said

·         Belle. She is the perfect romance heroine. She’s sassy, smart, mouthy, not above using her ‘girls’ to charm her way out of trouble, and still caring and emotional. What I love about Belle is she never slips into absolute stupidity, and even though she’s madly attracted to Rome she never disregards the danger she’s in due to her hormones. I love that she wasn’t sweet as cherry pie; but was never a ‘Sassy Sue’ and annoying.

·         The action. There’s a very real danger for Belle from enemy agents who want to recruit her—against her will if necessary. Pretty-Boy Vincent is chilling and smart, an excellent villain who is never over-the-top mwahaha evil; but is evil enough to make him believable.

Overall: a wonderful, wonderful book. It will stay on bookshelf forever.

Cover: I’m not sold on the UK cover. While I like the use of colour, I don’t like the positioning or the expression of the model. She’s very pretty; but doesn’t match Belle’s character at all; the expression is too soft and almost gentle; and the way she hold out the fireball in her palm isn’t at all like Belle’s fiery disposition. She’s more likely to be throwing it. nonetheless, it’s a pretty, attractive cover; I just don’t think it fairly depicts the character’s personality. 6/10.

The American cover I like much more. The model is still very attractive, but in a much less delicate way than the UK one. As well, I love the wildness of her curls, and the stubborn hand on her jutting hip. The expression is priceless; she’s saying to whoever she’s looking at ‘you are two seconds away from literally having your pants on fire’. I also find the use of the swirled font and bright flames surrounding her to be very dynamic and interesting as a cover. 10/10.

Illusion & Reality

I recently finished the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray; about a girl in Victorian England who’s sent to boarding school to be a lady after her mother is killed. While there, she realizes she has the power to enter the Realms, a place of magic that was sealed off twenty-five years ago, and can restore the magic to it. Of course, that’s like saying Harry Potter is about a boy who finds out he’s a wizard and has to defeat an evil one. There is so much going on it’s impossible to just summarize.

A big theme throughout the novels is the idea of illusion and reality, and how much of it is carried on to both the realms and the real world. In the ‘real’ world, Gemma and the other girls at Spence are taught to act in a certain way, to project an illusion of who they really are: polite, well-mannered, without strong opinions and convictions. Scandal most always be denied and covered, such as Gemma’s family lying about her father’s addiction to opium or Felicity’s mother’s affair in Paris. In the society they live in, and in many ways the one we live in, unpleasantness is glossed over, or ignored. Gemma herself feels stifled by this world, she describes it as being in a skin that doesn’t fit quite right, she is constantly trying to adjust while everyone else seems to fit theirs easily.

In Rebel Angels, the second book, she is keenly aware of this when she’s pursued by Simon Middleton, an eligible bachelor and is constantly aware of how she appears. She wants to project a lady who is everything Simon thinks she is: adventurous, charming, witty, and well-mannered. However, even as she is attracted to the role, she is uncomfortable within it; doubting that Simon would be able to understand her as she really is—in relations to the realms, and the difficult choices and horrors she has faced there—she breaks off the relationship.

One of the things I enjoyed the most about this series is the way Libba Bray made this so relatable to the real modern world we live in, despite the historical setting and fantasy element. The characters are wonderfully alive, and their emotions and struggles are so relatable. How many of us have tried to pretend to be someone we aren’t to fit someone else’s ideals; whether it’s a family member’s, a partner, or a friend’s? Some people choose as Gemma does, to remain alone or unsatisfied until we can find someone we don’t have to hide or pretend from, but many people take the other course, slimming themselves down to become someone else until who they really are becomes unrecognizable even to themselves. Many of the characters of Gemma’s world are comfortable settling, allowing someone else to form their mold.

In comparison, the realms, which is a world of magic and illusion, they are shown as they truly are. Felicity, whose high-spiritedness is something to be tamed in the real world runs naked with a huntress, learning archery. Ann, the scholarship student who is at Spence to learn to be a governess to her richer cousins, is shown as the beauty she truly is, if in the real world she didn’t try to her pain beneath too many sweets and cuts on her wrists, free of shame. It is in the world of illusion that they first truly see and believe in their true potential.

In another capacity, there is the illusion of who is really good or bad. There really aren’t truly evil creatures in this novel apart from the Winterland creatures, because everyone has many different sides. Gemma mistakenly places her trust in some, mistrusting others she shouldn’t. One way the author does this is with the hidden names members of the Order used throughout the books; such as Miss Moore, a teacher Gemma comes to love, trust, and rely on for guidance, who is really the sorceress Circe who killed her mother and has been attempting to use her. The reader, like Gemma, is shocked and feels betrayed by this character, since the illusion she’d projected had been so masterful. This worked for me on so many levels, because in the world those we should mistrust don’t often walk around with an evil face. Gemma, like many people, is taken in by the illusions of friendship from someone who didn’t have her interests at heart.

Beyond Miss Moore, there is Kartik, who is pulled by the Rakshana and by his growing affection for Gemma. He tries to play both sides, showing both the loyal soldier and the friend. I found this so interesting because it’s so easy to understand why he would struggle, and his choice makes him all the more likeable as a character than if he’d simply renounced the Rakshana from the beginning and gone completely over to Gemma’s side. The Rakshana are his security blanket, his belief in where he belongs, and it is frightening to completely shed one skin for a more uncertain one beneath it.

So that’s my thoughts on this series. I’d love to hear anyone’s comments or opinions :D 

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