AND THUS BEGINS MY FORAY INTO THE MUCH MALIGNED GENRE OF ROMANCE NOVELS[dramatic thunderclap and clashing organ chords]I spend most of my workday listening to podcasts, frequently of the book review variety. And lately the episodes across about four different book related podcasts keep stressing the same points: you should not be ashamed of what you read and should not write off an entire genre of writing without giving it a fair shot. The romance novel as a genre is most likely the most looked down upon genre of books published. When I previously worked at my local library as a page, one of my pastimes would be organizing the paperback romance section and finding amusement in the wholly absurd covers. But I myself had never actually READ anything that could be classified in the romance genre. So about a month ago I went to the largest expert in romance novels that I knew of, my mother, with a list of concerns I had over the genre and things I would like to avoid. Born in Fire was determined to be my starting off point in the genre, and I cautiously began wading into the murky waters of romance (which now that I type that sounds wholly inappropriate... sort of like some romance novels)Born in Fire is the first book in the Concannon Sisters trilogy. Our heroine is Maggie Concannon, a glass blowing artist in the tourist town of Clare Ireland. A stubborn, short tempered and passionate woman, Maggie throws everything she has into her art and struggles to provide for her family, which is full to the brim with conflict and tempers of its own. Maggie is pretty much the quintessential STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAAANNNNNN™ with a large dose of INDEPENDENT ARTIST thrown in for good measure.Our hero is Rogan Sweeney, a suave and uptight gallery owner who is hell bent on signing Maggie on as a featured artist and showcasing her artwork around Europe. Rogan is cocksure to the point of fault, fully expecting to always get his way no matter what. He is always well put together, comes from a wealthy family and ALWAYS is punctual.One of my many trepedations going into the romance genre was how I would balance the stereotypical portrayal of male/female relationships with my fairly left leaning feminist viewpoints on consent and a woman's importance as an individual. And in this case "fairly" is the definition equivalent of "a felled tree after a storm that is completely flat upon the ground pointing in the left direction." So Rogan's constant assertiveness as to what he wanted when he wanted how he wanted who he wanted immediately was a concern for me. So easily could I see this being nothing but a novel documenting Rogan getting what he wanted, and what he wanted was Maggie, a person he saw less as a fully formed person with her own desires and opinions and more of an imaginary dream muse meant to satisfy his every whim. Thankfully, this is NOT happen. Rogan most definitely is assertive. He is fairly immediately intrigued by Maggie's fiery passion for her art, and as a reader you can almost hear the gears begin turning in his head as he formulates a plan of his choosing as to how and when he shall bed this fascinating artist. At one point he literally corrects his own thoughts of taking her to bed saying "not IF he would... but WHEN." Whether or not Maggie wanted this never seemed to cross his brain. Of COURSE she'd want it! Who wouldn't??But thankfully, as I was hoping, the plot did not devolve into such unpleasantries. At first I thought that Rogan would dramatically change over the course of the book, as character development would be vita plot pointsl to romance novels, but in fact I had completely underestimated Maggie in this whole ordeal. Maggie came into this relationship knowing exactly what she wanted and would be having none of this "carefully planned seduction" business. No, what Maggie wanted was a good old fashioned passionate romp in the sheets, as it were. She was incredibly attracted to Rogan, despite his uptight nature and immediate personality differences, and had absolutely ZERO interest in him controlling anything and made that perfectly clear from the moment a romance began blossoming.The rest of the book follows the tumultuous relationship between Maggie and Rogan, her fear of being tied down, the drama happening within her own family and her conflict with what she wants as an artist and what she needs in love. And overall I can definitely say that I enjoyed the book. The characters, despite my somewhat unfair description of them, are not as one dimensional as I feared. Both Maggie and Rogan are fairly complex in what they want and how they react throughout this relationship. Maggie much moreso than Rogan, but that is to be expected given the target demographic for romance novels. I would have liked to see further exploration into Maggie's feelings on marriage considering the current cultural climate shuns women not interested in marriage like they have a deformity, but what the book gave me was certainly not negative in that regard. I GREATLY appreciated how quickly we veered away from Love Triangle Island as it came looming on the horizon. I truly due hate when books of any genre pit two women against each other because the man is just SO INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT OH MY GOODNESS HE'S DREAMY AND MINE WHAT ARE YOU DOING TALKING TO HIM YOU HARLOT??? but the potential love triangle in this book was resolved smoothly and with no cat fighting.So. How'd I like this book? Overall, it was pretty enjoyable. I will definitely be checking out the other two books in the trilogy later (speaking of... it's a trilogy following the sisters but there's only two sisters? What, is the last book gonna follow the mom? That sounds..... rather painful.) I declare this adventure into the romance genre a success! Onwards! To more kissing books in the future!!
I loved reading about Maggie and her entertaining characteristics and temperament.Maggie is an artist who creates glass sculptures. She lives in a small village in western Ireland. Rogan is a wealthy Gallery owner in Dublin. He wants to represent her work. He calls her repeatedly but she never answers her phone. He has to travel there just to be able to talk to her. After he signs her, he has to send telegraphs to her because she still doesn’t answer her phone. He views her as irresponsible, scatterbrained, canny, obstinate, brilliant, bad-tempered and beautiful. He’s her opposite, a business mind and manner with schedules and timetables. Maggie is constantly throwing insults at Rogan and others, but I find her insults funny. An example of her insulting style is below in Caution Spoiler. In the sequel “Born in Shame,” Shannon describes Maggie as suspicious by nature, hot-headed, frank to the point of rudeness, overly protective and fiercely loyal. Shannon describes Rogan as “cultured, smooth, organized, shrewd, sophisticated and sharp enough to run an organization that was respected around the world. And, she thought grimly, he had to have a sense of humor, and the patience of Job, to live with Maggie.”I also enjoyed the subplots concerning Rogan’s friend Patricia and his grandmother Christine.I’m not usually moved by descriptions of place, but in this book, I was, especially on page 116. Maggie has just finished an intense creative session for several days and is riding her bike to town for some food and a break. As the author describes the sights and scents around Maggie’s bike ride, I felt like I was experiencing a piece of art. She describes the sun, the hedges, the breeze, the scents of honeysuckle, hay and sweet mown grass, etc. Maybe, because I was so into Maggie’s artistic activities, I continued to feel the art surrounding her bike ride. Who knows what it was, but I felt a lovely, emotional fulfillment, with that bike ride.“Born in Fire” is the first book in a 3 book series. It can be read alone. Books 2 and 3 are about Maggie’s sister Brianna and half-sister Shannon. Maggie has small parts in the subsequent books, but it’s not necessary to read them, although it was nice to see Maggie having a child in a later book. I gave 2 stars to "Born in Ice" and 3.5 stars to "Born in Shame."CAUTION SPOILER:I’m quoting a section of the book, to give readers a sense of Maggie’s insulting style. If readers enjoy it, then I think they will enjoy the book. On page 49: Rogan offers to manage and sell Maggie’s glass sculptures. He tells her he will take a percentage from all sales. She asks“What percentage do you take?”tHoping for a reaction, he kept his eyes level with hers. “Thirty-five percent.”tShe made a strangled sound in her throat. “Thirty-five? Thirty-five? You thief. You robber.” She shoved back from the table and stood. “You’re a vulture, Rogan Sweeney. Thirty-five percent be damned and you with it.”t“I take all the risks, I have all the expenses.” He spread his hands, steepled them again. “You have merely to create.”t“Oh, as if all it takes is sitting on my a** and waiting for the inspiration to come fluttering down like raindrops. You know nothing, nothing about it.” She began to pace again, swirling the air with temper and energy. “I’ll remind you, you’d have nothing to sell without me. And it’s my work, my sweat and blood they’ll spend good money for. You’ll get fifteen percent.”t“I’ll get thirty.”t“Plague take you, Rogan, for a horse thief. Twenty.”Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: four. Setting: current day village of Kilmihil, County Clare, west coast of Ireland, Dublin, Paris and the south of France. Copyright: 1994. Genre: contemporary romance.For a listing of my reviews of other Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb books, see my 4 star review of "Angels Fall" posted on 6/30/08.
What do You think about Born In Fire (1994)?
Fani wrote: "Michelle, the Bookshelf Stalker wrote: "~Ali~ wrote: "Michelle, the Bookshelf Stalker wrote: "~Ali~ wrote: "The setting is what kept me reading this one. In fact, this is the book that started my..."My hubby calls me an accent whore since I'll like a guy just because of his accent. I just respond "yup".
—Michelle, the Bookshelf Stalker Queen of the Undead
I wanted to really love this because the heroine has my mother's name - Margaret Mary - and the setting is Ireland. But it just didn't give me that extra kick that so many of Nora's books have. I loved the feel of the scenery, and was really interested in the glassblowing and the mental visualizing of the finished pieces, but when I can put a book aside for a while, I know it's because the main characters just aren't drawing me in; and they should have - I love a strong, talented female and a certain amount of arrogance in the man. They did eventually make me care about them, but that was 3/4 of the way through. I will complete the trilogy - maybe now that all the characters are established, the next will take off sooner. This was a 3.5*, and I tried to convince myself it was a weak 4*, but it didn't work - maybe I hold Nora to a higher standard!
—BJ Rose
What can I say for Nora Roberts that millions of readers do not know already! Her language and descriptions, her character building, her fully developed plots leave nothing to be found lacking. This is my second book of hers (I KNOW! SHAME ON ME!) and it will certainly not be her last.This was a story about family relationships, dreams that die and dreams that come true, love for the art and fighting with inner demons, all set in a magnificent county in the west of Ireland. The heroine, Margaret Concannon, is a glass artist that some would identify with Katharina, Shakespeare's well known shrew (guilty reader here! AYE! I DID!)! Don't get me wrong, I love my heroines being feisty, but there are times when a woman should know when to just pause and take deep breaths. And here comes the Petruchio of our story, Rogan Sweeney, a man in love with art in every possible form and - oh yes!- with Maggie as well! I loved how he was both dynamic and patient in dealing with the shrew (said in the most loving way!) of the story...what a man can tolerate when he loves a woman! To be honest, Maggie's behaviour is justified up to a point, as she grew up feeling the resentment and being maltreated (abused both physically and emotionally) by her mother for the latter's turn of life and end of dreams. In my opinion, everything in life is a matter of choice of what life brings us and our effort to make the most of it. And this our dearest Nora Roberts, among other things, emphasises with this story. In the end, Maggie chose to leave her past (and issues!) behind and give Ronan the chance to prove her that life is what we make it to be, that happiness can be found even though we may have lost hope in it and that the sins of the parents are theirs and theirs alone!Despite this being a very sweet story and finding nothing lacking in it, I couldn't just adore it...I am still trying to explain this to myself. What I 've gained from it, though, is that Ireland is a magnifent country and every book I read about it makes it all the more appealing to visit and learn more about its history and people. Still, I am going to continue the series because the author deserves my reading and seeing her Concannon Sisters's world complete in order to form a solid opinion. And you can never consider reading Nora a waste of time!
—Chryssa
