Equal parts romance and heart-pounding action, this novel will leave you absolutely breathless.
Join teen Jake King, an adrenaline junkie turned hotshot firefighter, as he struggles with the one risk he cannot take: losing his best friend and secret love, the beautiful Salome Lee. But to Jake, firefighting is like breathing pure adrenaline. And if he doesn’t stop soon, they could all get burned. . . .
Reader Reviews
“Eighteen-year-old Jake’s latest stunt got him kicked out of school, but that’s small potatoes to a kid who scales bare mountain rock in the pouring rain and dives off treacherous waterfalls without blinking. It’s all for the rush, which erases the itching numbness of normal life; when free-falling, he thinks: ‘I’m Jake King, small and stupid and reeling with a glorious panic.’
Though he has avoided the firefighting life of his father and older brother—and much of their town—now it seems like the only way to salvage his troubled life. Just like that, he is hired on to a hotshot heli-rappeling crew alongside men who debate dinner choices while beating back blazes. Quickly Jake clashes with Mox, the leader of an elite group called the Immortals, as well as a secret society called the Rush Club—a grim brotherhood of daredevils that Jake is simultaneously attracted to and repelled by.
Friesen’s thrill ride benefits from its unusual setting and its pulse-pounding action (and romance!), making it go down like a six-pack of Red Bull. Grades 9-12.” –Daniel Kraus, Booklist