Day: April 5, 2019

4 out of 5 stars

Ebook. 220 pages. Published October 15th 2017 by Dreamspinner Press

Blurb:

The flames of passion rise for the lord of the manor.

It’s springtime in Calminster village, but things are already heating up. Sexy firefighter Dale Maloney is new to the local station. When Dale backs the company fire engine into the village maypole, he attracts the ire—and attention—of Benedict Raleigh, the Baron Calminster.

Soon after meeting Dale, Ben breaks off his relationship with his girlfriend, and the sparks between Ben and Dale are quickly fanned into flames.

Unfortunately the passion between the two men isn’t the only blaze in the village. An arsonist’s crimes are escalating, and it’s up to Dale and his crew to stop them. Meanwhile, as they investigate, an unscrupulous business partner attempts to coerce Ben into marrying his daughter. The May Day parade is around the corner, but they have plenty of fires to put out before Ben can finally slide down the fireman’s pole. 

Likes:

• The instant spark between Ben and Dale.
• The firefighters and townspeople.
• How accepting everyone ultimately is about Dale and Ben.
• Funny.
• No angst.

Dislikes:

• Very abrupt ending.
• The class difference isn’t fully addressed.
• I have no idea what’s in store for this couple. Will they make it? I don’t know.
• The romance went from 0 to 60 in no time at all.
• A lot going on and not everything was given the attention it deserved.

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I liked this book. It was fun and fluffy and I finished it in an afternoon. Reading it was like lounging on a pool float going down a lazy river. Which is to say, I enjoyed it while I was reading, because I was just going with the flow, but upon closer inspection it’s got a number of problems.

Dale is a likeable guy, both because of his personality in general and because he takes the friendly teasing from his fellow firefighters well. I did have to look up what the L plates that kept appearing on his station locker were. They stand for ‘learner’ and are the equivalent of the ‘student driver’ signs used in the USA. It’s a lighthearted way to tease Dale considering that he backed the firetruck into the maypole.

Ben is used to people treating him with instant respect because he’s nobility, and he comes across as snobby at first. But it’s clear he really cares for the village in general and his staff in specific, so it was easy to warm up to him. Dale warms up to him quickly as well, their instant attraction more on the superficial side.

The romance is a bit all over the place. Dale is recovering from a bad breakup and Ben isn’t out. But something convinces both men to throw caution to the wind and go full speed ahead with the romance. While their attraction is obvious, the reason why they fall for each other so hard and fast isn’t.

There’s a lot going on in terms of subplots, including an arsonist, attempted business takeover, helping Mrs. Wilson relocate, and more. The abrupt ending, without an epilogue, left a lot of dangling threads. At the very least, I would have liked to see an epilogue months or even a year down the road.

I liked how sweet and fluffy this book was, so I’ll definitely check out more of Sue Brown’s work in the future. While this book wasn’t perfect, I was willing to suspend reality a little when reading – after all, it’s a romance about a fireman and a baron. That right there requires a willingness to accept that two such different people could ever make a romance work – so I had a lot of fun reading this book. This was my first time reading Sue Brown and I look forward to her other books.