Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey

Item: Controlled Burn
Rating: 4
Author: Sparkles

December 8, 2015 Sparkles Book Review 0 ★★★★

Controlled Burn by Shannon Stacey
Series: Boston Fire #2
Published by Carina Press on November 24th 2015
Pages: 384
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Rick Gullotti lives the good life. He fights fires, dates beautiful women—though none long enough so they cast wistful glances at jewelry stores—and has great friends. And thanks to helping out the elderly couple who own his building, his rent is low. But when concerns about their health lead him to contact their only son, his life starts getting away from him.

Jessica Broussard has no interest in leaving sunny San Diego or her cushy corner office for Boston, but her father—who happens to be her boss—dispatches her to deal with the grandparents she's never met. She's unprepared for the frigid winter, loving relatives who aren't the monsters she's been led to believe, and the hot, scruffy firefighter who lives upstairs.

At first, Jessica is determined to get back to her comfortable life as quickly as possible. All she has to do is talk her grandparents into selling their monstrosity of a house and moving to a retirement community. But she underestimates Rick's dedication—and his considerable charm. Nobody's taking advantage of his friends on his watch, even if that makes the tempting southern California girl with the long legs his adversary. Unfortunately for them both, the only thing more urgent than the matter at hand is their sizzling chemistry, and it's quickly becoming too strong to resist.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

Well, pretty much any book with a firefighter will be hot, that much is a given, and Controlled Burn was no exception. Rick is the tenant of an elderly couple and pretty much acts as an honorary grandson helping them out with keeping the house and grounds, driving them around when needed and spending some time with them. So he is as surprised as them when a hot blonde named Jessica turns up saying she is their granddaughter. Jess’s father had a falling out with his parents and never told them about her. Now because of a medical situation she decided to go against her father’s wishes to go and get to know them.

While Jess helps them out with their situation and gets to know them, she starts to spend time with Rick together and they both really enjoy it.

Neither of them had ever been in a serious long relationship and being over thirty made their relationship building a lot of fun to read because in some ways they were like teens with their first crush and it was refreshing. It also was a bit frustrating when they had to be apart as they both lead full lives on separate coasts.

This was a really fun book to read, it was hot, sexy, sweet and romantic. When Rick finally accepted his feelings he was all in. I l-o-v-e-d Rick, I mean, he is a firefighter.

Jess I had a bit more of a hard time connecting to. Primarily because of how she would rather maintain the status quo with her father while knowing he was a jerk to her. He was not a great parent but she still kowtowed to him and that kind of pissed me off.

Still they were so cute together I could help but keep a stupid smile on my face the whole time. I’m seriously going to be on the lookout for more stories by Ms. Stacey (and I just checked and she has like a gazillion stories, I feel a one-click-athon coming on).

Sparkles’ Rating: 3.5+ hot-as-hell Stars