http://www.alternative-read.com (Main Site)
http://www.tjbook-list.blogspot.com (Review Blog)

Title: Summer Flames
Author: Vella Munn
Website of Author: www.VellaMunn.com
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Buy Now URL/Link: http://www.calderwoodbooks.com

A raging forest fire in all its deadly drama eats its way toward the forest as Chera James, a teacher, hurls along a horribly rutted path to find help in stopping it. Coming upon a logging crew securing logs onto trucks, she finds a place to park her car and jumps out to confront a grizzly of a man demanding what she was doing there.  "I'm looking for a man,” she tells him and loses all her professional poise as his stare bores into hers. Thus, Chera meets Kade Morgan and the opportunity to admire his physique as he and the other men fight the blaze until it is nothing more than a smoldering black area marking where trees and dry brush once stood. Later, she explains she needs to spend time on his property to obtain a grant for her class and he reluctantly agrees to see her “Tomorrow night. After dark.”

Despite Chera’s brother and father telling her to stay away from Kade Morgan, Chera’s dreams of creating the trail her ancestors traveled to help populate the forestland of Washington state forces her to return to Kade’s home the next night. After convincing him to let her check out that portion of his land that her ancestors probably passed through, he agrees, but with a whole list of ground rules. The agreement sets incidents into action that eventually threatens Chera’s and Kade’s lives even as passion grows to a white-hot level.

The dance of romance is complicated when Chera learns Kade thinks she is part of the crew who is trying to steal his trees. To add to their emotional strain, someone seems out to get them when a small plane swoops and dives overhead, scaring the horses they are riding. A short time later, another fire starts adding to the dangers they face together.

Romance novels used to be my main reading material, then I grew bored with the sameness of all the stories.  So when I first decided to review Summer Flames I expected to be bored.  Surprise dominated my emotional state as I began to read and it did not take me long to realize that Summer Flames was not the ordinary romance with which I had become bored.  The reader gets a small bird’s eye view of the horror and danger of forest fires and how these fires affect the people living in or near the forest. This look at the foolish acts of carelessness that allows such a danger to appear may just help many of us be a little more careful how we treat our forest lands. Life is at stake here.

Summer Flames is a well-written romance story incorporating real life drama with a life changing relationship of man and woman. True-to-life characters make the story come alive and the reader slips inside the story, making the events personal and nerve-racking. A must-read for all romance lovers.

Vella Munn has published more fiction than she can keep track of .  These include category romances for the major players as well as the 'juicy' stuff using a pseudoname.  She also penned a series of well-received Native American historicals.  One, Soul of the Sacred Earth, earned her finalist status in both the Women Writing the West Willa award and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association.  Before discovering romances, both erotic and otherwise, Vella 'confessed' all kinds of nonsense for the confession magazines. 
When asked about research (which is a lot more fun than the actual writing), she insists, "Of course I've time-traveled to the ancient Everglades, infiltrated criminal strongholds, done wilderness search and rescue, and spent a night trapped in a workout gym with Mr. Universe.  How can I possibly write about something I haven't experienced?"
            As for day jobs, "I've been a commercial pilot, brain surgeon, worked as a white-water river guide, bee keeper, snake charmer, and garbage collector."   And if you buy all that, she'd like you to check out the bridge she has listed on e-bay.
            Home is beautiful southern Oregon where she's surrounded by husband, sons, five grandchildren, two dogs, and various crazy neighbors.  Oh, and then there are the wild turkeys who poop in the front yard.
Vella Munn has over 40 novels published.
http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/vella_munn.htm