Title:  Controlled Burn
Series:  Boston Fire #2
Author:  Shannon Stacey
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  December 1, 2015
Publisher:  Carina Press
My Rating:  5 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Cover Description:

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.

Read on for my thoughts on Controlled Burn.  No true spoilers, promise.

Controlled Burn is an intense, emotional story of family – and what makes up a family in many ways.  Rick is a man who would describe himself as “not the marrying kind”.  He’s not a player, but he enjoys the ladies.  Except no one even gives him the feeling that she might be that mythical one that his friends talk about finding when they met the loves of their lives.  Maybe he just isn’t cut out for the long term.  That is about to change in ways he never saw coming.

Jessica is about to meet the grandparents she never knew, all the while wondering if they even knew about her.  To say that her father didn’t have any kind of relationship with his parents let alone a bad one would be the understatement of the century.  But now she was about to go face to face with two people her father swears are monsters.  The last thing she needs to deal with right now is a handsome as sin tenant who believes she’s out to scam the people he considers family.  Yeah right – a fast trip to Boston to sell her grandparents’ home and get them settled into a retirement home just went up in smoke… and that might not be a bad thing.

Rick is a Boston firefighter.  Jessica is a financial manager.  East Coast.  West Coast.  How in the world can they find any common ground.  Joe and Marie might be the base, but the attraction is hot between Jessica and Rick.  Somehow they have to find the way to get through their personal issues to discover that time and location mean very little to what the heart knows and needs.

I enjoyed Controlled Burn very much.  Family comes in all sizes, configurations and emotional makeup.  There doesn’t have to be blood in order to call someone part of the family.  Firefighters are very much a brotherhood (or sisterhood) of family for as long as anyone can remember.  The very job that they do requires a trust beyond what blood brings to the equation.  Rick has that in Boston on the  East coast.  Jessica has only ever had just her father – and he’s a very self-centered, emotionally damaged – well, jerk really.  His view of the value of family has been her base for her entire life.  Now that is changing as fast as the weather in Boston and she’s confused and wary of what she’s feeling for this Boston firefighter.

There are so many important levels to this story that goes beyond the attraction between a man and a woman.  Mindsets are going to change.  What one thought was reality is actually very different.  Sacrifices will have to be made – and only Rick and Jessica know if what they feel is worth the risks.

Controlled Burn is the second release in the Boston Fire series.  And now I’m going to need to go back and pick up the first novel because this is a series that captured my interest with an in depth, thoughtful story that I want to experience more about the people who make up Boston Fire.

*I received an e-ARC of Controlled Burn 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