FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FIREMAN - Jennifer Bernard
A Bachelor Firemen Novel , Book 5
Avon Romance
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-227367-3
March 2014
Contemporary Romance

San Gabriel, California – Present Day

Derek “Vader” Brown is the strongest fireman in San Gabriel, muscles all over, in tip-top shape, and built like a mountain.  For the past year Vader and Cherie Harper have been hot and cold, on and off in their relationship.  It's never Derek who wants to hold back, but for some reason Cherie will get serious and then back off from him.  When two other firemen in his station get married, he proposes to Cherie each time.  After the second rejection (admittedly over the telephone and he might have been slightly drunk), Vader finally realizes he's been turned down twice, and he doesn't feel as if there might be any future with Cherie.

Cherie Harper has been in a relationship with Vader for over a year, and each time he gets serious she tries to calm him down and keep everything just the way it is.  In fact, she knows nothing and has asked nothing about his life other than he's strong, a fireman, and the life of every party.  But Cherie is hiding in San Gabriel from a man in her past named Macintosh, and she feels not getting serious with Vader will protect him in case Macintosh shows up one day, which she's sure will happen.  One of thirteen children, Cherie is further surprised when her younger sister, Humility, finds her in San Gabriel.  Humility (Trixie) brings all sorts of troubles, and then Vader's house burns down and he barely escapes with his paralyzed mother, a mother Cherie knew nothing about.  It's only when Vader and his mother stay with Cherie and Trixie that they start to learn about the other's “real” lives and dig deeper into the kinds of people they are, and why Cherie and her brother, Jacob, and now Trixie have run away from home.

Jennifer Bernard has enticed and enthralled us with her stories of the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel for the past several months.  Each fireman was different, and yet they're all take charge, giving their all type of persons.  Told from Vader's and Cherie's points of view, Vader is the most take charge and strongest of them all, yet he also has secrets.    Cherie's previous life was one of thirteen children, and her father was the head of his own cult in the backwoods of Arkansas, but even that little bit of information she has kept from Vader.  It has been over a year, and yet neither one knows anything about the past or personal lives of the other, just their relationship with each other in bed.

The secondary characters are essential to this ongoing tumultuous relationship.  First there is Vader's paralyzed mother no one knows anything about, and Cherie's sister Trixie, brother Jacob, and Macintosh, a man from Cherie's past who has her scared and afraid to accept the love of Vader.

I would consider FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FIREMAN definitely more serious than the previous novels.  At first I did not care much for Cherie and the secrets she kept, but by the end, her heart has been opened and she becomes the perfect woman for Vader.  The other BACHELOR FIREMEN NOVELS are THE FIREMAN WHO LOVED ME, HOT FOR FIREMAN, SEX AND THE SINGLE FIREMAN, and HOW TO TAME A WILD FIREMAN.  If strong men who put their lives on the line daily are your thing, especially HOT firemen, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FIREMAN is just right to catch the embers on fire this month. 

Carolyn Crisher