Playing with Fire (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl, #1) in Book Buying Addicts Anonymous

Nov 22, 2009 Lexie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: review-blog-pr, first-in-series, books-owned-read

Playing With Fire is kind of like every kid's dream right? You go from being an ordinary person to a superhero because of some freak accident that no one would believe could happen in a million years. Yesterday all Belle could do was make a (bad) cup of coffee and then whammy! Some crazy kook gives her a mickey and she can control the four elements (in theory at least).

I'm telling you half my dreams began and/or ended that way as a teenager. And Rome? Well...not Rome exactly, but usually some so Playing With Fire is kind of like every kid's dream right? You go from being an ordinary person to a superhero because of some freak accident that no one would believe could happen in a million years. Yesterday all Belle could do was make a (bad) cup of coffee and then whammy! Some crazy kook gives her a mickey and she can control the four elements (in theory at least).

I'm telling you half my dreams began and/or ended that way as a teenager. And Rome? Well...not Rome exactly, but usually some sort of hunky guy also featured heavily in those dreams (except I was saving him, not him saving me!). So really one could say that not only does Showalter play to romance fantasies, but she plays to comic book romance fantasies.

Things aren't all peachy and perfect of course, Belle is put through a horrific physical ringer before her body settles down somewhat to the changes the formula wrought. There was also the distinct possibility that the hunk that was at her bedside was going to be her executioner. Oh and the kookie mad scientist really wasn't certain she'd live through the changes, so now not only does he want to know why, but a whole host of other people want to know why. And they're not afraid to do it postmortem quite frankly. This is all assuming that Belle doesn't set herself on fire, freeze to death, or drown herself somehow with her rapidly changing powers.

So really the deck is stacked so badly against Belle she should indenture herself to the house to pay off her debts.

Belle doesn't let any of this stop her though. She indulges in the occasional 'why me?!' routine, but for the most part she does what she has always done--she perseveres, finds a way to make it work for her and then work it, hard, until she gets the results she wants. Along the way she even finds that she was enjoying herself, felt like things were really clicking for her. I don't feel that Belle grew as a character in the book, but she grew as a person in the book (if that makes sense). By the end she isn't really any different then in the beginning character-wise, but as a person she understood some important truths and finally learned that they were what she should focus on.

My first time reading through, I was really not a Rome fan. I remember thinking he was such a jerk and really needed to learn a bedside manner. He also had to be one of the least sympathetic heroes I have read in any book whatsoever. If he didn't casually dismiss Belle's problems, he poked holes in them. On my re-read though, with the knowledge of why he was suck a stick in the mud a lot of the time, I understood him better and was able to concentrate more on the romance developing over time.

The book is from Belle first person POV, so we're only given a hint at the inner workings of the other characters. I would have liked to know more about Rome's daughter, Sunny (which I hope is explored in the sequel) and Lexis grew on me by the end of the novel. She wasn't such a bad lady, just stuck in a bad spot.

All in all this was a fun adventure that then and now has me anxiously waiting to read the second book (which thankfully I have for review, so I'm not sitting twiddling my thumbs like I was for 3 years when this book first came out...)! ...more

Like · see review

Dec 29, 2009 Lauren rated it really liked it

Shelves: gena-showalter, i-own, bought-in-2010, read-in-2011

Loved this book!. Belle, had an ordinary life trying to make ends meet. She coudn't hold onto a job if her life depended on it. She is funny, sarcastic and loveable. She drinks a dangerous formula that was slipped into her latte and viola she is wonder girl and can control the 4 elements. Well control not so much.

Rome is the sexy man who was sent to "neutralize" her. However sweet, loveable, sarcastic Belle had him falling in love with her with each smart mouth comment she had and each escape a ...more

Like · see review