Innocent Fire by Brenda Joyce, Avon historical romance, Bragg Series (#1)

I held off writing my review of this book hoping that a few days away from it would improve my opinion of Innocent Fire. I rate it a C because I liked a lot of the book, but there were other parts that I didn't like. Unfortunately, as time has elapsed I still have the same dislikes I had when I finished it.

Lady Miranda Shelton was raised in a convent in France after her mother fled from her father when she was but a little girl. At seventeen she is sent back to England where her father has informed her that her mother has died in childbirth and that he has arranged a marriage for Mirando. She is to go to America, Texas, to marry a man with noble lineage, John Barrington. Miranda has hated her father since she and her mother fled ten years ago, having seen her father strike her mother. And now she believes he has killed her mother, not understanding what childbirth is and that her father's admission of having killed her mother was out of guilt not an actual admission of misconduct.

Miranda is an innocent, completely, and her innocence grated on me after a while. She was a likeable enough heroine, and had she not been abducted three times in the book (twice by Indians) I would have grown very frustrated at her fear of Bragg once they were together. Once she got past her inhibitions, it was interesting to see the change in her. Though the English lady was still very much present in her always.

Captain Derek Bragg, a Texas Ranger, was a great hero. I loved him from the get-go. I wouldn't classify him as an Alpha hero, he protected Miranda very well with the exception of one abduction incident, during their trip to her betrothed's ranch. The feelings he went through regarding her were fun to watch and I loved that he wanted to expose her to his people (the Apache) and his land.

I'm not sure that I thought the two fit well together, though. I think Bragg was deserving of a less inhibited heroine. I think that her being abducted not once but three times was a bit over the top and I almost stopped reading the book because I just sat there thinking and what else is going to happen? She did strive to please him as a wife and she did prove towards the end that she had some backbone, but I just thought he deserved someone stronger from the get-go. I also found with this book that I don't enjoy the heroine being married to someone else before the hero, at least in historicals when she's still a virgin. For some reason, I don't want the heroine to have been with anyone else but the hero. There was a reason, sex with her late husband had been painful even after the first time accompanied by bleeding every time. With Bragg it wasn't this way.

Innocent Fire was a decent read. I liked Derek, I liked Miranda, I'm just not sure yet that I liked them together. I did think, however, that there were just too many plot twists that took away from their relationship. This is the first in Brenda Joyce's Bragg series, and I certainly look forward to reading of more Bragg men.

©Susan Matthews and phantomroses.com