Hell Fire (Corine Solomon, Book 2)

Hell Fire scared me silly...JUST what I wanted it to do. Ann Aguirre has infused this latest addition to the Corine Solomon series with just the right amount of dark and creepy undercurrents. Perfect for the location and story line of Hell Fire. The relationship between Chance, Corrine and Jesse continues to enthrall me. Some readers may wish Corrine to choose Jesse for a romantic relationship. Others may root for Chance. Personally? I hope she and Chance can find a way to make it work. I love, love, love this series! Hell Fire is an excellent addition. Ann Aguirre has a gift and aren't we lucky she shares it with all of us!

Ann Aguirre may be best known for her space operas featuring Sirantha Jax. This book, Hell Fire, is the second urban fantasy novel in her excellent Corine Solomon series (following Blue Diablo). The characters and relationships from Blue Diablo continue to develop in Hell Fire. Hell Fire is told using a first-person approach; this is especially effective in this novel, helping to establish the atmosphere. Aguirre introduces a new character in Hell Fire (Shannon). I hope Shannon will be prominently featured in future Corine Solomon novels. Aguirre is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. I recommend Hell Fire to anyone who likes urban fantasy.

In this second installment of her Corine Solomon series, Ann Aguirre sends her heroine--a petite, supernaturally-gifted "handler"--on a longer road trip to small-town Georgia in search of answers about her mother's death. For those who loved the Mexican/Southwestern vibes of the first book, BLUE DIABLO, there isn't much of that here. But what the reader has lost is replaced by something equally as intriguing: an eerie, atmospheric mystery trapped inside a tiny Southern town that is, literally, off the map. Fans of Twin Peaks, American Gothic, and Silent Hill will appreciate Aguirre's nod to the quiet American town with a sinister secret lurking below the surface. And though I was rooting for Corine to make a different choice at the conclusion, dark urban fantasy diehards who detest saccharine endings will probably approve. It only made me hope that the author plans a slow-burn for this enigmatic series, which doesn't allow itself to be sucked into the usual tropes that weigh down the genre.

I started reading Ann Aguirre with the first Corinne book, Blue Diablo. I loved it so much that I have now read all of her other novels. I was uber excited for this book, and I was not disappointed. Aguirre created an amazing atmosphere for this novel. The ominous, spooky tone was so well done that I kept looking outside expecting to see a storm rolling in. The suspense was well paced and I enjoyed how it built to a satisfying crescendo at the end of the novel. In Blue Diablo, Corinne helped her former boyfriend, Chance, and in Hell Fire Chance returns the favor. With Chance's assistance, Corinne returns to her hometown and confronts the horrifying event in her past that formed the person she is today. Chance and Corinne have unresolved issues between them, and there is great romantic tension (there is an awesome bathroom scene that was my particular favorite). Another man shows up to help in the form of Jesse Saldana. I really liked the interactions between the three of them. I also liked the new characters we meet in Corinne's hometown--they were well-developed instead of just being two-dimensional stock characters. I loved this and would highly recommend. Wish I didn't have to wait so long before reading the next Corinne novel!

It's not often that the second book in a UF series is better than the first, but this one is. Not that the first was bad -- I enjoyed Blue Diablo and was thrilled to win an ARC of the sequel. But Hell Fire is better; the main characters change and grow, a really fun new character is added, and the fantasy elements get richer and more complex without changing the basic rules that the author established in book one. I love this kind of paranormal story -- no vampires or shifters, but individuals with different natural or unnatural abilities who are otherwise quite human. The characters aren't superheroes, but neither are they too stupid to believe (extremes I have found in other paranormal/urban fantasy series). I fell in love with these characters, and I was rooting for them to survive and thrive. There's a different atmosphere in this book, in keeping with the different setting from book one. The author really invokes a sense of place in each locale, and you feel it through the main character, Corine. (Possible SPOILER) Warning: this book isn't the end of the story, so you can expect that there are important issues and relationships left unresolved. I liked the way that was handled; it felt right to me, and the characters stayed true to themselves. I never felt that the author was dragging things out to justify another book, and I'm excited to find out where the characters go next.