Fire Me Up by Katie MacAlister
Title: Fire Me Up
Author: Katie MacAlister
Pages: 368
Genre: Fantasy
I can’t believe I’m saying this but I sometimes tire of reading vampire novels. After the success of a certain book series that featured vampires, every bookstore I went to seemed to be selling books with hunky male vampires or sexy, crimson-lipped female bloodsuckers on the covers. I was desperately in need of something new when I went online and bought Fire Me Up, the second book in the Aisling Grey Guardian series written by Katie MacAlister. Refreshingly, the only fangs mentioned in these books belong to dragons, demons and dogs, but that’s not the reason I bought the second book (and the third one and the fourth one).
In Fire Me Up, Aisling Grey is in trouble yet again. Despite her bungled first delivery, Aisling is still working for her uncle as a courier. This time, she’s tasked with delivering a mysterious amulet to a hermit. For her other job as Guardian of the Gates of Hell, Aisling decides to hone her skills by attending a convention in Budapest to hopefully find a real Guardian willing to take her under his/her wing. Thankfully, she’s got someone along to keep her company: Jim, her wise-cracking pet demon who’s taken the form of a shaggy Newfoundland.
In the first book, You Slay Me, Aisling discovered that Drake Vireo is a Wyvern (a two-legged dragon leader) in human form. More specifically, he’s the Wyvern of the Green Dragons and her supposed mate. In Fire Me Up, which takes place a month after the events in the previous book, Aisling arrives at the convention and learns that she’ll be staying in the same hotel as Drake, who innocently claims that he’s in town for a peace summit with other dragons. Aisling is predictably weak-kneed and giddy in his presence and hilarity ensues every time these two cross paths.
However, Aisling’s love life will have to wait as she’s confronted by a whole host of obstacles like thieves, some very oversexed Incubi, love-struck mortal men, angry dragons and yes, a mysterious murder.
Fire Me Up had a tough act to follow, but Katie MacAlister was up to the challenge. Fire Me Up is both funny (I laughed so hard I scared my fiancé) and a rewarding read. MacAlister’s writing is fresh and original and in Fire Me Up, she excels at developing her characters and their relationships. MacAlister mentioned in interviews that she plans to let the romance between Drake and Aisling unfold over the course of the entire series, but the chemistry is obviously there and it’s simultaneously amusing and thrilling to watch Aisling Grey, a grown woman, get reduced to quivering jelly by a dark-eyed glance.
Fire Me Up is a solid second installment to a fantastic debut novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it as well as the rest of the books in the Aisling Grey Guardian series to anyone. Two thumbs up and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!
