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Review: Fire Damage

Fire Damage Fire Damage by Kate Medina
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a psycholigical thriller kindly received from Netgalley for a fair and honest review.

Jessie is a psychologist working within the Army when she is asked to council a disturbed 4 year old boy after his father returns from Afghanistan with severe burns.

Sami refers to himself as "The Girl" and is in constant fear of "The Shadowman", could this be his father?

Ben Callen is a former patient of Jessie and MP investigating a death in Afghanistan when his case converges with Jessie's.

This book jumps in feet first with its plot based character development and with the initial introduction draws you in with your concern for Sami, the tension building with each new turn of events.

Although this book was easy to read it did feel at times formulaic and somewhat lacking in originality (especially for the beginning of a new series). I often wonder why these types of books have to be built into series and cannot be published as stand alone stories, hence why I felt the conclusion to this story somewhat lacking.

Jessie and Ben's backstories were interesting and connected them well to the events, but the attraction was so meh and unnecessary.

I also didn't appreciate Jessie's portrayal in the pub, it felt both unrequired and extremely negative to women!

As the book built to its conclusion I felt at times as if it was rushed and although all the loose ends were resolved it felt both unsatisfactory and twee.

The second book in the series "Scared to Death" is out so I would be open to see if some of the kinks have been worked on in this one.

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