Title:  MacKenzie Fire
Series:  Shine Not Burn #2
Author:  Elle Casey
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  July 28, 2015 (original June 2014)
Publisher:  Montlake Romance
My Rating:  4 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Cover Description:

Still bitter about his failed engagement and life on the family ranch, Ian MacKenzie has been cranky for nearly three years. His brother Mack’s married bliss hasn’t helped, and now his pregnant sister-in-law’s airhead best friend is coming for a visit.

Candice arrives to help with the new baby, even though it means swapping her Louboutins for snow boots and her flat irons for flannel. She’s far from prepared for the freezing cold and she certainly wasn’t expecting the sizzling heat of her attraction to a certain green-eyed cowboy. Ian may be rude and infuriating, but he looks sinfully good in those jeans of his.

The two clash at every turn, but there’s one thing they can both agree on—if they do give in to their undeniable chemistry, then it’s just a fling…because he’s a country boy and she’s a city girl, and their zip codes are on opposite sides of the map.

Read on for my thoughts on MacKenzie Fire.  No true spoilers, promise.

Aww, I love the guys from this series so much… okay, a novel and a sequel so for, but we can hope for more, right?

Right now, Mack and Andie are expecting their first baby, in fact Andie is about to pop any day now.  To the rescue comes Andie’s best friend, Candice in all of her city girl glory, glamour and unique mindset.   Ian, Mack’s brother, is still as bitter, unfriendly and the royal pain in the butt he was in the last story… even more so since some time has passed.  He is not a happy camper at all about Candice being around, in fact he seems to find her the perfect butt of his ill tempered so called jokes.  But Candice, in her usual always upbeat, happy and seemingly airheaded way sets out to charm him or at least shake him loose from the attitude – and good luck with that.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking Candice is a silly city girl with nothing but fluff stuffing her head.  She is extremely smart, a businesswoman, owner of her own business and very savvy… she is nice and fun and rarely holds onto a bad mood but none of that makes her flighty.  Candice is the BFF I think we’d all like to have in our lives.

Pairing Ian and Candice may seem fruitless at first, but in reality these two compliment each other in many ways.  Candice is determined to shake Ian free of the cloud that has been over his head for years, and if she happens to come to love him along the way – she’ll deal with that if and when it happens.  For now she has a town gossip to fight,  a ranch to conquer, a stove to learn how to use and a gun to shoot.  She has her hands full.

I really liked Ian and Candice together.  Yes, there is definitely an attraction hidden under the dislike at first – but in time Ian will come to change his original impression of his sister-in-law’s best friend.  The sexual tension between these two is obvious, but I did enjoy that the physical part of their attraction took a while to build to a boil – because that made the most sense for these two stubborn people.  But when that pot boiled, it was explosive.  Their love is sexy, steamy and simply put – hot as hell.

MacKenzie Fire had me laughing out loud, saying “awwww” a lot, it charmed me, entertained me and at the ending gave me that wonderful “this was a great story” feeling that we always hope to close the book with.  I can recommend this story with the one caution… look out, laughter, tears and feel goods ahead.  Enjoy.

*I received an e-ARC of MacKenzie Fire from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*

Available in paperback, audio and for the Kindle