The Fireside Chats

I’ve recently finished reading this novel and I wanted to share my thoughts on it with you. I don’t read a lot of romantic fantasy, only very little but this one was a good book. I was actually surprised to find out that my hubby had watched the movie counter-part at his mom’s house one day and he said it was a pretty good movie. I had actually thought about watching the movie when I was finished with the book but I figured I would have to watch it by myself because I didn’t figure he would like this kind of movie. Anyway, I had to hurry to finish reading this book because 1) I really wanted to see how it ended and 2) I didn’t want my hubby to reveal the ending before I finished reading (since he’d already watched the movie).

Synopsis: It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore’s Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn’t know how she’d make it through the day.

Then, one fateful night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center’s most sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying but also magnificent, capable of language and of understanding emotions…and Elisa can’t keep away. Using sign language, the two learn to communicate. Soon, affection turns into love, and the creature becomes Elisa’s sole reason to live.

But outside forces are pressing in. Richard Strickland, the obsessed soldier who tracked the asset through the Amazon, wants nothing more than to dissect it before the Russians get a chance to steal it. Elisa has no choice but to risk everything to save her beloved. With the help of Zelda and Giles, Elisa hatches a plan to break out the creature. But Strickland is on to them. And the Russians are, indeed, coming.