Book Review - Force of Nature

After wowing readers with last year's thriller, HUNTER'S PURSUIT, Kim Baldwin's follow-up is a romance. But it's a romance book-ended by scenes with thriller qualities, starting with a twister.

Forty-six year old Gable McCoy is employed at a pharmacy and works as a volunteer firefighter for Plainfield Township, Michigan. One evening, when her corner of the county is hit with bad weather culminating in tornados touching down, she sets out to help those in her assigned area. Little does she know that the storm will literally touch her life. "In a whirling hail of sticks and stones and leaves, she scrambled down the bank, her hands shielding her face. The wind tried to blow her off her feet, and the noise of the tornado was deafening, like a jet aircraft parked directly overhead. Squinting between her fingers, she saw the twister cut out of the woods and onto the highway a quarter of a mile away. It looked like a mammoth V-shaped plume of black smoke" (p. 15).

Though Gable's life is spared, the house of a nearby resident is destroyed. When Gable gets to the decimated ruins, she can't believe anyone could still be alive. But Erin Richards did survive and is trapped in the basement bathroom. Unfortunately, Gable can't get to her. But they can still talk through the wreckage, and that they do-most of the night. Sight unseen, the two women form quite an attachment, and their friendship begins from there.

Baldwin writes great action scenes throughout with just the right balance between plot tension and the character's internal thoughts. Her descriptions of the training, fire, and rescue efforts are terrific. The ups and downs of the two characters' relationship occur in a natural, yet not entirely predictable, progression. Just like a twister or a forest fire, you're never quite sure what direction Gable and Erin will go. Will they play it safe? Or give in to passion? Highly recommended to all who enjoy a good romance with rescue/action interspersed.

Lori L. Lake, Midwest Book Review