About Sweet Fire
Charlie Lane doesn’t have time for fairytales. Jesse Franklin might be handsome, and perhaps dangerously sexy, but she doesn’t have time.
Jesse finds Dr. Lane uptight and oh-so-professional, yet he can’t help but be drawn to her. He’d love to see her with her hair down—in moreways than one.
Charlie’s life is complicated. She’s taking care of her ailing mother and stumbling through a crash course in parenting a teenager. Her niece has spiky purple hair and an attitude for days. The last thing on Charlie’s mind is romance. Most especially not romance with her neighbor Jessewhose a hotshot firefighter and has the side effect of practically setting her on fire.
The first time Jesse sees Charlie with her guard down, he’s hooked. She’s brilliant, gorgeous, and challenges him in ways he never expected. He knows her life is complicated. He doesn’t do complicated. Or so he thought.
Jesse ends up surprising Charlie again and again. He’s much more than a hotshot firefighter who’s too handsome for his own good. She finds she just might want him to rescue her. Yet, she’s independent and has pieced together her small family’s life in the aftermath of painful, unexpected losses.
She finds herself falling for Jesse—hard. Passion burns hot and fast between them, threatening to burn her defenses to ash. All the while, she’s facing painful choices as she tries to take care of her mother and learn how to be a mother to a cranky teenager who tests her emotional limits daily. She’s not used to depending on anyone, much less believing in happily-ever-after.
Meanwhile, Jesse is fighting to prove to Charlie he can be the man she needs—when she doesn’t even believe she needs anyone’s help. Charlie fights against letting herself be vulnerable. All the while her heart is in so deep with Jesse, she doesn’t know how to protect herself.
Jesse’s strength is intoxicating, so much so, Charlie can’t help but fall a little harder for him.
Review
Sweet Fire was a first time read from this author, although it didn’t hit all my favorite points that I love in a romance, I definitely enjoyed Jesse and Charlie’s story. And I’m looking forward to reading more by Croix.
I’d say that Sweet Fire is the perfect book to add to your summer reads, it’s a sweet and heart-warming romance with low angst, and you’ll be able to get through it quickly. I loved just about all the characters that were mentioned even the most adorable dog named Waffle. What a name, right?
As I was reading, I wasn’t even going to sit there and pretend to understand Charlie’s tragedy and pain. Losing both her father and sister nearly 6 months apart, her mother’s dementia getting worse and gaining guardianship of her teenage niece. That’s a lot to take on in such a short amount of time, the last thing she’d be looking for is any sort of romance.
But Jesse makes it tough to resist, shoot even I couldn’t resist the ever so charming hotshot firefighter. He wasn’t the hero that I quite expected him to be, which was rather refreshing. He wasn’t looking for anything serious, but he found it unexpectedly when the one he was attracted to happened to be his doctor.
I loved that he genuinely wanted to be there for Charlie and just help out in any way that he could. He definitely came into Charlie’s life at just the right moment, but it was tough for her to just dive in and see where things would end up with Jesse.
I admired Charlie a hell of a lot, she was trying to hold everything in for a long time with really no chance to release it all. I’d say she’s doing quite alright with everything that she’s shouldering.
As all small town stories go, it’s hard not to love them. I really enjoyed Croix’s writing and I’ll definitely be revisiting the rest of this series.
???1/2
Meet the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author J. H. Croix lives in a small town in the historical farmlands of Maine with her husband and two spoiled dogs. Croix writes steamy contemporary romance with strongindependent women and rugged alpha men who aren’t afraid to show some emotion. Her love for quirky small-towns and the characters that inhabit them shines through in her writing. Take a walk on the wild side of romance with her bestselling novels!
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