The Fire of the Heart Series: A beautiful and compelling pair of novels

In The Fire’s Center, we are introduced to Riona Connolly, desperate for work so she can support her family. Thanks to a chance meeting, she is shown the full horrors of the famine and fever raging in Ireland. Far from being repelled by what she learns of the state of her homeland, she is moved by so much suffering and is thrilled at the chance to work at Dr. Lucien Woulfe’s clinic, even if it is in the poorest slum in Dublin.

Some of his friends and family look down on her as being a peasant, but Lucien can see things that others can’t: her courage, intelligence, selfless devotion to others, and her beauty and passion. Draw to her like a moth to a flame, he is scorched by desire, and terrified that he is falling in love.

His last relationship to the faithless Antoinette ended when she married his brother. This is a minor inconvenience to the scheming woman as she plots to win Lucien back as her lover.

Riona, far from being overawed by Dublin’s upper-class, finds them vain, selfish, and debauched. As Antoinette moves against her, and the evil Dr. O’Carroll blackens her name, Riona knows that she and Lucien can never be happy together with so many people trying to pull them apart and so many social differences seemingly standing between them.

She is appalled when all the love they have shared seems to mean nothing to Lucien, who prefers to believe lies about her rather than admit his true feelings. Determined to carve out a good life for herself through hard work and medical studies. she makes the hear-rending decision to leave Lucien and return to her family in Donegal.

In The Unquenchable Fire, the famine continues to rage, but so do the passions of this emotionally intense couple. Only when Riona is gone does Lucien come to recognize her true worth. But circumstances have gone completely out of control, and he nearly loses everything he has cared about before he sees at last what a wonderful gift of love they share.

Lucien and Riona seek to carve out a place for each other in their lives and cope with the devastating consequences of Antoinette’s scheming. This is a beautiful novel, with two compelling characters and a set of events which propel them toward growth, understanding and love.

We are not just following a moving romance and passionately sensual love affair, but the march of history, in this exceptional work by this remarkably talented author.