SPARKS FLY IN “SMOKE”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Tuesday is a delightful day for sharing books and finding new titles for our TBR lists, so let’s ignite some sparks today, and focus in on a book about wildfires.

I am featuring the e-ARC from NetGalley:  Smoke, by Catherine McKenzie.  It will be released on 10/20/15.

 

 

 

 

Intro:  (Prologue – Smoke Gets In Your Eyes)

Smoke.  Everything about it had always meant being away to her, so now that she was safe at home, it was a smell that didn’t track.

But it was smoke she smelled—green, campfire smoke—tugging at her consciousness, telling her to wake up, wake up, wake up!

Elizabeth’s eyes opened.  Ben was snoring softly beside her, out like the dead as he always was, and despite everything.

The tang of smoke was both stronger and fainter now that she was half-awake, and she wasn’t sure if she’d dreamt it.  She knew she should get up to check, but she hesitated, like you do in the middle of the night when you think you might have left the oven on.

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Teaser:  (All Through the Night – Elizabeth)

I leave Kate and John at the arts center, then turn and run back to the tent.  There’s a broken line of people hurrying across the lawn, and I stop to help an older couple.  The man has a graze across his cheek. (85%).

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Blurb:  From the internationally bestselling author Catherine McKenzie comes an evocative tale of two women navigating the secrets and lies at the heart of a wildfire threatening their town.

After a decade-long career combating wildfires, Elizabeth has traded in her former life for a quieter one with her husband. Now she works as the local arson investigator in a beautiful, quaint town in the Rockies. But that tranquil life vanishes when she and her husband agree to divorce and a fire in nearby Cooper Basin begins to spread rapidly. For Elizabeth, containing a raging wildfire is easier than accepting that her marriage has failed.

For Elizabeth’s ex-friend Mindy, who feels disconnected from her husband and teenage children, the fire represents a chance to find a new purpose: helping a man who has lost his home to the blaze. But her faith is shattered by a shocking accusation.

As the encroaching inferno threatens the town’s residents, Elizabeth and Mindy must discover what will be lost in the fire, and what will be saved.

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What do you think?  This book about wildfires seems especially timely to Californians right now, after some of the “rough fires” we’ve experienced lately.

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