CONTROLLED BURN (BOSTON FIRE #2)

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.

Release Date: November 24, 2015

Carina Press

Boston Fire #2

Review copy provided by publisher

Liza’s Review:

Shannon Stacey is an auto-buy author for me. I fell in love with her stories with her Kowalski series and am just as hooked on her Boston Fire series 2 books in.

I really loved Rick from the moment he appeared on the page. He is super protective of all his friends and especially the Broussards, who are his landlords. He truly cares for and about them, which only made me love him more. Add in the fact that he has remained friends with so many of his ex-girlfriends, which shows what a nice guy he really is, and he is one of my favorite heroes.

While I didn't love Jessica the minute she appeared on the page, I kept an open mind about her from the beginning. I was so mad at her father for keeping her away from her grandparents all those years and loved seeing her become more open the more time she spent in Boston. I think she was always pretty strong, but really felt like until she came to Boston, she didn't have the gumption to stand up to her father and really make him talk about her grandparents and even why her mother left her when she was so young. Honestly Jessica ended up being one of my favorite characters from the series so far.

I really loved Jessica’s relationship with her grandparents. While it built slowly at first, I loved that she kept coming up with reasons to stay in Boston to be with them. Since I was raised down the street from my grandparents, I can’t imagine not meeting mine until I was an adult. I loved how close they all grew so quickly.

I adored Rick and Jessica as a couple. I loved that they kept kissing and saying they weren't going to do it again. Totally cracked me up. They had such amazing chemistry both in and out of bed. Yes things were bumpy in the beginning since Rick was so protective of Jessica's grandparents, but I think that only made Jessica fall for him a little bit faster. I worried for a bit when they tried the long distance relationship, because being on different coast is pretty hard, but I knew in my heart their love was strong enough to make the relationship work.

Controlled Burn hooked me from the first page. All I wanted to do was read until I could finish the book. Now I'm ready for my next fix in the Boston Fire series.