Even punks don’t bother Aiden’s home. He has become highly respected; he has become the ‘healer’. He had been very much in love with his young wife and son. When the police came to his office, he expected anything but what he was about to hear – “I’m so sorry to have to be the one to deliver this news, but … there was an accident … a car accident, this morning. Sir, your wife and son did not survive the accident. I’m so sorry.” Aiden immediately went into denial. It had to be wrong. He went through the motions of the funeral. Then, he became a hermit.

He was so close to killing himself, he actually had the gun in his mouth. A mouse distracted him. They came with the increased garbage in his home. He shot the mouse; watched as it was dying; turned extremely remorseful; then watched as it recuperated. What just happened? Can it be duplicated? At long last, he finally went outside and gathered a cat that had a severe limp. Within his home, he duplicated the remorseful feelings without the guilt he felt for the mouse. When he turned the cat loose, it was healed.

I’m not quite sure how Aiden received his gift. From how the story is written, he was rather surprised himself. The story begins with Aiden, but there are two other lives we follow. Norma’s marriage is sinking fast. They looked forward to having children, but she was not able to conceive. Now, they don’t even feel like they know each other anymore. There’s also Ryan, a teen girl, whose mother left her in Chicago when she went to Vegas to get married. They send Ryan money – enough to keep the apartment going and little else. She finds herself pulled into a life of thievery. The beginning is hard emotionally because we see all three characters at their lowest level. Their lives intertwine as the story progresses forward. Although somewhat predictable, it’s a wonderful feel-good story about humanity. Teens could read it as there is no inappropriate acts or language. Rating: 3.5 out of 5. ( )

In reading previous books by Michelle Bellon, I found her writing engaging and learned to expect the unexpected in each one of them, as she moves from one genre to another as needed to flesh them out. In this book, she presents characters who trying to cope with a dire predicament, weaves their stories not only toward resolution but towards healing as well, which to me, reflects a profound passion in her: working at a surgery center as a registered nurse, she must be driven to help the suffering of people.
In THE FIRE INSIDE, the point of view alternates, chapter by chapter, between characters: First, there is Aiden, the doting husband and father whose world fell out from under his feet upon hearing, “Sir, your wife and son did not survive the accident. I’m so sorry.”
Second is Norma, whose relationship with her husband becomes strained because of her obsession to get pregnant. “He had stopped reaching for me long ago. I wasn’t even sure when. I only knew his touch was now foreign and I missed it terribly. How could I have been so blind, so self-absorbed? How could I have let myself get so wrapped up in the idea of having a child that I had forsaken everything else?”
And third is Ryan. Neglected by her mother, she is a pessimistic, hardened teenage girl who is on the verge of entering a life of theft and crime. “I can’t trust my mom to keep sending money and at my age no one will hire me. So what the hell am I supposed to do?”: To her, life is one big complication: “Anger. Focus on the anger. It seemed much easier to deal with. All other emotions were to be avoided; they were a pain in the ass.”
The author weaves the lives of these three unrelated characters together, in a way that aftects great change in them, as each one of them becomes the cure, in a most profound way, for the suffering of the other. In fact, they change to such a degree and gain so much strength from bonding together, that even when a sudden loss is inflicted, they can see new ways of supporting each other even in tough times, rather than fall apart, they way the used to in the beginning. “Some of the most potent medicine comes from the heart. All anyone ever needs to do is reach down deep into their core, past the doubt and the hurt. And bring forth the burning fire inside.” ( )