Ann Aguirre never fails to amaze me with her ability to take me deep into the heart of the story. I swear that I feel everything her characters feel even if they aren’t the narrator of the story. Hell Fire is just another of Aguirre’s success stories. I loved Corine, Chance and Jesse from Blue Diablo and I couldn’t wait to see what mess they would get into next and going to Kilmer, Georgia where Corine grew up was definitely a mess. It was interesting to see the side of Corine that Kilmer brought out. Being in the place she grew up, where her mother died showed vulnerability that we hadn’t seen yet from her. I enjoyed seeing the usual suspects and the tension between Corine and Chance and Corine and Jesse was absolutely palpable. Corine had a lot to think about in this book and never once did it feel like we were stuck in her head for hours on end or that she was whining.The story was a mix of horror, mystery and urban fantasy. There were parts that creeped me the hell out and I loved every minute of it. I hate how the book ended, but I loved it as well and I hope that it doesn’t mark the end of something that I really enjoy about these books. I love that Aguirre writes such strong female characters that aren’t afraid to make the difficult choice. They listen to their heads and not their hearts even if what their head tells them to do leaves them heartbroken. I cannot wait to get into Shady Lady. I started reading it as soon as I finished this one even though it was late. I had to force myself to go to sleep. Aguirre is definitely on my must read list from now on. Yes, Corine is a bit of a waffler when it comes to relationships. But I didn't mind it. I kind of like her emotional immaturity. It humanizes her for me. I did have a problem with Chance wanting her back so badly despite the fact that his luck may be the death of her. He doesn't want to give up the luck, even though he says he will, and he doesn't want to give her up. Selfish? Yeah. There has to be more to this than what we are seeing because how can he feel about her what he says and then want to risk her life by his luck. It just makes no sense. Surely, Corine has to be feeling this? Amazingly, this is not her problem with him or at least its not one that she lets herself think about. Personally, I think one of the reasons she waffles between these two guys so much is neither of them is really right for her. She keeps thinking that she "could" love Saladan and that she does love Chance. But her love for Chance has a ton of qualifiers, and personally, I think it always bodes bad for a relationship if you think you "could" love someone. It starts to feel like you are trying to talk yourself into loving them. The whole thing with Chance doesn't work for me because of the inherent selfishness of his love. It has to be selfish for him to risk her life like he wants to do. However, I keep hoping for a wake up call about this issue for both of them. That being said I gulped this book down. I loved the dark creepiness of it. The demon became one of the most interesting characters in the book rather quickly. The ending was a little too pat, but for the quality of the rest of the book I was willing to overlook it.I also think they should have done better shopping at the grocery store. All those peanut butter sandwiches and the 'just to get by' food made me feel ill for them. They had an entire kitchen for goodness sakes. Why didn't they actually use the dang thing?
