BENEATH THE FLAMES is a mesmerizing story of love, race, and life as an urban firefighter that brims with emotion and humanity. Winner of the Readers' Favorite International Gold Medal Award, Winner of the IAN Book of the Year Award, Midwest Book Award Winner, and International Book Award Winner. A fire in a neighboring farmhouse has young farmer and volunteer firefighter, Mitch Garner, blaming himself for the tragic outcome. He loses all hope of forgiving himself. His only hope for redemption is to leave Jennie, the girl he has loved since high school, and journey from Wisconsin's lush farmland to the decaying inner city of Milwaukee to prove himself as a professional firefighter. Mitch is assigned to the busiest firehouse in the heart of one of the most blighted areas of Milwaukee, the Core, where he's viciously hazed by senior firefighters. He struggles to hold it together at horrific scenes of violence and can t do anything right at fires. Within weeks, he's ready to give up and quit. His salvation comes in the form of a brash adolescent girl, Jasmine Richardson. Mitch is assigned to tutor her little sister through a department mentoring program. Despite Jasmine's contempt toward Mitch, her courage and devotion to her little sister inspire Mitch to stay and dedicate himself to helping her and the neighboring children overcome the hopelessness of growing up in crushing poverty. Trouble on the farm has Mitch torn between returning home to Jennie and staying in Milwaukee where he'll be forced to risk his life to protect Jasmine from the leader of the One-Niner street gang. 2019 Readers' Favorite International Book Award Gold Medal Winner for Fiction-- Readers' Favorite Renz draws on his years of experience as a firefighter to bring a hardscrabble authenticity to his novel. He packs the tale with plenty of action and a lot of heart. His firefighting sequences are detailed and thrilling, placing readers right in front of the flames. His prose is clean and, at times, poetic... Kirkus Reviews. Gregory Renz's new novel is a triumph of poignancy, compassion, and restraint. In it, a man's regret is transformed to triumph.-- Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the bestselling novel, The Deep End of the Ocean. Beneath the Flames is an action-packed debut novel with something for every reader: suspense, romance, friendship,forgiveness, family, and more. A novel that like its protagonist,relentlessly presses on into fiery and controversial terrain where many other writers fear to tread.-- Nickolas Butler, author of The Hearts of Men and Little Faith . "Renz's debut novel is exactly the kind of book I want to read right now -- one where decency is a virtue, where empathetic people win, and it's full of the complex, hardworking Midwestern folks I enjoy reading and writing about."-- J. Ryan Stradal, best-selling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest and Lager Queen of Minnesota . Beneath the Flames by Gregory Lee Renz is a mesmerizing story that brims with life and humanity, a story that explores themes of race, love, family, and an adventure within the firefighting department.The prose is gorgeous and, from the very beginning, the author had me captivated by the wonderful imagery and the lyrical nature of the story... Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite In his debut novel, Gregory Lee Renz gives us an action-packed story of a Wisconsin farm boy turned Milwaukee firefighter, but that's not all. Beneath the Flames lies a tender journey of compassion, redemption,and community that will stick with you for a long time.-- Ann Voss Peterson, author of over thirty novels with millions of books inprint all over the globe. Winner of the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award. It would be too easy to say that Beneath the Flames is filled with burning passion, but it's the truth. One would expect a novel about a firefighter to be full of fire and flames, and Renz doesn't disappoint.However, to the reader's great delight, he also takes the burning within, to a firefighter who seeks to set things to rights and to put out the most dangerous internal flame of all - guilt. Renz's gripping and sensitive story-telling will take the reader along with Mitch Garner as he walks his road from young farmer and volunteer firefighter to professional firefighter in the inner city streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Renz is the rare writer who can create action-packed scenes and the tenderest of intimacies with the same talented hand.-- Kathie Giorgio, critically acclaimed author of four novels, two story collections and a poetry chapbook. Gregory Lee Renz's Beneath The Flames tells a vivid tale of Mitch Garner's journey from the farm to inner city Milwaukee. A young man caught between the national horror of 9/11 and personal tragedy becomes a firefighter in a neighborhood wracked with poverty and violence.-- Parks Kugle, Managing Editor for Lumina Literary Journal. "A mesmerizing debut novel, written fr