Author: Cate Ashwood
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 200 Pages
Category: Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: A Fallen Heart is a tense drama and solid mystery filled with high emotions.
Reviewed By: Maryann
Blurb: After his last disastrous relationship, Joseph Ford has absolutely no interest in getting attached again. Concentrating on working as a trauma nurse and keeping his life as simple as possible are his only goals. Unfortunately, his plans could be derailed by the charming, sexy Nash.
Things are looking up for paramedic Ridley Nash when he transfers to Station 217. He gets along with the crew, likes his partner, and is finally on a team willing to accept him—gay and all. It’s everything he’s always wanted, but when he meets Ford, Nash knows his life is about to get very interesting.
As Ford and Nash find themselves stuck in the middle of a homicide case, things become more complicated. For the last year, the mutilated bodies of teenage boys have been showing up all over downtown. With no leads, the police are getting desperate. One of the victims is found alive, and he’s the best chance the police have to catch the killer—if only they can get him to talk.
Will Nash be able to catch Ford when he falls, or is there too much standing in their way to make it work?
Review: Saint Joseph Memorial Hospital is supposed to be the best. It’s the largest hospital and the location is such that most paramedics make that their destination for patients in need of medical assistance. But, there’s also something suspicious going on with certain hospital staff. In the first book in the Zero Hour series, A Forced Silence, I viewed Joseph Ford differently. He seemed more confident in his personal life, but in this book he really struggles with the fallout of his relationship with Dr. Provost; his self-esteem is low and he just can’t picture himself in a permanent relationship with anyone. But even with his struggles, Ford remains committed to being a trauma nurse.
Ridley Nash has newly joined the paramedics at Station 217, and he’s partnered with Adam Carpenter (from A Forced Silence). On delivering a patient to Saint Joe’s, he gets to see Joseph Ford in action. As he gets a chance to know Ford, he finds he’s an insecure person, and really tries to understand what Ford is dealing with. Nash finds himself giving his heart and soul to Ford.
A terrified young boy holding his dead friend becomes the center of different emotions for the characters in A Fallen Heart. Adam worries about how the autopsy of the deceased boy will affect Sam, and when Joel, the abused boy, is brought into the ER, Ford can’t help but get personally involved. He befriends Joel and makes small steps with him, to the point Ford believes Joel’s going to survive his ordeal, while Nash finds himself drawn to the hospital to look in on both the boy and Ford.
My thought going into this series was that it was going to be about a group of friends that work in the medical field and have some issues crop up once in a while, but Cate Ashwood turned A Fallen Heart into a tense drama filled with many high emotions amongst the characters, and a solid murder mystery that deals with young boys, abuse, drugs, sex, and a strange carving. I was caught off guard by the surprise ending, and I’m more than curious to see what the author has planned for the next book.
You can buy A Fallen Heart here:
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