Fever

I had not planned to read this book. I kind of recoil from the blend of paranormal mysticism and romantic suspense. For some reason these blends don't appeal to me even though I have read and enjoyed them in the past (Dream Man and Now You See Her by Linda Howard, for example, are favorites of mine). This book has racial slurs in the excerpt. I was curious enough to find out for myself what would justify the use of repeated racial slurs in a contemporary genre fiction book and thus bought this book at the indecently high price of $9.99. I recognize that by writing this review, I will be propelling sales to those who are curious, just as I was curious but I want to talk about the book and the uses of the racial slurs and thus even though I find the book troublesome and offensive, I think the inadvertent promotional benefit is worthwhile.Teague Creek was convicted of the brutal murder of his girlfriend, a DA who was investigating a series of arsons. (Pay no attention to all the legal errors such as the DA doing the investigating that a fire cop would do. I'm not sure that this book contains even one correct legal representation). It was posited that she figured out it was her paramedic/firefighter boyfriend and he killed her to silence her. Teague breaks out of prison during a medical visit with the help of another prison, Taz, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. The two take a hostage, a woman named Alyssa Foster. Alyssa is a mix of heritages. She identifies with no particular race and the only reason that the reader knows she might have some non Caucasian blood is that she becomes the target of a variety of racial slurs from Taz. He uses a slur immediately. The first four chapters of this book are a barrage of racial terms and racial stereotypes. (Amazon keeps rejecting the review so I can't put the actual quotes here but they appear regularly from chapters one through four. ) Luckily for me, the book moves beyond that once Taz is dead, but for the first 80 pages or so you don't go three pages without something offensive being slapped in front of your face. The following are the excerpts with corresponding page numbers (according to my Kindle copy). I am putting everything in a spoiler code (except for you RSS readers) because the racial slurs are so numerous and so offensive that I think that they could be considered triggers.The sadly ironic part is that the next two hundred pages are incredibly boring. The two talk, drive, talk, eat, talk, kiss, drive, and end up at a cabin. Teague isn't supposed to be much of a talker but the two seemed to have non stop repetitive conversations and internal monologues about how angsty their situation is.Alyssa's initial representation is contradictory and relies heavily on the romance reader's assumption that all heroes are intrinsically good. In other words, Teague who has the tattoos of a member of the Aryan Brotherhood such as a swastika and other symbols of hate on his body; who hangs around with a man who uses the worst racial slurs possible; who has threatened Alyssa at every turn to do her harm; who threatens to kill a cop, a child and a woman if she doesn't cooperate with him; who has placed in her harm's way repeatedly; who has essentially ruined her career by helping to plant evidence that makes her look like an accomplice, is really a good guy. When Alyssa voices her physical desire for this racist murderer as she defines him, we are supposed to nod our heads at her good taste. When Alyssa doesn't trust him and treats him with doubt, we are supposed to be chagrined at her inability to see through all the superficial bad things to the truly heroic guy underneath.This book asks the reader to buy into the idea that Alyssa should instinctively know that all these bad things are merely acts and a true heroine would recognize the decency and humanity behind the swatiska emblazoned escaped felon/convicted murderer. About 40% in, Alyssa notes "There was a lot of good in this man, more good than she'd seen in most men." and I couldn't help but think that Alyssa must know really horrible men if Teague is the guy she think is better than most men.Teague and Alyssa have a dilemma. In order for the happy ever after to occur, Teague must be exonerated from his crime; solve the mystery behind who framed him; and repair past sundered relationships. Teague wants to do none of these things and although he has no money, he is intent on doing things his way which would essentially mean life on the run for him and his child. Alyssa wants to do things a different way.Here's what struck me the most after thinking about this book for a while. The Aryan Brotherhood character's dialogue is crafted with such attention to detail. Some of the slurs were so obscure to me I had to google them. Others were all to painfully familiar. This was a throwaway character who dies in Chapter 4 and then only two passing references are made to him throughout the rest of the book. Teague supposedly hooked up with Taz because Taz had outside contacts, ones that were willing to help him, but those contacts never come looking for Teague and Taz. Never. There is never any repercussions for Taz dying. He was, literally, a throwaway character one whose deletion from the book would not have affected the plot arc in any fashion. You could have replaced him with anyone and the story would have remained much the same. Additionally, it did appear that Teague had at least one friend on the outside who may have been willing to help him.Contrast this to the legal aspect of the book. The hero is a convicted murderer. In order for a happy ever after to occur, the conviction has to go away. There are ways for this to happen but not in the way that is described in the book. I'm not sure how much legal research was done for the story, but I wondered if there was even one legal detail in the story that was correct. The ending was almost comical in its improbability.There were other important inconsistencies. For instance, at one point Teague points out that he is totally broke and cannot afford any more appeals. Earlier in the story, however, Teague uses a credit card to do a cash balance transfer of $5,000 to Alyssa's account to implicate her heavily in his escape. Where did he get the credit card? Was it just lying dormant for 3 years? I thought he has spent all his money in pursuing custody while in prison! (Yes, he pursues custody of his child while in prison and is devastated when he loses). And then he, a firefighter/paramedic, asks Alyssa, "What the h___ is PTSD". She responds, "Post-traumatic stress disorder."There are almost no details given regarding the hero's paranormal ability which consists of primarily being able to burn things with his hands and heal things (mostly cauterization but also reversing his burns). Throughout the story, this paranormal element is never explained and used in the most shallow of ways. He alternately burns and heals Alyssa and uses his high internal energy to hot wire about five cars. That's it.This is a Brava and I did think the story would be more spicy than it was. The story contained two full sex scenes and one was fairly tepid. It's definitely not overly spicy. I wasn't convinced of the chemistry between the two characters. Alyssa was constantly ruminating about Teague's amazingly hot body but that seemed about it. Oh, and she noticed how, once he had showered all the blood off him, he looked "cleaner,more human." Those powers of observation are keen.These inconsistencies aren't fatal to the book, but placed in juxtaposition with 10-12 hateful, racial slurs used to build the character of one throwaway person in the book, the inconsistencies place the use of racial slurs in sharp relief. Why?These words are hateful and harmful. Why are they used? What do they add to the story? I wished some editor at Kensington had taken a step back and asked these questions. This is no Huck Finn comparison. In the first place, the use of racial slurs in Huck Finn were period appropriate. Those terms, unfortunately, were used in regular commonplace vernacular. The use of these types of slurs today get people fired, even if they are used accidentally.This language added nothing to the story other than to be shocking and offensive. Maybe people who have never been the subject of racial slurs don't recognize how harmful these words could be but people whose business is made out of the use of words should recognize their power.I'm not saying that racial slurs should never be used in literature or even genre fiction like romance, but I do believe that when you go down that route, there should be a good reason for their use. There was no good reason for the barrage of hateful words used by a character that is non essential to the storyline.

First off, let me just say the cover of "Fever" really is one SEXY cover. =)That being said, I had a hard time putting this book down while reading it. I read it in 2 days. I would have read it all in one day, but my family kept interrupting me while I was reading it when traveling back to Virginia from Florida. (hubby was driving of course)Dr. Alyssa Foster, never thought her day would get any worse than it already was. The poor woman had been going on straight adrenaline doing her job as a doctor. She is to examine a prisoner who was sentenced to life in prison. While examining him though, she cannot stop staring at his body and she also comes across that his temperature is burning up. She thinks he has a fever of some sort, but the prisoner knows what it is exactly, but he cannot really tell her.Teague who has been sentenced to life in prison for doing a criminal act that he really did not do...is about to make a drastic decision and he will be putting Alyssa in jeopardy as well. He decides to take the doc as a hostage for a reason he has to keep to himself. Even his helper, another prisoner who helps get the getaway car does not know the importance of Alyssa. Unfortunately, Alyssa was just there at the wrong time because what Teague does not realize until later is that Alyssa is not the real person he was supposed to take hostage.On the run from the law, Teague just wants to get the one person who loves him unconditionally back, but he has to fight a friend to get the person back. He also has to to keep running from the cops and a person who wants him dead. Teague also has his past creeping up to get him.Alyssa who is trying to run from Teague and his buddy, ends up falling for Teague...but that's because she slowly learns the truth on what Teague is and what happened to him.Both Teague and Alyssa cannot stop the passion between each other and how both of them can help each other out in different ways.My thoughts on "Fever" were that Joan Swan did a fabulous job on the first book to the Phoenix Rising series. I had a hard time putting it down. Of course, the cover helps as well. I think I caught myself several times, looking at the cover whenever a I started a new chapter. The cover is very drool worthy, don't you think? =)Alyssa, is one kick-butt female character. She tried her hardest to get out of the hostage situation, but when she finally resisted, she ends up figuring out somewhat of the truth on what happened to Teague. She definitely helped Teague a lot during the book.Teague though, was a pain at times. If he could of just stop resisting Alyssa whenever she tried to jump him, he would've realized that not every one was out to get him. He was afraid if he fell too deep, he would never be able to get her out of his situation.It was already too late though because Alyssa definitely was not giving up on him.I definitely had no trouble keeping up with the storyline of the book, even when Joan switched to the bad guy's point of view. She explained what happened to Teague as well in the past and introduced some other characters in the book that I look forward reading about more.I was in tears at the end of the book on what happened to Teague and when he was finally reunited with the someone he was trying to get to. This definitely was a tear jerker book.Steamy scenes...let's just say...thank goodness I was reading in the back of the truck during the ride back home so no one could see me smiling. =)I would love to hook up with Teague...even when he's heating up. Steamy hot, sex with Teague...sign me up. (shhh...don't tell the hubby I have a new book boyfriend...he gets jealous)Fore warning though...I've read some mixed reviews on this book. The beginning of the book, one of the characters said some racist remarks. (It's only his character though) Some reviewers did not like that. After awhile though the racism went away and well...let's just say the person saying the racist remarks got what was coming to him.If you're a fan of romantic suspense, you definitely should check out this debut novel of Joan Swan's. You definitely will not regret it. The next release to the series is "Blaze" which comes out in a week. =) I'm excited to read it because it is on Luke (who is in Fever). The way he was described in Fever...let's just say Teague may have competition.

This is a very fast paced romance with a paranormal twist thrown in.I've seen a lot of reviews mentioning the racial slurs and slanders that one character says, but, coming from an island where racial goings on have never really been prevalent they didn't mean much to me. In fact i had never even heard many of them. They only really happen in the first couple of chapters before they disappear.Alyssa was a strong character and fights for what she wants and what she believes in. Even though she has been kidnapped by Teague Creek she soon learns that it is not all what it seems.Teague is another strong character but you wonder why he puts up with so much from Taz at the start. Basically he's your wronged good guy who is just battling for freedom and his daughter. Feelings for Alyssa are an unexpected development for him, but he always puts her fist in all situations.A lot of other strong characters were in this novel, Mitch, Alyssa's brother. Luke, Teagues brother in law and fellow fire fighter buddy. Seth a friend and fire fighter buddy.This is a book that really gripped me. The government angle was also a believable twist.

I hope the above questions are answered in the next book or at least a good chunk of them. I don't have much patience unfortunately but this series definitely has me intrigued. This book contains lots of suspense and quite a bit of romance. Not quite as much heat as I expected from what I've previously read from this author and I would have liked more on the powers. Hopefully they will be expanded on in further books although I'm not entirely clear on that. Great start to the series if the following books expand on this then Joan Swan will be added to my must buy list.

Right from the start I was loved this story. The story was amazing..the meeting of Teague & Alyssa, was crazy,, He held her hostage to escape prison . The reader is on a crazy ride with Teague & Alyssa that are just enough to keep you going and find out more. You also learn a lot about other character that are in books to come..Teague was a firefighter, who was caught in a industrial fire that left him and his other fire fighters with special abilities. Teague is set up to go to prison for a crime he did not commit..he escapes years later.This is the first book I have read from this author, and will continue to read her books..well worth the read