Fireproof, book twelve of The Fragile Line Series by Sarah Dawson Powell

Humorous, Complex, Gripping

Contemporary Fiction/Family Drama/Themes of Physical and Substance Abuse

Fireproof, book Twelve of ‘The Fragile Line Series by Sarah Dawson Powell- author

‘It’s ALWAYS her, isn’t it?’

‘She felt more LOVED by Ryan when he threw her down the stairs’

‘I’ve DESTROYED too much, and it’s time to STOP!’

‘For someone who likes being INDEPENDENT, you sure do rely on a lot of people!’

‘Sometimes, I DON’T think I’m going to be HAPPY no matter what’

‘She made him feel like he had come HOME, after being gone a REALLY long time’

‘Save a horse, RIDE a cowgirl!’

‘I can’t keep riding this ROLLER-COASTER with you!’

‘No amount of LUBE or LACE was going to keep another man or woman’

‘I don’t think she REALISES what she LOST when she gave you up’

As this epic series has progressed, it has only improved. Sarah has created another beautiful book cover with equally stunning illustrative designs inside, and another appropriate, hard hitting one-word title. As with all the books so far, it is so full of twists and turns, it made my head spin, and the number of times I changed my stance from #teamjenny to #teamsadie is ridiculous. Most of the characters are still relevant, particularly Corey and Dave this time around, but the whole thing is still driven by the actions of the girls. At times it isn’t always an easy read if you have become as attached to Sarah’s ‘fragile five’ as I have, but then it rarely has been. I don’t often give much critique on Sarah’s writing, but I will say that with this book I was not a fan of the mention of titles relating to books within The Fragile Line Series, and ‘fragile line’ itself within the narrative. I found it a bit cringe worthy. I like titles to remain just that, unspoken and for the reader to work out why they are what they are. She has employed this technique in previous books and I didn’t say how I felt then, but it is exhibited more in this book. I was impressed however, that when shortening the name of the character ‘Lindsey’, she spelt it right ‘Linds’….not many people do, and it irks me and it is one of my bug bears given that it so personal to me.

Even being in a relationship with Alex, Jenny is irritated by Corey and Sadie’s relationship, but I can understand why. When Corey comes round to collect the kids before the concert and they argue, she throws the past in his face and his response to her, had me firmly on the side of #teamcorey. Describing Jenny entering Lily’s bedroom, the author uses the much overly complicated phrase ‘Alex’s daughter’s Lily’s bedroom’. I think if people are committed to reading this series, then they should know who Lily is, particularly with the reminder of who characters are at the back of this book. I was further impressed with Corey, when Jenny tells him that he can pay the lateness fees to the nursery and he reminds her that he pays for everything anyway! He also tells her in no uncertain terms why he was late, leaving her speechless, which I thought was brilliant.

Sadie and Dave, as I see it, ended their relationship based on what they thought to be true, just as Sadie thinks she knows what Joey was insinuating, they both made the assumption that Dave wasn’t capable of getting Sadie pregnant. Therefore they are still left with feelings and confusion, Sadie still has feelings as to whether her and Dave should have got divorced but her pride won’t let her completely back track in case that’s not what Dave wants, and she is rejected. Therefore, any new relationship for Sadie, was always going to end up paying the price for those residual feelings, just as Dave ended up dealing with the effects on Sadie in the aftermath of her relationship with Ryan. She knows that things with Dave, could have, and probably should have been handled differently, and therefore, moving on with Corey is a challenge because she hasn’t received closure from her marriage. Also, because Dave made every effort to be there for her, she expects that from Corey who doesn’t necessarily have the means to fulfil that requirement. She is constantly carrying expectations from one relationship to another, not computing that each man has a different set up, different commitments and is in fact a different person.

The old Corey’s priorities were much more in line with hers, and now they are vastly different. When he lists his priorities and puts work before her, I did think that was out of order, and although she tells him that she would always put him first, I doubt that to be the case. When she explains to Corey how her mentality works, I think it was an epiphany for both me and Corey, but I’m not sure how she expects him to deal with it. When they come to blows, instead of making the effort to reach a conclusion, she discards him until the next time he comes back in to her life, when the previous debacle is forgotten, in the meantime, gaining comfort and anything else she needs from another, anyone. Neglecting the situation between her and Corey, is also a form of self protection.

When she is in Chicago and says she has to go back to L.A. because Jack is there, Corey is understandably confused at being sidelined for a dog, and in turn, immediately makes a mockery of Sadie’s claim that Corey would always be her number one priority. She describes herself as feeling like a trophy, something he wanted, but now leaves discarded on a shelf (or in another state!) whilst he deals with the rest of his life.

Evy knows Sadie well and is not afraid to tell her what she thinks. When she tells Sadie, that Corey would never treat her as she has treated him because of her fragility, Sadie doesn’t like it, but acknowledges it to be true, and with hindsight it is ironic, that the couple’s journey ends up turning the tables on that exact statement. Sadie seems to have little regard for Corey’s vulnerability. Sadie at this early stage in her new dynamic with the man that she has always called her safe place, appears to be weighing up what being with Corey can give her, as opposed to Dave, and the only thing she can come up with is children, which in itself is worrying.

Jenny shows complete disregard for Alex in two ways, one by ringing Dave and asking him if he can get them backstage, without consulting Alex who she knows is uncomfortable at large gatherings of people he doesn’t know, and when she enters the room backstage, leaving him to catch up. Her behaviour and what follows, isn’t typical of Jenny, but no one who has been following this series will be surprised at her behaviour. When Jenny is talking to Dave about Sadie, the lollipop analogy she uses, is very appropriate for her ‘best friend’.

She treats Alex badly, later on labelling him boring. Once he no longer becomes an option, Jenny exhibits Sadie’s behaviour and homes in on the only other person left to make her feel better about herself. I was amazed, when Jenny later relays all of this to Sadie, saying that Alex drunk too much and left her at the venue. Jenny telling Dave that she doesn’t know what Alex’s breaking point was ‘’Going backstage, the weed, the coke….my mouth,’ was amusing and a very succinct quote. She admits to missing the drama in her relationship with Alex, that she got in spades with Ryan and Corey. I did feel some degree of sympathy when she says that because during the course of her relationship with Alex, Corey and Sadie got together, changing her relationships with them, she feels she has nothing without Alex. It must be difficult having a long term dynamic like that change whilst you are distracted by a comparatively short term dynamic, and not realise until you no longer have the latter.

Corey assumes that Dave is bothered about him and Sadie being together. However, Dave is genuinely worried for Sadie’s state of mind, and how Corey not always being able to be there for Sadie like he was, will impact on her health. His invitation to fly to L.A. to see Sadie, I think is purely to test the waters with them, Sadie’s mental stability, and find out how sturdy her and Corey really are. When Corey tells Dave that he is scared of the person he turns into when he is around Sadie, I think maybe Dave suspects that he won’t be strong enough to deal with and take care of his ex-wife.

When Jenny comes up with a plan to split Corey and Sadie up and relays it to Dave, I was pleased that he wasn’t willing to reveal anything to her, sarcastically suggesting that she ask the person who is supposed to be her best friend. As ever though, her insecurities still demand attention whilst she, like her ‘best friend’, continues to crave chaos. Jenny tells Corey that things have turned sour between her and Alex and bemoans that she is having to do everything alone. When Corey says to her than he was there for her right up until she decided to have Alex take over his role, I thought that was a fair point. I liked that he made a point of telling her, that she now has the chance to prove she can cope independently, except financially, and practically congratulates her on the one relationship in which she managed not to get pregnant! When Trevor and Tyler suspect something is going on between Jenny and Dave and they make the dig that ‘At least she won’t get pregnant’, I did think that two digs about getting pregnant in a short space of time indicates one hell of a reputation that Jenny has made for herself!

Corey acknowledges that the reason they never got together previously is because it wasn’t the right time. Sadie voices that she isn’t sure that now is the right time either. They both acknowledge that they are different people. Exploring that further, may have in fact been the way to go. The fact that her next concern is what John thinks, plus that she doesn’t hesitate to tell Corey that Dave instigated them getting together in L.A should, really have been the catalyst for Corey to consider what he was getting himself into. Her speech as she is peering into the fridge that culminates in her saying that everyone knows what she wants except Corey quite threw me. For Sadie, it was very eloquent. Sadie is still conditioned to use sex as a diversion from an issue she doesn’t know how to handle, but from his relationship with Jenny, Corey knows that that won’t work and is keen to stop her from using it as her go to, to get what she needs. It was a bit of an epiphany for me when Corey apologises to Sadie for not being in Nashville the evening of Joey’s revelation, as it was clear to him that she had really needed him that night. I was surprised that Corey managed to work that out for himself, as his experiences with Jenny appear to have tarnished him, removing something of the sensitive, thoughtful person he seemed to be previously. He promises Sadie many times, that he will try to be what she needs, but I really don’t think that either of them are clear on what that is. He wonders if he needs to be worried about three other men in Sadie’s life. Not a great basis for such an unstable amour.

When Dave and Jenny are in the bar, and he holds her, she tells him that the last time she was held like that was by Ryan in an aggressive moment. I thought it touching that he wanted to change the narrative for her. The organic way in which their connection is formed is much healthier than any way in which Jenny has approached any of her previous relationships, I was glad of that for her. The way in which it is a slow burner, rather than something she rushes into, realisation creeping up on her that she doesn’t dwell on Corey so much, signalled a much healthier situation.

After spending much longer together than they had planned, and Corey realises that he has subsequently dropped the ball on his obligations to other parties, Sadie’s retort to the word Corey uses to express his annoyance at his tardiness, is laugh out loud funny! When Sadie asks herself why Corey made the effort to chase her across the country to embark on what he hoped would be their new beginning, I was incensed enough to actually say ‘because he thought he’d be in a grown up relationship, love’. Another round of immature sulking was about to commence, but she saw it as ‘being true to her feelings’. To be fair, she does play the role of step-mother adequately when it occurs to her, but at this point, I am not #teamsadie. Corey is mad at Sadie for turning him into that irresponsible, carefree person that he referred to when talking to Dave. However, I think he may have been more annoyed for letting himself be manipulated. He accuses Sadie of ruining his marriage, which she refutes. I would say it was six of one and half a dozen of the other.

When Jenny admits to herself that she has finally unearthed a version of herself that she likes, I thought how good it was that things for her would now be more straightforward, even if, in her words, she had entangled herself to someone with connections to Sadie’s heart. That had always been the case though, hadn’t it?! When Dave refers to their situation as ‘this’, and Jenny asks what ‘this’ is, and he replies ‘Something that is enough for both of us, for a really long time’, it was a really touching moment and it made me feel sorry for Sadie.

In L.A., Dave is understandably irritated when Sadie talks about Eric in terms of ‘taking care of her’, when he, had done nothing else but, for so long. Eric actually did quite the opposite in my opinion, but as he was her only option, ‘her person’ during that period, she doesn’t see it like that. I felt bad for Dave when he inwardly digests that he doesn’t think that Sadie ever saw him as being that important. He sees what Corey and Sadie have now, as having cheapened what he had with Sadie for so long, through so many different ups and downs of their life together and the commitment he gave to their relationship. Sadie seems to realise how much Dave actually did for her, but I’m not sure how much she really realised how much she had cost Dave on an emotional level, or gave any thought to it. Ironically, he then becomes ‘her person’ just by being there, not because of him.

When talking to Trevor and Tyler about his recent time with Sadie, Corey is very indiscreet, but then so is Sadie on numerous occasions. Corey telling them that Sadie had asked her to leave his work place on that first afternoon, when in fact she had asked him when he would be done. This showed a complete disregard for how the others see the woman he is supposed to love. I laughed at Corey’s comment to Tyler when talking about their ventures into certain avenues of sexual experimentation! I was puzzled as to why Lindsey would agree to the commitment of caring for another woman’s children, especially with the stipulation that it changes her living arrangements. I thought that that was quite some commitment to agree to and a lot of sacrifice to make. Corey regaling Trevor and Tyler about going to the store with Nova and Quinn and the cashier’s comment at his purchase, amused me.

When Jenny and Sadie confront their fractured friendship, Jenny realises that she has never actually really reciprocated the help that Sadie has given her, and considers what the repercussions would be of not having Sadie in her life. She is told a few home truths by Corey and Dave with regards to her dynamic with Sadie. Corey tells Jenny how Dave is now his confidante when it comes to matters regarding Sadie, as he has been there. But that left me wondering whether that gave Corey an excuse for not putting in the work that Dave did with Sadie. It really brought it home to me what a tangled web Sarah Dawson Powell has created for these characters, when Jenny says that ‘Angel is already confused as to whether Lindsey is her stepmum or her aunt’!

One of the best bits of this novel for me, is when Sadie goes to see Steve Scott. I questioned at the time why she was holding John’s hand, but this becomes evident. Sarah’s writing makes it so easy to picture what she is describing, particularly the funny parts, but this meeting is described in such detail, I could picture what was occurring, the tones of voice, facial expressions and quite a bit more! It was a joy to read. Sadie is manipulative, but very rarely for the benefit of others, and it was nice to see him paid back!

The construct of an analogy is used well twice, the first time being when Sadie cites the invisible string that ties her to Dave that she feels she needs to ensure he is still at the other end of, and reference to a storm/tornado that Sadie uses during her conversation with Corey after the concert. When Corey and Sadie discuss the pictures, and Dave’s trip to L.A, given the speed at which he got dressed and left the room, his returning was unexpected, and it isn’t any surprise that, in keeping with Sadie’s skewed way of recognising when someone genuinely loves and cares for her, she actually feels safer when Corey adopts a more ‘Ryan like’ approach to their relationship. I was surprised at Corey and the ultimatum he delivered, and shocked even further at her refusal, leading him to further adopt a Ryan-like persona to control Sadie’s behaviour. This feels very out of character for Corey, but he seems to be lost as to how to deal with his girlfriend, taking his cues from Dave and her previous chaotic relationship.

Two people re-enter Sadie’s life in a very sudden way she is not expecting in a setting where she is ill equipped to cope with it, and that is shown in the way that she behaves, causing much animosity between the group. Whilst Corey and Sadie travel back with Evy, discussing Sadie’s lifestyle and state of mind, Corey’s line ‘She (Sadie) pays you to lie Evy, you offer me no solace’ was just exquisite. It was perhaps a line more fitting for a British costume drama, than entirely accurate for Corey, but was a lovely piece of dialogue. It seems to me that Sadie is feeling stifled by Corey and is reacting to it by disassociating. I wondered if that was because of Corey’s decision to take on Ryan’s traits. As much as Sadie thinks that it may have been prevalent to have had the same conversation with Ryan, about her mental health, as she had with Corey, I am really not sure that he would have grasped the intricacies either. Sadie understands that Corey is like this because he doesn’t trust her, but is keen to avoid the physical control that Ryan exercised. She communicates this to Corey who promises that he would never do that. She reminds him of an incident way back in the past where she damaged his vehicle, he pushed her and she fell. He says she fell because she was drunk. She says he is missing the point, and I understood that. The point was that it shouldn’t have been his reaction to push her in the first place. Sadie later on, cataloguing the visible damage to her and Corey prior to attending Logan’s birthday party, felt like her and Ryan all over again!

When they all return from Cancun and Logan says that he wants to go to Corey’s, I thought Jenny asking Corey if she can give Dwayne his number because he was supposed to be picking up Logan the next day was lazy parenting personally! She tells Corey she wasn’t planning on telling him about Logan’s birthday party (really?) because he’ll bring Sadie, but I thought that would have been the perfect opportunity to see Sadie and talk again, as she knew they needed to.

Sadie feels that her traumas are just constantly on repeat, and she has conflicting emotions about all the people who have joined her at one point or another and whether they have chosen to be an active part of her trauma or recovery and how much effort they have put in to either. Leaving her with emotional baggage that she clings to as one would, a raft on a stormy sea. She realises that everyone has a breaking point, yet no one had actually considers hers. A very poignant moment and something that I had given some thought to previously.

Sadie and Evy’s dry exchange at Evy’s wedding before the ceremony made me smile. I did feel sorry for Sadie that Shawna seemed to blame Sadie for the outfit she was wearing during a special moment between her and Trevor, and Sadie being Sadie, took it so much to heart. Shawna doesn’t feel like the loyal friend to Sadie that she used to be, probably Lindsey’s influence. The plate analogy during Sadie and Jenny’s exchange, definitely secured my position as being on #teamsadie.

A meeting with two people who have re-entered Sadie’s life provides her with answers, but how does she cope once she is left with only anger and confusion and no coping mechanisms except to take it out on the person closest to her? The behaviour she exhibits is reminiscent of behaviour that Ryan showed towards her, and that he also exhibited with Jenny. I wondered if she’d disassociated, and it was connected to those incidences.

Corey flies to L.A. with the intention, I think, of catching Sadie out, when he has already decided that he would stay with her regardless, so I’m not sure what he was hoping to achieve, as it has already been established that Sadie doesn’t consider any extra curricular coupling as cheating, using her mental illness as an excuse. Sadie is aware of why he is there, and Corey realizes that she has stayed away from Willow Grove purely to avoid being with him, prompting an exchange that made me feel that Sadie may at last be on the right track:

Corey: ‘Have you lost your mind?’

Sadie: ‘I think I’ve found it

After returning to Willow Grove, when Dave goes round to Corey’s house to discuss work issues and finds, not only that his business partner’s coping mechanisms are as unstable as Sadie’s, but also himself clearing up yet another of Sadie’s fall outs, even disowning Jack! Where will Corey go from here?

On Dave’s return to Jenny’s, the author reiterates the part of the story concerning Dave and Jenny fake dating. Having literally not long since read this myself, I couldn’t understand why she had felt the need to include it again. It is indicative of how wrapped up in herself Jenny is, that it takes a phone call to remind her of something she should have told Tyler weeks ago. It was funny though when Jenny remarks to Dave that ‘he could have take the piece of paper, and not the whole pad’!

I am frustrated, that off the back of what has happened with Corey and Sadie, Jenny and Dave both worry about their relationship. The fact that they don’t address the situation, I think is a matter of pride, not wanting to seem weak and insecure or risk offending the other. Here, the author writes that ‘Corey says he has nothing without Sadie, Dave however, realizes that without Sadie, he has everything’. I liked that. It perfectly summed up how differently both men’s lives had changed all because of one woman.

The lengths that Jenny goes to, to try to keep Dave, are ridiculous, but typical of her behaviour. It struck me at this point that Jenny would probably have been the only person who could have got through to Sadie, but Sadie is one step ahead, cutting, it seems all ties with her past, and strangely as the reader, it also felt like she had cut me off too.

Jenny once again, considers how her life will change without Sadie, I would say for the better. Particularly with what happens next!

Reading ‘Fireproof’ was a lot more enjoyable than putting this in-depth review together, and as the next book is supposed to be longer, I have a degree of trepidation, but look forward to seeing how Sarah Dawson Powell concludes this spectacular series.