Book Review: How To Tame A Wild Fireman

Author: Jennifer Bernard
Publication Date: September 24, 2013
Publisher: Avon
Series: The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel

The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel have a rebel among them, and there's only one woman who can put his flames out.

Firefighter Patrick "Psycho" Callahan earns his nickname every day. Fast, fit, and a furious worker, he thrives on the danger which helps him forget a near-tragedy that changed his life forever. But when his off-duty carousing gets out of hand, Patrick is sent back to Loveless, Nevada, where the wildfire threatening his hometown has nothing on sizzling Dr. Lara Nelson.

Lara would rather be thought of as the physician who returned to Loveless than as the misfit brought up at a hippie New Age commune. But right now she's focused on her job at hand, patching up injured firemen...until the past hits her in the hard-muscled, blue-eyed form of Patrick Callahan. Now, the embers of their decade-old attraction have ignited into a full-on inferno, as the bad-boy firefighter and the good doctor take a walk on the wild side they'll never forget.

“In the words of the master, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”

Patrick Callahan. What had ever happened to him after the accident? He’d been banished from the family, cut off from the Callahan money. No more Princeton. She’d been so wrapped up with Liam’s recovery that she hadn’t spared a thought for Patrick, except to curse at him like everyone else – though for her own reasons.

Instead he gave her a slow smile, unsettling in its sweetness, and said, “Please, will you hold my hand, Lara Nelson? I’d be grateful.”

Jennifer Bernard has created a masterpiece series, which is one of my guilty pleasures, and will sit on my shelf for years to come. Not only are the San Gabriel Firemen based off a real fire station, but she makes them come alive off the pages as if they were right in front of you! I have waited for quite some time to hear Patrick “Psycho” Callahan’s story, and I was not disappointed at all! In fact, this one might be my favorite in the series so far. In this book, Bernard connects Patrick Callahan and Dr. Lara Nelson, who have known each other since they were kids. They reconnect because of reasons I won’t reveal, you just need to read, and there romance is hot enough to rival the wildfires that Patrick is chasing!

Patrick is one of the funniest firemen I have encountered so far. At the beginning of this book Patrick gets in trouble for digging a swimming pool/hot tub in the back of the San Gabriel Fire Station, and readers learn that it is stunts like this one that earn him his nickname, “Psycho.” I don’t know why but I just find myself laughing uncontrollably at all the hysterical stunts he pulls. Then once I got to know Patrick a little more, I started to have a different feeling towards him. His background is heartbreaking and enough to make you cry! He was such a real and believable character, not to mention a dedicated fireman!

Lara Nelson is nothing like the type of girl that I had pinned for Patrick Callahan. However, she is just the girl someone as self-destruction as him needs. She is smart, particular, closed, and very successful. She is honestly a character that any young woman can admire. Her drive and ambition is enough to keep her pushing forward, even after the past she has experienced. I love watching these two tumble into a wild, unstoppable relationship. They are not suited for each other at all, but that’s what makes their relationship work and what this makes the book so hard to put down.

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Avon in exchange for my honest review***