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Fire #2
Virgin Fire
It's not just the corset pulled tightly around her waist that makes Jessica Parnell breathless. Of all the Texas oil men, Jessica desires only one: her estranged husband, Travis. Jessica is one of the few in town to own a bathtub--a privilege in remote Parker County. When Travis begins to beg for the use of it, Jessica doesn't suspect that they'll both end up in a lather...
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First published August 1, 1991
21 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Chadwick
9 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
A pseudonym used by Nancy Herndon.
A pseudonym used by Nancy Herndon.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 5, 2023
2.5 stars
This book was definitely miss-marketed. It's barely about the bathtub and barely a second chance romance. I actually really loved the first half where the hero courted the heroine in a whirlwind romance and convinced her to marry quickly. In reality, he wanted to marry her for revenge over something that happened in his past. Once we had them move to the town where they were drilling oil, I was sooooo bored. The second half was mainly focused on the oil and I just didn't care. THE romance slowed down too and it was just them sleeping with each other and the heroine claiming she hated him. I just didn't care and it was a struggle to finish the book.
This book was definitely miss-marketed. It's barely about the bathtub and barely a second chance romance. I actually really loved the first half where the hero courted the heroine in a whirlwind romance and convinced her to marry quickly. In reality, he wanted to marry her for revenge over something that happened in his past. Once we had them move to the town where they were drilling oil, I was sooooo bored. The second half was mainly focused on the oil and I just didn't care. THE romance slowed down too and it was just them sleeping with each other and the heroine claiming she hated him. I just didn't care and it was a struggle to finish the book.
May 2, 2023
3.5 stars
A lighthearted romp with a heavy dose of historical facts, I picked up Virgin Fire half-jokingly for its back cover blurb, promoting itself as a 'bathtub romance'. Even though the presence of this sanitary furniture turned out to be relatively minuscule, I still had a fun time being along for the ride with its over-the-top characters, shenanigan and scheming, as well as an overview of the Texas oil boom during the early 20th century.
It's definitely worthwhile doing a quick Google search regarding the oil field Spindletop, located in Beaumont, Texas, where a good chunk of Virgin Fire takes place; the landscape of densely packed oil derricks is dystopian and nightmare-inducing — and the story captures the chaos and excitement during that moment of endless possibilities perfectly. It is refreshing reading a historical romance that allocates so much page count to rendering its setting with seeming accuracy and vibrancy. On the contrary, I can also understand some readers being disappointed as the romance is perhaps the least complex among its many plot lines (a revenge story, a rise-to-wealth story, family drama, etc.). While I enjoyed both the hero and the heroine as characters (a lot of good, cheesy banters), with the overall tone leaning more comedic, the stake was not high, thus the romance never truly felt hard-earned.
One small note, being an older release, there are some outdated vocabularies regarding Black and Native Americans by today's standard, but nothing overtly racist or problematic.
Overall, Virgin Fire is enjoyable as an immersive storytelling; it reminds me of 70s western TV shows (like Bonanza), with caricatured, but endearing characters (except for the evil villain with absolutely no redeeming value), episodic events, and more focus on world-building 'vibe' than thorough emotional journey. As something that was picked on a whim, it could've fared a lot worse—wished there was more bathtub, but I'm not at all mad about this experience.
p.s.: the e-book edition of Virgin Fire has a glaring error of missing paragraph break throughout; so scene change is not visually visible in the formatting. While context clue is enough to distinguish, it is still a distraction nevertheless.
***Historical Hellions Book Club | April 2023 Selection***
A lighthearted romp with a heavy dose of historical facts, I picked up Virgin Fire half-jokingly for its back cover blurb, promoting itself as a 'bathtub romance'. Even though the presence of this sanitary furniture turned out to be relatively minuscule, I still had a fun time being along for the ride with its over-the-top characters, shenanigan and scheming, as well as an overview of the Texas oil boom during the early 20th century.
It's definitely worthwhile doing a quick Google search regarding the oil field Spindletop, located in Beaumont, Texas, where a good chunk of Virgin Fire takes place; the landscape of densely packed oil derricks is dystopian and nightmare-inducing — and the story captures the chaos and excitement during that moment of endless possibilities perfectly. It is refreshing reading a historical romance that allocates so much page count to rendering its setting with seeming accuracy and vibrancy. On the contrary, I can also understand some readers being disappointed as the romance is perhaps the least complex among its many plot lines (a revenge story, a rise-to-wealth story, family drama, etc.). While I enjoyed both the hero and the heroine as characters (a lot of good, cheesy banters), with the overall tone leaning more comedic, the stake was not high, thus the romance never truly felt hard-earned.
One small note, being an older release, there are some outdated vocabularies regarding Black and Native Americans by today's standard, but nothing overtly racist or problematic.
Overall, Virgin Fire is enjoyable as an immersive storytelling; it reminds me of 70s western TV shows (like Bonanza), with caricatured, but endearing characters (except for the evil villain with absolutely no redeeming value), episodic events, and more focus on world-building 'vibe' than thorough emotional journey. As something that was picked on a whim, it could've fared a lot worse—wished there was more bathtub, but I'm not at all mad about this experience.
p.s.: the e-book edition of Virgin Fire has a glaring error of missing paragraph break throughout; so scene change is not visually visible in the formatting. While context clue is enough to distinguish, it is still a distraction nevertheless.
***Historical Hellions Book Club | April 2023 Selection***
May 1, 2023
Virgin Fire was a historical romance book club read that was definitely mis-marketed. This was described as a romance centered around the use of a bathtub, which sounded bonkers and fun, but it was definitely not that. 😅
Even though it was mis-marketed, the book did start off pretty entertaining and fun. This is a western historical romance set in Texas (1883 for the prologue, and then 1900 for the main story). We meet the hero Travis in the prologue when he’s just 8 years old and his father commits suicide after getting in financial trouble. We then cut to 17 years later and Travis has decided to seek out revenge on the family he finds responsible for his father’s death and he sets out to marry their daughter, Jessica. Along the way he and Jessica actually fall in love instead though and life gets more complicated.
There were some interesting things happening in this one but overall it started to drag in the middle to last half range for me. Travis is an oil man so we see a tonnnn about the oil boom happening in the Texas towns he lives in. Jessica went to law school, took all the courses but wasn’t allowed to graduate since she as a woman. But I did like seeing her relationship with her grandfather and how she starts to work for him. Travis and Jessica’s romance moved very fast but there was some sweet moments from him, like buying her a new bike when hers got stolen. Her birth mother was definitely the worst but I liked her relationship with her stepmom/the mom who raised her. This does turn into marriage in trouble after four months of their marriage. And the promised bathtub does come into the picture at 64% into the story. 😅
CW: suicide, death of a parent, neglect, abuse, death of a pet on-page (dog)
Even though it was mis-marketed, the book did start off pretty entertaining and fun. This is a western historical romance set in Texas (1883 for the prologue, and then 1900 for the main story). We meet the hero Travis in the prologue when he’s just 8 years old and his father commits suicide after getting in financial trouble. We then cut to 17 years later and Travis has decided to seek out revenge on the family he finds responsible for his father’s death and he sets out to marry their daughter, Jessica. Along the way he and Jessica actually fall in love instead though and life gets more complicated.
There were some interesting things happening in this one but overall it started to drag in the middle to last half range for me. Travis is an oil man so we see a tonnnn about the oil boom happening in the Texas towns he lives in. Jessica went to law school, took all the courses but wasn’t allowed to graduate since she as a woman. But I did like seeing her relationship with her grandfather and how she starts to work for him. Travis and Jessica’s romance moved very fast but there was some sweet moments from him, like buying her a new bike when hers got stolen. Her birth mother was definitely the worst but I liked her relationship with her stepmom/the mom who raised her. This does turn into marriage in trouble after four months of their marriage. And the promised bathtub does come into the picture at 64% into the story. 😅
CW: suicide, death of a parent, neglect, abuse, death of a pet on-page (dog)
April 10, 2023
2.5 stars
This was my first read by Elizabeth. There were just too many slow points in the story. I think the beginning preface was very interesting. I was also surprise the whole bath tub debacle didn't happen until after 60+ish % into the book because according to the blurb it sounded like it was going to be throughout the whole thing. I didn't feel the full connection between Travis and Jessica. I mean he did marry her for revenge on what her family did to his family. It interesting to see both sides on seeing their actions being suede by their greed of Texas rich oil.
This was my first read by Elizabeth. There were just too many slow points in the story. I think the beginning preface was very interesting. I was also surprise the whole bath tub debacle didn't happen until after 60+ish % into the book because according to the blurb it sounded like it was going to be throughout the whole thing. I didn't feel the full connection between Travis and Jessica. I mean he did marry her for revenge on what her family did to his family. It interesting to see both sides on seeing their actions being suede by their greed of Texas rich oil.
April 3, 2023
There are some problematic things in the novel, specifically around the character of Rainee and her husband (Native American and Black). 😔 However, it is an old historical romance. Anyway, the bathtub romance is not really that. It could of been this because it takes place around a boom town in Texas during the oil boom. The set up and follow through is very interesting (and entertaining) and the villain was not very intelligent. The story was fun, even if he didn’t court her for her bathtub. Be aware that the phrase “fiery loans” is used. 😂
Tropes: marriage in trouble, marriage of convenience (one-sided), pining hero
TW: parental suicide, death of an animal on page, neglect and abuse, manipulation
Tropes: marriage in trouble, marriage of convenience (one-sided), pining hero
TW: parental suicide, death of an animal on page, neglect and abuse, manipulation
April 23, 2023
It’s really a 3.5 star. There was so much I liked about Virgin Fire, but much of it downright befuddled me! First, the title seems unrelated to the story. The blurb about the bathtub misrepresented the story. And I don’t know about other formats, but the book I read had the craziest format of any book I’ve ever read: usually time jumps or scene location jumps are handled with additional spacing or little icons to indicate shifts. Weird. Made everything disjointed. When I started reading it, I thought it was going to be a 5 star book. I liked the premise and I like the revenge trope, but I ended up not being crazy in love with Travis. I never really thought he groveled enough. I doubt I’ll read another by Chadwick.
April 18, 2023
This was a decent historical romance and entertaining for the most part. The villain was a little too cartoonish, twirling a mustache type. One personal note for me was all of the Texas history that was included. I teach about Spindletop and Patillo Higgins so it was fun to see them featured so prominently.
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April 14, 2023DNF
Just lost interest 7% in.
Just lost interest 7% in.
May 14, 2023
I was so excited for the bathtub book! But sadly, it let me down a little. I liked seeing him court her, and it was fun to see them fall in love, but I was bored for most of the book.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews