[CHRISTMAS] IT'S A WONDERFUL FIREMAN | BLOG TOUR | JENNIFER BERNARD
By Adeselna Davies - 00:39
Hard-edged fireman Dean Mulligan has never been a
big fan of Christmas. Twinkly lights and sparkly tinsel can't brighten the
memories of too many years spent in ramshackle foster homes. Although he's
established himself as one of the top firefighters at San Gabriel Station 1, he
doesn't think he's good enough for someone like gorgeous Lizzie.
Lizzie Breen is used to fighting-from her alpha
male brothers, who try to smother her in the name of safety, to the
life-threatening childhood illness she overcame. She knows what she and
Mulligan feel for each other is a lot more than a fling, but she can't get him
to see that. The only gift Lizzie wants to give him this season is her love,
but he's not willing to accept it.
When Mulligan is trapped in the burning wreckage
of a holiday store, a Christmas angel arrives to open his eyes. But is it too
late? This Christmas, it'll take an angel, a determined woman in love, and the
entire Bachelor Firemen crew to make him believe … it is indeed a wonderful life.
Ok I am in full Christmas mode, nobody and nothing can stop me, not even a damn cold! I have a turkey fascinator on, I bought tons of presents and I am even reading some sweet Christmas novellas.
Quick note: even though this is from a series, I haven’t read the others, I did read a review where the girl actually read the others and she said that the guy Mulligan was kind of misogynist. I can’t really say how he acts around the other novels in this series, but who cares let’s talk about this one.
It’s a wonderful fireman draw its title inspiration from the film It’s a wonderful life, a sentimental Christmas film that I have never watched. However some parts of this novella are much more likely Dicken’s a Christmas carol, but focuses on the past.
Mulligan is injured when he is trying to fight a fire and while he is waiting to be rescued his love interest, Lizzie, appears in the form of a hallucination and convinces him that he is worth her love and to live because he is a nice person.
Much like A Christmas bite, the male main character doesn’t seem to believe that he deserves to get the girl. And I have never addressed this before, but this is very medieval theme (not in a bad sense), but usually in medieval literature, the woman was above everything and the man always said he was not worth of her because she was just too pure and too good. So men (who were the main authors at that time) wrote poems putting the women on a pedestal and worshiped them.
While in the 21st century things changed a little bit and the role of women within literature seems to be changing all the time: we go from submissive passive Bella Swan to independent bold characters by Shelly Laureston.
Either way women in these two novellas don’t seem to enjoy being in the pedestal and convince the guy that he is being an idiot, which is a nice subversion of roles. Usually low self-esteem is associated with women rather than men. I’m not sure if we are actually just transferring women characteristic into men or if we are now more free to talk about men as not those amazing, masculine macho people that have feelings and some downsides as well.
I always find a novel positive if they allow me to make some bizarre associations with other novels or other themes in literature, especially medieval ones (even if this has nothing to do with medieval literature, we still take some inspiration from that time, even if we do not do it consciously). It’s a wonderful fireman is a great Dicken’s retelling with some great dialogues and some nice messages regarding the season.
PURCHASE LINKS:
EXCERPT:
“You shouldn’t be
flirting with the new probie. If Fred was here, he’d tell you.” Mulligan looked
very sure of that fact—arrogant, even. She assessed the bump in his nose, the
way his biceps bulged from the sleeves of his T-shirt, his air of absolute
assurance. Another girl might be intimidated, but Lizzie had grown up with four
brothers who’d become soldiers and a firefighter. She’d outgrown intimidation
by the age of six.
“Why are you so suspicious of Ace? He’s part
of the brotherhood, isn’t he?”
“Not yet,”
Mulligan said with decisive finality, as if everything had now been settled.
“You stay here, and I’ll tell him to get lost.”
“You will not!”
She grabbed his arm as he brushed past her. It felt like grabbing a log, that’s
how thick and strong his forearm was. “It’s none of your business.”
“It is my
business. Freddie’s my business. We’re tight.”
“If you were that
tight, you’d know that his only involvement with my love life is feeding me ice
cream after a breakup,” she snapped. “Stay out of it, Mulligan. You have some
nerve, you really do. I’ve never even met you before, and you’re trying to tell
me who to sleep with.”
He stopped dead.
She kept her hand on his arm because it felt so good. His tendons tightened
under her touch, and she saw his jaw flex.
A quick flick of
his wrist, and suddenly she was pressed against him, chest to chest, thighs to
thighs. Sensation poured through her; it felt like standing next to a volcano.
“I’m not telling you who to sleep with. I’m telling you who not to sleep with.”
“Oh, really?” she
snapped, furious. “Who should I not
sleep with?”
“Anyone but me.”
Jennifer
Bernard is a graduate of Harvard and a former news promo producer. The child of
academics, she confounded her family by preferring romance novels to … well,
any other books. She left big city life for true love in Alaska, where she now
lives with her husband and stepdaughters. She’s no stranger to book success, as
she also writes erotic novellas under a naughty secret name not to be mentioned
at family gatherings.
Visit her on the Web at:
Website: www.JenniferBernard.net
Twitter: jen_bernard
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