What do you think?
Rate this book
Gordon Falls #3
The Firefighter's Match
A Healing Match
After serving overseas, former soldier Josephine "JJ" Jones needs a fresh start. And Gordon Falls is just the place. When JJ meets executive Alex Cushman, her world is turned upside down. Alex is seeking a respite from all the pressures of his multimillion-dollar business. And the beautiful firefighter might be the answer to his prayers. But a secret lies between them. One so big, it threatens to end their love before it's even begun. Can she ever trust Alex when she finds out he may be responsible for a family tragedy that changed all their lives?
Gordon Falls: Hearts ablaze in a small town
After serving overseas, former soldier Josephine "JJ" Jones needs a fresh start. And Gordon Falls is just the place. When JJ meets executive Alex Cushman, her world is turned upside down. Alex is seeking a respite from all the pressures of his multimillion-dollar business. And the beautiful firefighter might be the answer to his prayers. But a secret lies between them. One so big, it threatens to end their love before it's even begun. Can she ever trust Alex when she finds out he may be responsible for a family tragedy that changed all their lives?
Gordon Falls: Hearts ablaze in a small town
224 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2013
14 people are currently reading
396 people want to read
About the author
Allie Pleiter
121 books615 followersAn avid knitter, coffee junkie and firm believer that “pie makes everything better,” Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction working on as many as four novels at a time. The bestselling author of over fifty books, Allie has enjoyed a twenty-year career with over 1.5 million books sold. In addition to writing, Allie maintains an active writing productivity coaching practice and speaks regularly on the creative process, publishing, and her very favorite topic—The Chunky Method of time management for writers. Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com to learn more.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 2, 2017
He'd never been so hungry to escape his life and so utterly unable to do so at the same time.
JJ and Alex meet on a dock when they are both trying to escape their lives. JJ was in Afghanistan serving in the army, and Alex is the co-head of a huge sporting goods corporation which is quickly turning into a greedy, money-obsessed monstrosity under his weasel brother's care.
They have one or two discussions, then JJ's brother falls on a reality TV show while using equipment from Alex's company.
Okay, first things first: this is NOT a romance novel. If you handed me this book and told me that it was a corporate thriller, I would believe it is a passable Christian corporate thriller. Why anyone would want to read a Christian corporate thriller is beyond me, but okay. However, if you tell me this is a romance novel, I will laugh in your face. It is not a romance novel and there is nothing romantic about it.
I barely believe JJ and Alex would work out to be friends. Business partners, yes. Friends... maybe, after a long while. But romantically interested in each other? Get outta here.
And I have NO idea what Pleiter is basing this alleged 'love' on. JJ and Alex meet in a remote cabin resort, give each other fake names, have about two conversations with each other where they talk about stuff like 'Do you believe in God?' and 'How do you like your s'mores?' Then the news about JJ's brother Max breaks and JJ spends the rest of the novel thinking Alex is a deceitful, manipulative corporate weasel. Which is why it is jarring and sudden when we are supposed to believe they
And JJ is not shy about telling Alex how she feels about him.
"Come on, JJ, you know me."
"Do I?" She allowed the words to contain all the snarl boiling up inside her right now.
No, you don't. You two barely know each other, a fact Pleiter tries desperately to gloss over.
She saw him visibly flinch when she called him Cushman, but she could never call him Alex again. Not now.
...
"I won't say goodbye." The defiance in his voice was forlorn. "I don't believe in goodbyes."
JJ looked him squarely in the eye. "Goodbye."
The whole novel - the 'romance side' at least - is spent with Alex chasing JJ around trying desperately to convince her not to hate him. Except for Chapter One - in which they are using fake names at talking about s'mores on a dock.
The corporate side of the novel is really the meat of it. How did Alex allow his corporation to become a greedy monster with no compassion? Can he confront his weasel brother who only cares about money? Can he turn AG back into a good, caring company? Will his company even survive this bad press and Max's subsequent lawsuit? This is where the gripping action is, and where most of the God stuff is, too. The romance in this novel - if you can even call it a romance, which I can't - isn't the main plot here.
79%:
Actually, he felt as if he were in mortal combat for his very soul - despite how melodramatic that sounded.
If you think he's talking about JJ at this moment, you are wrong. Of course he's talking about his company, the one true love here.
Look at this argument on page 115:
"Did he send you over here? Do I get a whole basket of chocolate bars if I go back?"
Alex rolled his eyes. "Why is it so hard for you to believe someone might just want to be nice to you?"
She tossed the rest of the bar, still in its wrapper, onto the bench. "Everyone has an agenda, Alex."
"It's a chocolate bar, JJ, not a lobbying campaign. Look, I came here to make sure you were okay and weren't thinking of quitting because I thought we were friends."
That made her turn and look at him. "Friends? How do you think you and I can be friends in all this?"
"So everything that's happened between us just goes away because things are complicated?" *Carmen's note: there's nothing that's happened between them. Okay, continue* "Look, JJ, I admit I'm stumped when it comes to what you're looking for from me. I don't know what is happening here, but I'm okay with that. I don't need a game plan and I don't have an agenda. What I have is someone in front of me who I care about. I think she could be making a mistake, so I'm trying to help."
"Help? Or just keep me distracted from Max?"
Alex wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her. "This isn't about what happened to Max!"
JJ threw her arms wide. "How can it not be about what happened to Max? It's all about that. It can't ever be about anything but what happened to Max."
"It's about you, JJ. Wake up and realize that."
"You've got a lot of nerve saying that."
Okay, it was here I thought Alex was going to launch into something about love, caring for her, blah blah blah romance (you remember: romance?) but no.
Fine. if she was going to be so blind to her own motives here, he'd lay it out for her. The least he could do was to say what her mother never would.
Say what her mother never would. How romantic. /s
"Nerve? You want to see nerve? I'll show you nerve. Look in the mirror, JJ. You act as though you fell off that cliff instead of Max. Your brother is a grown man. He's had a horrible blow, but he has to pick himself back up. Why do you think the rehab people told you to go home? Because this is Max's battle, and while you can fight with him, you can't fight FOR him."
You see what I'm dealing with here. Does this sound like a romance at all to you? No.
But Carmen, people in love fight.
Sure. But this is not the fight of two people in love. It has fuck-all to do with love. This is why I said that maybe, if they struggle, they can become friends. But expecting me to believe these two have romantic feelings for each other is preposterous. And this is happening at 52%.
62%:
"Yes. You do. Don't let one stupid, misguided email undo all the time we've spent together." Alex grabbed her hand. "Look at me. I mean, REALLY LOOK AT ME, JJ. Was what went on between us manufactured? Do you really believe I could fake this? That I'd want to?"
*Carmen sighs* What time you've spent together? You've spent barely any time together that didn't involve you begging her not to hate you. And NOTHING went on between you. Sheesh. This whole thing is ridiculous.
TWO: Christianity. This is pretty heavy on the God-talk. Alex prays all the time, while JJ struggles with her faith since she saw someone die in Afghanistan. I refuse to believe she saw only one person die on her tour, but okay.
The book tries to deal with the age-old question of 'Why do bad things happen togood Christian people?' 'Can I believe in God when I've been in war / my brother falls and becomes paraplegic / other tragic things happen etc.?' 'Why does God allow so much suffering?' Of course this question isn't answered. Certainly a belief in God isn't going to protect you from cancer, death, miscarriages, your daughter becoming a heroin addict etc.
Pleiter's main thrust is, I think, that one must get up and keep going. Not sure what this has to do with God, exactly, but she says that tragedy strikes every life and it is important to keep going forward.
God is more like Alex's conscience in this book. Alex knows his brother is a weasel and is driving the company into a bad place. He knows he should step in and stop it and finally gathers the courage to do so. Whether you credit God or Alex's personal strength and morality with the actions, the result is good.
JJ heard her own cries to God echo back from that dusty army truck. How she'd begged God to let Angie live, to spare her from the massive weight of guilt that had been pressing down on her since that day... "It doesn't work that way, Alex. We don't always get what we want."
"We get what we need, right?"
"No, Alex. We get what we deserve."
I wish Pleiter had shot down this idea harder. The idea that suffering is deserved is very wrong. The idea that if you are Christian and pray and have a 'close relationship with God' you will not suffer in life is false, and it is very damaging. Because eventually the person will suffer and then what? They will have to jump through all sorts of weird philosophical hoops to justify what happened and keep their faith in God. Better IMO to teach that faith will buoy you when times get hard, rather than teach that times won't be hard.
THREE: Weird, sanitized, Christinized firehouse.
How's the sex, Carmen?
No sex. A few kisses that were so underwhelming I didn't even realize when the first one occurred. And when it was referenced later - JJ idly thinking about 'that time Alex kissed me' I was like WTF? They kissed? When? So I flipped back to page 119 and realized that they didn't only hold hands in that scene. I might have missed it because Pleiter's idea of describing a kiss runs like this. "They kissed." That's it. No details. Here are the kisses in the book. See if this gets your heart racing:
He leaned in and kissed her.
This is the kiss that I didn't even realize had happened.
Later,
The guys found this hilarious and made all kinds of comments to her as she walked out of the bay to meet him, at which point Alex greeted her with an enormous kiss despite - or perhaps because of - the raucous audience.
Even later,
She cut him off with a kiss that let loose her whole heart for the first time in her life.
Much later,
JJ caught him by the arm and kissed him for all she was worth.
Notice that under no circumstances does Pleiter offer any details about kissing or any kind of sexual excitement that comes with kissing. Sad. But I guess understandable since these two aren't even in love.
Tl;dr - These people wouldn't even be friends, much less romantically involved with each other. What a shame it is when Christian romance novels are so scared of having anything sexual in their book that the leads might as well be brother and sister. I'm not saying put sex in the book - I understand the need for 'clean' reads. But you could at least make the kissing a bit exciting AND, even more important and basic - make me believe the leads actually are falling in love with each other and care about each other more than just two human beings do naturally. On this front, the book is a huge failure.
If you read it as a Christian corporate thriller, about the challenges and pitfalls of trying to be a Christian business owner, I think you will be much happier than if you approach it as a romance. Of course, it's advertised as a romance... thus the problem.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Inspirational Romance
I have no idea whether the hero or heroine were virginal in this. Never discussed.
JJ and Alex meet on a dock when they are both trying to escape their lives. JJ was in Afghanistan serving in the army, and Alex is the co-head of a huge sporting goods corporation which is quickly turning into a greedy, money-obsessed monstrosity under his weasel brother's care.
They have one or two discussions, then JJ's brother falls on a reality TV show while using equipment from Alex's company.
Okay, first things first: this is NOT a romance novel. If you handed me this book and told me that it was a corporate thriller, I would believe it is a passable Christian corporate thriller. Why anyone would want to read a Christian corporate thriller is beyond me, but okay. However, if you tell me this is a romance novel, I will laugh in your face. It is not a romance novel and there is nothing romantic about it.
I barely believe JJ and Alex would work out to be friends. Business partners, yes. Friends... maybe, after a long while. But romantically interested in each other? Get outta here.
And I have NO idea what Pleiter is basing this alleged 'love' on. JJ and Alex meet in a remote cabin resort, give each other fake names, have about two conversations with each other where they talk about stuff like 'Do you believe in God?' and 'How do you like your s'mores?' Then the news about JJ's brother Max breaks and JJ spends the rest of the novel thinking Alex is a deceitful, manipulative corporate weasel. Which is why it is jarring and sudden when we are supposed to believe they
And JJ is not shy about telling Alex how she feels about him.
"Come on, JJ, you know me."
"Do I?" She allowed the words to contain all the snarl boiling up inside her right now.
No, you don't. You two barely know each other, a fact Pleiter tries desperately to gloss over.
She saw him visibly flinch when she called him Cushman, but she could never call him Alex again. Not now.
...
"I won't say goodbye." The defiance in his voice was forlorn. "I don't believe in goodbyes."
JJ looked him squarely in the eye. "Goodbye."
The whole novel - the 'romance side' at least - is spent with Alex chasing JJ around trying desperately to convince her not to hate him. Except for Chapter One - in which they are using fake names at talking about s'mores on a dock.
The corporate side of the novel is really the meat of it. How did Alex allow his corporation to become a greedy monster with no compassion? Can he confront his weasel brother who only cares about money? Can he turn AG back into a good, caring company? Will his company even survive this bad press and Max's subsequent lawsuit? This is where the gripping action is, and where most of the God stuff is, too. The romance in this novel - if you can even call it a romance, which I can't - isn't the main plot here.
79%:
Actually, he felt as if he were in mortal combat for his very soul - despite how melodramatic that sounded.
If you think he's talking about JJ at this moment, you are wrong. Of course he's talking about his company, the one true love here.
Look at this argument on page 115:
"Did he send you over here? Do I get a whole basket of chocolate bars if I go back?"
Alex rolled his eyes. "Why is it so hard for you to believe someone might just want to be nice to you?"
She tossed the rest of the bar, still in its wrapper, onto the bench. "Everyone has an agenda, Alex."
"It's a chocolate bar, JJ, not a lobbying campaign. Look, I came here to make sure you were okay and weren't thinking of quitting because I thought we were friends."
That made her turn and look at him. "Friends? How do you think you and I can be friends in all this?"
"So everything that's happened between us just goes away because things are complicated?" *Carmen's note: there's nothing that's happened between them. Okay, continue* "Look, JJ, I admit I'm stumped when it comes to what you're looking for from me. I don't know what is happening here, but I'm okay with that. I don't need a game plan and I don't have an agenda. What I have is someone in front of me who I care about. I think she could be making a mistake, so I'm trying to help."
"Help? Or just keep me distracted from Max?"
Alex wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her. "This isn't about what happened to Max!"
JJ threw her arms wide. "How can it not be about what happened to Max? It's all about that. It can't ever be about anything but what happened to Max."
"It's about you, JJ. Wake up and realize that."
"You've got a lot of nerve saying that."
Okay, it was here I thought Alex was going to launch into something about love, caring for her, blah blah blah romance (you remember: romance?) but no.
Fine. if she was going to be so blind to her own motives here, he'd lay it out for her. The least he could do was to say what her mother never would.
Say what her mother never would. How romantic. /s
"Nerve? You want to see nerve? I'll show you nerve. Look in the mirror, JJ. You act as though you fell off that cliff instead of Max. Your brother is a grown man. He's had a horrible blow, but he has to pick himself back up. Why do you think the rehab people told you to go home? Because this is Max's battle, and while you can fight with him, you can't fight FOR him."
You see what I'm dealing with here. Does this sound like a romance at all to you? No.
But Carmen, people in love fight.
Sure. But this is not the fight of two people in love. It has fuck-all to do with love. This is why I said that maybe, if they struggle, they can become friends. But expecting me to believe these two have romantic feelings for each other is preposterous. And this is happening at 52%.
62%:
"Yes. You do. Don't let one stupid, misguided email undo all the time we've spent together." Alex grabbed her hand. "Look at me. I mean, REALLY LOOK AT ME, JJ. Was what went on between us manufactured? Do you really believe I could fake this? That I'd want to?"
*Carmen sighs* What time you've spent together? You've spent barely any time together that didn't involve you begging her not to hate you. And NOTHING went on between you. Sheesh. This whole thing is ridiculous.
TWO: Christianity. This is pretty heavy on the God-talk. Alex prays all the time, while JJ struggles with her faith since she saw someone die in Afghanistan. I refuse to believe she saw only one person die on her tour, but okay.
The book tries to deal with the age-old question of 'Why do bad things happen to
Pleiter's main thrust is, I think, that one must get up and keep going. Not sure what this has to do with God, exactly, but she says that tragedy strikes every life and it is important to keep going forward.
God is more like Alex's conscience in this book. Alex knows his brother is a weasel and is driving the company into a bad place. He knows he should step in and stop it and finally gathers the courage to do so. Whether you credit God or Alex's personal strength and morality with the actions, the result is good.
JJ heard her own cries to God echo back from that dusty army truck. How she'd begged God to let Angie live, to spare her from the massive weight of guilt that had been pressing down on her since that day... "It doesn't work that way, Alex. We don't always get what we want."
"We get what we need, right?"
"No, Alex. We get what we deserve."
I wish Pleiter had shot down this idea harder. The idea that suffering is deserved is very wrong. The idea that if you are Christian and pray and have a 'close relationship with God' you will not suffer in life is false, and it is very damaging. Because eventually the person will suffer and then what? They will have to jump through all sorts of weird philosophical hoops to justify what happened and keep their faith in God. Better IMO to teach that faith will buoy you when times get hard, rather than teach that times won't be hard.
THREE: Weird, sanitized, Christinized firehouse.
How's the sex, Carmen?
No sex. A few kisses that were so underwhelming I didn't even realize when the first one occurred. And when it was referenced later - JJ idly thinking about 'that time Alex kissed me' I was like WTF? They kissed? When? So I flipped back to page 119 and realized that they didn't only hold hands in that scene. I might have missed it because Pleiter's idea of describing a kiss runs like this. "They kissed." That's it. No details. Here are the kisses in the book. See if this gets your heart racing:
He leaned in and kissed her.
This is the kiss that I didn't even realize had happened.
Later,
The guys found this hilarious and made all kinds of comments to her as she walked out of the bay to meet him, at which point Alex greeted her with an enormous kiss despite - or perhaps because of - the raucous audience.
Even later,
She cut him off with a kiss that let loose her whole heart for the first time in her life.
Much later,
JJ caught him by the arm and kissed him for all she was worth.
Notice that under no circumstances does Pleiter offer any details about kissing or any kind of sexual excitement that comes with kissing. Sad. But I guess understandable since these two aren't even in love.
Tl;dr - These people wouldn't even be friends, much less romantically involved with each other. What a shame it is when Christian romance novels are so scared of having anything sexual in their book that the leads might as well be brother and sister. I'm not saying put sex in the book - I understand the need for 'clean' reads. But you could at least make the kissing a bit exciting AND, even more important and basic - make me believe the leads actually are falling in love with each other and care about each other more than just two human beings do naturally. On this front, the book is a huge failure.
If you read it as a Christian corporate thriller, about the challenges and pitfalls of trying to be a Christian business owner, I think you will be much happier than if you approach it as a romance. Of course, it's advertised as a romance... thus the problem.
ROMANCE CATEGORIES:
Contemporary Romance
Inspirational Romance
I have no idea whether the hero or heroine were virginal in this. Never discussed.
September 1, 2015
Gordon Falls
Book 3
It is with great reluctance that I give this book three stars. I usually think just capturing the interest of a reader and holding it is enough to give it four or five stars, but I hate to say that it's not the case this time.
First of all, if you are looking for something light-hearted, this is not the book. The author deals with a really hard issue in this book in a way that it's usually not dealt with. For the first chapter, it's a simple romance where two people meet on a dock, but by the second chapter, things have turned dark - very dark - when Alex Cushman must deliver his new friend some really, really bad news.
After this, everything is just highly stressful. I couldn't stop reading (but had to), as I wanted to see how this all worked out. Alex became a doormat - someone for JJ to stomp on over and over. I felt so sorry for him. A decision his self-centered brother made ruined him and made everyone blame HIM when he wasn't even involved!
The press conference was the final blow for me. The fact that JJ felt a little guilt just rubbed me the wrong way. And though this is a work of fiction and should be taken as such - I cannot see this couple getting together! Poor, poor Alex should have simply walked away and tried to rebuild his life without an anger-filled woman and her brother and without his self-centered brother...
This story held a lot of promise - I just think the heroine's part could have been written a lot better...(BTW, the brother is covered in the next book.)
Book 3
It is with great reluctance that I give this book three stars. I usually think just capturing the interest of a reader and holding it is enough to give it four or five stars, but I hate to say that it's not the case this time.
First of all, if you are looking for something light-hearted, this is not the book. The author deals with a really hard issue in this book in a way that it's usually not dealt with. For the first chapter, it's a simple romance where two people meet on a dock, but by the second chapter, things have turned dark - very dark - when Alex Cushman must deliver his new friend some really, really bad news.
After this, everything is just highly stressful. I couldn't stop reading (but had to), as I wanted to see how this all worked out. Alex became a doormat - someone for JJ to stomp on over and over. I felt so sorry for him. A decision his self-centered brother made ruined him and made everyone blame HIM when he wasn't even involved!
The press conference was the final blow for me. The fact that JJ felt a little guilt just rubbed me the wrong way. And though this is a work of fiction and should be taken as such - I cannot see this couple getting together! Poor, poor Alex should have simply walked away and tried to rebuild his life without an anger-filled woman and her brother and without his self-centered brother...
This story held a lot of promise - I just think the heroine's part could have been written a lot better...(BTW, the brother is covered in the next book.)
March 26, 2016
This is the best Allie Pleiter book I have read. She is an amazing author.
August 12, 2015
I finally ended up just speed-reading my way through this one. Unfortunately, it was pretty boring.
September 16, 2018
A friend gave me this book in a box of books and my mom declared it to be one of the better ones in the box. I have to agree. One other reviewer commented that it was more of a corporate thriller than a romance. I'm not sure I agree, but I can understand the sentiment.
I liked the slow, silly way that Alex and JJ fell in love on the boat dock at the beginning of the book.
This book had more plot and more conflict than most of the "Love Inspired" series. Alex's company might have been at fault in causing JJ's brother's horrible climbing accident, from which there will be no full recovery. JJ blamed Alex for ruining her brother Max's life, which caused a huge chasm between them.
What do you do when someone you love causes you irrevocable damage, or causes someone else you love irrevocable damage? Oddly enough, I have made a pact with our teen drivers, that if either of us hurts the other in a car accident, to know that I've already forgiven them. Possibly a bit morbid. But I don't want them always wondering. Not that I am anticipating any accidents. I'm not. It's just a scary world. And hopefully I'll never have to live up to something like that, because I know it's easier said than done. Even if I would be determined to forgive.
But, in this book, JJ and Alex weren't to the undying love stage, but the unsure about everything stage and that's completely understandable.
I liked the nurse's advice for JJ during the crisis, " You and your family have a long road ahead of you, so it's time to call in your own support. Call in your friends and Max's friends, and even when they offer help, don't think of them as invasive. Think of them as taking the burden off you so you can spend your energy helping Max.... The ones who don't cry are the ones who are used to staying strong. Strong is a good thing - Max will need your strength - but this is one of those times when you'd better call in the cavalry. That's harder for some people than others. Just promise me that when people offer to help, you'll say 'yes.'"
It seemed hypocritical for Alex to think his brother Sam would never change, when Alex himself was trying to change, and to keep from running away from his problems as he did in the past. I would've just said that Sam wasn't ready to change "right now," or "yet." While there is life, there's always hope.
Another quote from "The Firefighter's Match," a reminder that digging into others' hurts is not always beneficial:
"Her mom was always tugging stories out of her, digging for the cause of her moods until they hurt her ..."
A different reviewer commented that the firehouse scenes were too sanitized and clean. Yes, probably so, for the environment. I have heard complaints about how much sexual harassment is entrenched in the fire-fighting communities. While the other firefighters didn't respect JJ as much as they should have at first, they at least didn't target her for unwanted touching or innuendo.
Speaking of which, one time in the book, before they'd really gotten into a relationship, JJ had been very upset, and Alex had taken her in his arms. She'd flailed uselessly at his arms around her. Hmm. For a former soldier, that's pretty bad. *I* can think of a few better self-defense moves than that, and I wasn't trained as a soldier. She should've been trained as to how to make him release her, if she really wanted. Of course, there was the possibility that she didn't really want him to release her, but then why beat against him? It's quite possible that she didn't know what she wanted in that crisis of a moment. Or maybe while she didn't really want him to hug her, she realized that he was only trying to be comforting and didn't want to hurt him.
I had to cringe to think of some of the positive words that Alex used in trying to get Max his life back. It almost sounded like he unintentionally diminished the suffering that Max was enduring. No, Alex couldn't fix things. Even his last great idea didn't really "fix" things. It just maybe minimized some of the effects of the accident. To think of of Max getting his old life back was going a bit far. He never would.
And the verse that Alex used was ... inappropriate, unhelpful, and taken out of context, although many people do misuse the verse that way. I would go so far as to say it's hurtful to someone going through a crisis. In any case, the "good" that came out of Max's accident was much less than the high cost of the "bad" of losing the use of his legs. I think most of the time when I've heard that verse misused, it minimized the hurt and suffering, and unrealistically set up the "good" to be more "good" than it really was. The way the verse was intended, the "good" that comes out of bad is character growth, becoming more like Jesus, as indicated in the verse following it (not included in this book.)
The verse and context is: Romans 8:28-29
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, - Romans 8:28-29, NIV
The 'good' is not the definition we're used to thinking about - like wealth or happiness or rainbows, unicorns, and puppies. It's character growth, "being conformed to the likeness of His Son."
Also, the "good" benefits "those," plural, "who love God." The good benefits the group, not necessarily the individual who's in crisis, although oftentimes, God works that out as well.
My final thought on that verse is that we are not promised to see the 'good' in this lifetime. Sometimes we might. More often we might not. But that doesn't mean it's not there. I do like this verse:
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." - Romans 8:18, NIV
Even so, I do realize that sometimes "the glory that will be revealed" feels too far away to be useful or comforting here and now, in the pain of the moment, especially until we learn to hope in heaven.
A psychologist once told our group that the only "right" thing to say to someone in crisis is "My heart goes out to you," or a concrete offer of help. At least Alex did give concrete offers of help.
Still, if I am ever facing old age or some awful physical condition, I plan on resting my hopes on the Romans 8:18 verse I quoted above, or 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, below, but only if you remember that Paul's "light and momentary troubles" included being flogged, shipwrecked, stoned, persecuted, sometimes going sleepless and hungry, imprisoned in what we would call inhumane conditions, and ultimately, executed.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. " - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NIV
I "discovered" that verse when my grandfather was slipping away from us with cancer, and it also applied to my husband's grandfather in his last illness, too. He may have been "wasting away," but inwardly he was being "renewed day by day" by God and Bible study.
I liked the slow, silly way that Alex and JJ fell in love on the boat dock at the beginning of the book.
This book had more plot and more conflict than most of the "Love Inspired" series. Alex's company might have been at fault in causing JJ's brother's horrible climbing accident, from which there will be no full recovery. JJ blamed Alex for ruining her brother Max's life, which caused a huge chasm between them.
What do you do when someone you love causes you irrevocable damage, or causes someone else you love irrevocable damage? Oddly enough, I have made a pact with our teen drivers, that if either of us hurts the other in a car accident, to know that I've already forgiven them. Possibly a bit morbid. But I don't want them always wondering. Not that I am anticipating any accidents. I'm not. It's just a scary world. And hopefully I'll never have to live up to something like that, because I know it's easier said than done. Even if I would be determined to forgive.
But, in this book, JJ and Alex weren't to the undying love stage, but the unsure about everything stage and that's completely understandable.
I liked the nurse's advice for JJ during the crisis, " You and your family have a long road ahead of you, so it's time to call in your own support. Call in your friends and Max's friends, and even when they offer help, don't think of them as invasive. Think of them as taking the burden off you so you can spend your energy helping Max.... The ones who don't cry are the ones who are used to staying strong. Strong is a good thing - Max will need your strength - but this is one of those times when you'd better call in the cavalry. That's harder for some people than others. Just promise me that when people offer to help, you'll say 'yes.'"
It seemed hypocritical for Alex to think his brother Sam would never change, when Alex himself was trying to change, and to keep from running away from his problems as he did in the past. I would've just said that Sam wasn't ready to change "right now," or "yet." While there is life, there's always hope.
Another quote from "The Firefighter's Match," a reminder that digging into others' hurts is not always beneficial:
"Her mom was always tugging stories out of her, digging for the cause of her moods until they hurt her ..."
A different reviewer commented that the firehouse scenes were too sanitized and clean. Yes, probably so, for the environment. I have heard complaints about how much sexual harassment is entrenched in the fire-fighting communities. While the other firefighters didn't respect JJ as much as they should have at first, they at least didn't target her for unwanted touching or innuendo.
Speaking of which, one time in the book, before they'd really gotten into a relationship, JJ had been very upset, and Alex had taken her in his arms. She'd flailed uselessly at his arms around her. Hmm. For a former soldier, that's pretty bad. *I* can think of a few better self-defense moves than that, and I wasn't trained as a soldier. She should've been trained as to how to make him release her, if she really wanted. Of course, there was the possibility that she didn't really want him to release her, but then why beat against him? It's quite possible that she didn't know what she wanted in that crisis of a moment. Or maybe while she didn't really want him to hug her, she realized that he was only trying to be comforting and didn't want to hurt him.
I had to cringe to think of some of the positive words that Alex used in trying to get Max his life back. It almost sounded like he unintentionally diminished the suffering that Max was enduring. No, Alex couldn't fix things. Even his last great idea didn't really "fix" things. It just maybe minimized some of the effects of the accident. To think of of Max getting his old life back was going a bit far. He never would.
And the verse that Alex used was ... inappropriate, unhelpful, and taken out of context, although many people do misuse the verse that way. I would go so far as to say it's hurtful to someone going through a crisis. In any case, the "good" that came out of Max's accident was much less than the high cost of the "bad" of losing the use of his legs. I think most of the time when I've heard that verse misused, it minimized the hurt and suffering, and unrealistically set up the "good" to be more "good" than it really was. The way the verse was intended, the "good" that comes out of bad is character growth, becoming more like Jesus, as indicated in the verse following it (not included in this book.)
The verse and context is: Romans 8:28-29
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, - Romans 8:28-29, NIV
The 'good' is not the definition we're used to thinking about - like wealth or happiness or rainbows, unicorns, and puppies. It's character growth, "being conformed to the likeness of His Son."
Also, the "good" benefits "those," plural, "who love God." The good benefits the group, not necessarily the individual who's in crisis, although oftentimes, God works that out as well.
My final thought on that verse is that we are not promised to see the 'good' in this lifetime. Sometimes we might. More often we might not. But that doesn't mean it's not there. I do like this verse:
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." - Romans 8:18, NIV
Even so, I do realize that sometimes "the glory that will be revealed" feels too far away to be useful or comforting here and now, in the pain of the moment, especially until we learn to hope in heaven.
A psychologist once told our group that the only "right" thing to say to someone in crisis is "My heart goes out to you," or a concrete offer of help. At least Alex did give concrete offers of help.
Still, if I am ever facing old age or some awful physical condition, I plan on resting my hopes on the Romans 8:18 verse I quoted above, or 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, below, but only if you remember that Paul's "light and momentary troubles" included being flogged, shipwrecked, stoned, persecuted, sometimes going sleepless and hungry, imprisoned in what we would call inhumane conditions, and ultimately, executed.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. " - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NIV
I "discovered" that verse when my grandfather was slipping away from us with cancer, and it also applied to my husband's grandfather in his last illness, too. He may have been "wasting away," but inwardly he was being "renewed day by day" by God and Bible study.
January 31, 2014
Somewhere between 4½ and 5 stars. I've been reading these "love inspired" novels for a long time, as my wife began reading them and got me "hooked." Even the very, very good ones always adhere to a formula = boy and girl meet or re-meet; they start to grow close and fight their feelings for each other; a crisis occurs which drives them apart; they flounder; a second crisis occurs which resolves whatever the first crisis was and make them realize they do love one another; they get together. I always know what in general is going to happen; what interests me is the story itself, the beauty and skill of the author's writing, and "how" the writer is going to get the protagonists to the obvious end. With beauty and skill, and with the exception that somehow the two were to be together at the end, Ms. Pleiter "broke the mold." It is not formulaic. In addition, she did so without the constant repetition of what a "hunk" the man is, and being able to make a very strong female protagonist, instead of some dainty flower who constantly needed to be rescued. Finally, she was able to insert the required "inspiration" without the dialogue being false or preachy. This was one of the best of this genre I have read, and I urge nay-sayers to put aside their aversion to this (admittedly usually fairly hokey) genre, and read this one novel. It is not Chaucer, but it will not be a waste of time.
March 22, 2016
I've become a fan of Pleiter's books. They always give you more than you expect, as stories and as Christian books. Here we have JJ, short for Josephine Jones, ex-Army fresh from Afghanistan; and Max, who with his brother Sam heads a highly successful wilderness outfitting company. But it appears Max and Sam don't always get along, and Max has been withdrawing from the company as much as possible lately.
When a questionable business decision of Sam's causes JJ's brother to be seriously injured, the couple's budding friendship is strained and Max has to face the difficulties he's been running from. Having experienced traumatic family events myself, I'm often critical of how books like this make recovery look simple and how often Christian writers imply that all you have to do is have faith and life becomes sunshine and roses. Pleiter doesn't do that. While writing a book about the hope and healing found in God and others, she doesn't sugar coat pain and grief.
I loved that the book ends on a positive note but without every obstacle overcome. This story actually encouraged me to keep believing and fighting, trusting that God can make a way even after life falls apart. And it had a good love story, too. :)
When a questionable business decision of Sam's causes JJ's brother to be seriously injured, the couple's budding friendship is strained and Max has to face the difficulties he's been running from. Having experienced traumatic family events myself, I'm often critical of how books like this make recovery look simple and how often Christian writers imply that all you have to do is have faith and life becomes sunshine and roses. Pleiter doesn't do that. While writing a book about the hope and healing found in God and others, she doesn't sugar coat pain and grief.
I loved that the book ends on a positive note but without every obstacle overcome. This story actually encouraged me to keep believing and fighting, trusting that God can make a way even after life falls apart. And it had a good love story, too. :)
January 26, 2014
I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this story.
JJ has returned from serving overseas and now she is trying to find her place in the world. Her first step is to manage her brother's business as he is away chasing adventure. Alex is known for avoiding difficult decisions, he has rented a cabin so he can have some quiet time to himself. A bout of insomnia gives them the opportunity to become friends, before it is revealed that their lives are unknowingly linked and an unfortunate accident challenges the new friendship.
I like JJ, and I especially like that she is a firefighter. Her love for her brother is so strong. She is on the road to healing on many levels in this book. Alex always thought he had strong faith until this situation tested it. He is the more prayer conscious character. He has great determination and a sweet side too.
The part of this book that made me smile the most can be thought of as minor; but I enjoyed the prayer shawls that were made for the family - I myself have received one and it has offered the comfort to me that I saw in JJ's family.
I received this book from the author for my honest review.
JJ has returned from serving overseas and now she is trying to find her place in the world. Her first step is to manage her brother's business as he is away chasing adventure. Alex is known for avoiding difficult decisions, he has rented a cabin so he can have some quiet time to himself. A bout of insomnia gives them the opportunity to become friends, before it is revealed that their lives are unknowingly linked and an unfortunate accident challenges the new friendship.
I like JJ, and I especially like that she is a firefighter. Her love for her brother is so strong. She is on the road to healing on many levels in this book. Alex always thought he had strong faith until this situation tested it. He is the more prayer conscious character. He has great determination and a sweet side too.
The part of this book that made me smile the most can be thought of as minor; but I enjoyed the prayer shawls that were made for the family - I myself have received one and it has offered the comfort to me that I saw in JJ's family.
I received this book from the author for my honest review.
November 21, 2013
The Firefighter's Match by Allie Pleiter I won in a contest. This book had me hooked from the beginning. A guy playing a ukulele on a dock in a small town, at three in the morning. Plus he is playing Christmas music in July. Very intense with everything going on in the book. You wonder if the guy and girl will get together in the end. A very good book. It's the second book in the Gordon Falls Series.
December 15, 2013
I won this book in a goodreads first reads giveaway! I was very excited about receiving it and I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint me!!! I was drawn in with the first meeting on the dock with "Bing and Rosemary", and wanted to see where the story was headed. I wasn't expecting what happened but loved the growth of the characters. I can't wait to find the other Gordon Falls books and read those!!!
November 23, 2013
Book was wonderful!! Was surprised to see who the Firefighter was!!!! Won't say for the sake of those that have not read it yet!!! Cried several times especially when Alex had to leave...and of course, I loved the ending. I love Allie's work..she has truly been blessed with her writing ability. This is a must read !!
February 1, 2014
JJ has been a soldier who has learned not to trust anyone. Alex has spent his life running from unpleasant things. When they are thrown together by JJ's brother Max, who is a little wild and reckless, they learn how to work together to make a win win for everyone.
A fun, but also heartbreaking story.
A fun, but also heartbreaking story.
November 1, 2013
Not my favorite of hers..missing the fun here. Alex makes me think of Steve Jobs. Liability, lawsuits..very serious stuff. I go to Grisham or Bell for that stuff..not wanting to slog through in a romance.
December 28, 2013
Part of Gordon Falls series. Female soldier comes back with stress problems like many of her male counterparts. Trying to overcome his own hang ups, Alex finally gets JJ to trust him. Family tragedy with her brother complicate things between them even further.
November 10, 2014
This book is another well researched one by Allie Plieter. I got the first chapter in one of my Harlequin flyers and was interested enough to track the rest of it down. I was fascinated as the story unfolded and read it in one setting.
March 18, 2018
I couldn’t even make myself finish this book. I know Love inspired books aren’t known for being completely realistic, but this one practically changed genres to fantasy. The characters were unrelatable, and there is no way that those two would have fallen in love in those circumstances. Puh-lease.
Read
December 29, 2014Miniseries: Gordon Falls
Read
December 29, 2014"It is a nice twist for Pleiter to use a female firefighter as her story's heroine." RT Book Reviews, rated 4 stars
Miniseries: Gordon Falls
Miniseries: Gordon Falls
January 19, 2014
Not life changing, but a nice little read
November 24, 2015
Allie Pleiter rocks the romantic conflict and this book is one the best examples of that I've read.
October 14, 2018
This book took a roundabout path to me. Mary gave it to Cathy, and Cathy loaned it to relative to read first. That relative deemed it "one of the better ones" when she returned it to Cathy. Cathy read it and then passed it on to me. I agree that it is one of the better ones.
There are two plot lines. One is JJ's and Alex's relationship and the other is JJ's brother, Max's, injury. They intertwine because Alex's company makes the equipment that the reality show used when Max was injured.
I think the book did a decent job of showing the various emotions that someone with a spinal injury can go through. I imagine it must be harder for someone who's used to being active. I think the book also shows that a spinal injury doesn't have to mean the end of one's life. People can and do go on to live productive and sometimes active lives.
I liked the nurse's advice to JJ to call in reinforcements and to let them help when they offer and to view it as a way for them to take the burden off her so that she could focus her energy on helping her brother.
I can understand Alex's frustration with Sam. Sam seems to focus on the bottom line (money) without always seeing the bigger picture. Sam's determination to keep them as the reality show's gear supplier is what pushed him to allow them to use an unthoroughly tested product--without that accident, Adventure Gear probably would have gone on as they'd been going on.
I admire Alex's desire to do the right thing. He repeatedly offers to help the Jones family because he feels it's the right thing to do, not because he's trying to avoid a lawsuit. He chooses to embrace the idea of covering Max's medical care and other equipment needs rather than fight it out in court. At the same time, he tries to salvage as much of his company as he can to try to avoid laying off or firing everybody. Alex and Sam fight about the way to do this. Alex is convinced the company needs to move into the adaptive sports idea while Sam wants to continue on with the Adventure Gear lines and stores.
Another reviewer commented on the verse Alex uses about God working all things for good perhaps not being the best verse the author could have chosen. Perhaps not, but I didn't take it the same way that reviewer did--we are told early in the novel (even before the accident) that Alex is struggling with not being able to see the big picture, of not being able to take all the pieces and put them together into a cohesive whole--something he's had a knack for doing in the past. And at first, after the accident, Alex continues to have this issue. Where I remember Alex using the verse is when he talks to JJ--and I took it as Alex is realizing that there are options he might not have considered in the past and that he can now see how God is working in the situation, tragic as it is. Without the accident, Alex might never have met Max to be able to see how Max's past life of adventure might be a good fit with his company. Without Max's accident, Alex might never have realized that there is a group of people out there who want to be active but can't always be as active as they were due to their physical limitations and that some of these people can be helped by gear developed to meet that need. I don't remember Alex using the verse when he met with Max to try to persuade him to take a job with the new company, but he might have and I might have just glossed over reading that part.
So yes, while Max's accident was tragic and while it did change his life, there was still some good that came out of it eventually. I hope that Max will someday come to realize that too--I think he did since in the epilogue he seems to be working for Alex's pared down company and seems genuinely happy for his sister.
There are two plot lines. One is JJ's and Alex's relationship and the other is JJ's brother, Max's, injury. They intertwine because Alex's company makes the equipment that the reality show used when Max was injured.
I think the book did a decent job of showing the various emotions that someone with a spinal injury can go through. I imagine it must be harder for someone who's used to being active. I think the book also shows that a spinal injury doesn't have to mean the end of one's life. People can and do go on to live productive and sometimes active lives.
I liked the nurse's advice to JJ to call in reinforcements and to let them help when they offer and to view it as a way for them to take the burden off her so that she could focus her energy on helping her brother.
I can understand Alex's frustration with Sam. Sam seems to focus on the bottom line (money) without always seeing the bigger picture. Sam's determination to keep them as the reality show's gear supplier is what pushed him to allow them to use an unthoroughly tested product--without that accident, Adventure Gear probably would have gone on as they'd been going on.
I admire Alex's desire to do the right thing. He repeatedly offers to help the Jones family because he feels it's the right thing to do, not because he's trying to avoid a lawsuit. He chooses to embrace the idea of covering Max's medical care and other equipment needs rather than fight it out in court. At the same time, he tries to salvage as much of his company as he can to try to avoid laying off or firing everybody. Alex and Sam fight about the way to do this. Alex is convinced the company needs to move into the adaptive sports idea while Sam wants to continue on with the Adventure Gear lines and stores.
Another reviewer commented on the verse Alex uses about God working all things for good perhaps not being the best verse the author could have chosen. Perhaps not, but I didn't take it the same way that reviewer did--we are told early in the novel (even before the accident) that Alex is struggling with not being able to see the big picture, of not being able to take all the pieces and put them together into a cohesive whole--something he's had a knack for doing in the past. And at first, after the accident, Alex continues to have this issue. Where I remember Alex using the verse is when he talks to JJ--and I took it as Alex is realizing that there are options he might not have considered in the past and that he can now see how God is working in the situation, tragic as it is. Without the accident, Alex might never have met Max to be able to see how Max's past life of adventure might be a good fit with his company. Without Max's accident, Alex might never have realized that there is a group of people out there who want to be active but can't always be as active as they were due to their physical limitations and that some of these people can be helped by gear developed to meet that need. I don't remember Alex using the verse when he met with Max to try to persuade him to take a job with the new company, but he might have and I might have just glossed over reading that part.
So yes, while Max's accident was tragic and while it did change his life, there was still some good that came out of it eventually. I hope that Max will someday come to realize that too--I think he did since in the epilogue he seems to be working for Alex's pared down company and seems genuinely happy for his sister.
March 10, 2022
DNF @11 pages. And since it started on Pg 7, that means I made it a whopping FOUR PAGES before I wanted to throw it at the wall. NOT kidding. The writing is absolutely abysmal, which terrifies me, as I picked up *NINE* of Allie's books, and I can't imagine them all being this awful. Thank the Good Lord it was $3/bag and I paid something like 13¢ for all nine of them.
Pg 1 - "She grinned at her brother's handwriting, still sloppy... taped to the fridge door." Because... it would've un-sloppied in the night, r'something? What the what!?!?!
Pg 2 - "Max ran his business like his life - at breakneck speed and with little attention to details." Two sentences later: "His list was stained in three spots and taped together in one corner." WHY would a man with no attention to details tape together the corner of a list?
Also Pg 2 - "I've seen your house, I've seen your life. You'd have lasted eight seconds in my unit, Max. Six, tops." Eight is actually MORE than six, so six is not tops. WHERE ARE THE GOOD EDITORS, FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE?!?!
Pg 3 - "It was a ukelele [she was hearing]. People still played those? In the middle of the night?" Sure, sweetie. That's when ALL people play them. BAD WRITING. I think she meant "People still played those? And why would someone be playing one in the middle of the night?" Except our author doesn't seem to have linear thought processes, and is skipping half of what should be said to create readable sentences that make the paragraphs understandable.
Pg 4 - [Going to find out who was playing the ukelele on the dock] "This could be a potentially dangerous situation. People were weird, even out here in tiny Illinois tourist towns." You're kidding me, right? Please tell me you're kidding. HOW is a guy playing a uke on a dock, minding his own business alone a 'potentially dangerous situation'? Because STUPID, hello!!
Also Pg 4 - " 'I'm sorry I woke you.' He had a remarkably interesting voice - rich and deep, like a radio announcer but without all of the theatricality. 'You didn't actually. Wake me, I mean.' " ←First, WHAT ELSE could she mean, Plieter? Yowza, that's pitiful writing. And Theatricality? At 3am? Are you kidding?
I couldn't take anymore. I'll find a GOOD book to read. By someone able to write. Thanks, anyhow.
Pg 1 - "She grinned at her brother's handwriting, still sloppy... taped to the fridge door." Because... it would've un-sloppied in the night, r'something? What the what!?!?!
Pg 2 - "Max ran his business like his life - at breakneck speed and with little attention to details." Two sentences later: "His list was stained in three spots and taped together in one corner." WHY would a man with no attention to details tape together the corner of a list?
Also Pg 2 - "I've seen your house, I've seen your life. You'd have lasted eight seconds in my unit, Max. Six, tops." Eight is actually MORE than six, so six is not tops. WHERE ARE THE GOOD EDITORS, FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE?!?!
Pg 3 - "It was a ukelele [she was hearing]. People still played those? In the middle of the night?" Sure, sweetie. That's when ALL people play them. BAD WRITING. I think she meant "People still played those? And why would someone be playing one in the middle of the night?" Except our author doesn't seem to have linear thought processes, and is skipping half of what should be said to create readable sentences that make the paragraphs understandable.
Pg 4 - [Going to find out who was playing the ukelele on the dock] "This could be a potentially dangerous situation. People were weird, even out here in tiny Illinois tourist towns." You're kidding me, right? Please tell me you're kidding. HOW is a guy playing a uke on a dock, minding his own business alone a 'potentially dangerous situation'? Because STUPID, hello!!
Also Pg 4 - " 'I'm sorry I woke you.' He had a remarkably interesting voice - rich and deep, like a radio announcer but without all of the theatricality. 'You didn't actually. Wake me, I mean.' " ←First, WHAT ELSE could she mean, Plieter? Yowza, that's pitiful writing. And Theatricality? At 3am? Are you kidding?
I couldn't take anymore. I'll find a GOOD book to read. By someone able to write. Thanks, anyhow.
June 14, 2018
This is the 1st book I read by Allie Pleiter. I'm sorry I stopped reading this story at chapter 2 because it didn't hold my interest.
January 6, 2019
It took a lot of effort to finish this book. It was boring and the love story didn’t really develop throughout the book or even at the end! It was lame and a waste of time.
March 15, 2021
I enjoyed this story very much. It is very inspirational.
September 29, 2023
Woopla. Good book.
September 10, 2016
The 'romance' was kind of boring, actually. But I loved the accountability of Alex, and that JJ was former military.
April 2, 2023
I loved this book. This is one of my ultimate favorites. It captured my interest within the first few pages and I couldn't put it down.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews