Tori's Review: Hell Fire by Ann Aguirre

Paperback: 336 pages
Price: $6.99
ISBN: 978-0451463241
Released: April 6, 2010
Publisher: Penguin
Author's Website: Ann Aguirre   
Buy it: Amazon
Obtained: Library
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Corinne Solomon  
Book Order:
1. Blue Diablo (book review)
2. Hell Fire 
3. Shady Lady (book review)

As a handler, Corine Solomon can touch any object and know its history. It's too bad she can't seem to forget her own. With her ex-boyfriend Chance in tow-lending his own supernatural brand of luck-Corine journeys back home to Kilmer, Georgia, in order to discover the truth behind her mother's death and the origins of "gift".

But while trying to uncover the secrets in her past, Corine and Chance find that something is rotten in the state of Georgia. Inside Kilmer's borders there are signs of a dark curse affecting the town and all its residents-and it can only be satisfied with death...

My Rating:

My Opinion:
In comparison to its predecessor, HELL FIRE had improvements and elements that remained the same. Instead of going into lots of details, I'm going to list what was good, and what was not so good in this book. Hopefully, you can use this "checklist" to help determine whether what bothered me will ultimately bother you.

The Good:

-The plot. Thankfully the complaints I had about BLUE DIABLO did not apply in HELL FIRE. The sense of mindless wandering did not overwhelm the book's pages and I was generally satisfied with each scene. Nothing felt unnecessary and everything that happened seemed to move the story forward.

-Secondary characters. Shannon, the demon, and Butch made HELL FIRE more of an engaging read, which is good, since some of the other characters had a tendency to frustrate me often.

-The showdown. Somewhat anticlimactic, but satisfying enough that I can't find any complaints. I expected more of a fight, but then I forgot that the characters in this series are people. They have the frailty of human beings (since, even when they do have magical abilities, said abilities don't help much with durability and their mortality). In this sense, the Corinne Solomon series is refreshing since there are no vampires or werewolves. There's just psychotic human beings as the villains.

The No-So-Good:

-Corinne. At one point I was ready to DNF HELL FIRE because Corinne was so difficult to like. She was whiny, bitchy, and incredibly negative. That negativity ended up ruining quite a few enjoyable scenes, thus frustrating me further. At one point, I told a friend that if Corinne was real, I would have smacked her. Thankfully, as the story picks up, Corinne's annoying-ness isn't focused on as much.

-The romance elements. This has more to do with Corinne than the guys. Because Corinne was such a miserable person, I couldn't fathom why Chance and Saldana would have any interest in her whatsoever. Her logic for driving one man away (I won't say which) by the end of the book actually took me by surprise. She seemed to become so smitten that I was unable to wrap my head around why she would suddenly change her mind.


Overall, the good did outweigh the weaknesses, and I think that is important to acknowledge. Would I recommend HELL FIRE? If you can't handle an annoying heroine, I might suggest staying away from this one. HOWEVER, I would like to point out that I am halfway through SHADY LADY (book 3), and Corinne has not bothered me at all. Before writing this heroine off, I would suggest waiting until you see what I have to say for the most recent release, first.