Review: Consumed

Consumed by J.R. Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

J.R. Ward is one of those author’s I’ve been meaning to read for an extremely long time. In fact, since stumbling upon the first Black Dagger Brotherhood book I’ve been extremely curious. However, despite my interest, I’ve always found myself reading something else instead. With Consumed, the first book in the Firefighters series, coming with a free prequel story, The Wedding From Hell, I decided to take the dive and try out my luck. With both The Rehearsal Dinner and The Reception being enjoyable quick reads, I decided to borrow Consumed from the library once it became available.

Without a doubt, Consumed started on a high. In fact, it was one of the biggest adrenaline pumping starts to a book I have read in quite some time. It guaranteed I would be hooked, sucking me in deep and leaving me more than willing to turn the pages. It was an intense start to the book and set up plenty of big things that would be important throughout the rest of the book.

What I did find surprising, though, was how little impact The Wedding From Hell had on the book. References were made, sure, and there were some points where it helped to have read the two little prequel shorts, but it was nowhere near as important as I’d imagined it would be. In fact, I’d expected very different things from the characters based upon what happened in The Wedding From Hell, but as it was the romance played out without the prequels having that big an impact on them. It’s almost as though someone hit the reset button between The Wedding From Hell and Consumed. It wasn’t at all what I’d imagined it would be.

As it was, though, I did enjoy this one. The romance between the two characters was not as intense as I’d thought it would be – if I’m being honest, it was rather slow at times – but I was invested in seeing how things played out between them.

The mystery element of the story was also a bit on the slow front. It took a while to come together, but I am grateful for the unexpected way in which it played out. Things were left open, leaving me curious to see how things play out in the future books, and I hope this means there will be big things to come. As it was, the mystery was enjoyable but not to the standard I’m accustomed to.

I will be reading the next book, though. I want to see how things play out, and there were plenty of interesting side characters and storylines introduced that have left me curious to see how things play out. In many ways, it was clear this was the start of a new series. There was lots of information given, plenty of things were introduced, and there are countless elements we’re waiting on answers to.

As my first introduction to a full-length J.R. Ward story, Consumed was a great read. It wasn’t quite a full four-star rating, but it was close enough for me to round up. There were plenty of things introduced that have left me willing to pick up the future books in the series, with my curiosity about other J.R. Ward books leaving me willing to dive into other series.

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