Controlled Burn

By: Shannon Stacey

Narrated by: Tatiana Sokolov

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rick Gullotti lives the good life. He fights fires, dates beautiful women - though none long enough so she casts 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.

©2015 Shannon Stacey (P)2015 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited.

Hot Firefighter– Need I Say More? No!

Rick has been living with an older couple (Joe and Marie) in their attached apartment. It is a great situation for both parties, especially as Joe and Marie are getting older. Rick is single and enjoys helping the older couple with the more physical tasks around the house and property.

After a health scare with the elderly couple, the hospital contacts their only son, who is been estranged from them for decades. His daughter (Joe and Marie's only grandchild – who they knew nothing about) shows up to help them get their affairs in order and help them make decisions about where they will live, etc.

Rick is extremely skeptical of Jessica's motives for these people he cares about - like a second set of parents. Jessica is skeptical of Rick's motives, as well. However, As could be expected, Jessica and Rick are attracted to one another which complicates things even further.

Shannon Stacey is in her element. I have yet to read a book by her that I haven't loved.

Tatiana Sokolov is one of my favorite narrators. She could work on her Boston accent little bit.

Credit worthy? Absolutely
Notes: some descriptions of sex and strong language

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Great book and awesome narration..

Over the past year or so I’ve just about given up on all romances, because nothing ever happens, just pages and pages of nothing, so I’ve been reading murder mysteries, spy stories, stalker stories, serial killer stories, those kinds of books, books with some meat to them. But I thought I’d try this one since it was about firemen so there was bound be some excitement. And there was, plus a nice love story.

This was about a worthless father (as far as I’m concerned) who was embarrassed by his parents when he was a young that he left and didn’t come back for forty years and didn’t tell his parents, Joe and Marie, they had a granddaughter so they were stunned when Jessica showed up on their doorstep when she was 34. What an A-hole her father was. I didn’t like him at all.

And this was about the firefighter, Rick, who was as sweet and kind as he could be, and fell in love with Jess, who lived in San Diego, while Rick lived in Boston, in the upstairs apartment of Joe and Marie’s house.

It was a good story of the trials and tribulations of Rick and Jess. Of the attraction they fought, of fires and tragic accidents, of Marie and Joe’s love for a son that was gone from their lives for so long, of Rick and Jess trying to figure out how to have a relationship when they lived thousands of miles apart. It was good.

There was definitely a lot of desire, and explicit sex! There was swearing, they are firefighters after all, but the F-bomb was only used 4 times.

As to the narration: Marvelous! Ms. Sokolov/Tanya Eby is one of my favorite narrators. She never disappoints. Between her reading with such emotions and the wonderful men’s and women’s voices she does you really can’t go wrong.

A story that went nowhere...over and over again

What would have made Controlled Burn better?

If the author understood "show and not tell", maybe? Or if her characters were more believable. If the reader had a better voice? If I had saved my credit and spent it on a story that was better written? Im not sure how many fixes this needed (that it didn't get) but anything would have been better than this...schlock. It's so so formulaic and meh and nothing new and awful and and and...

Has Controlled Burn turned you off from other books in this genre?

Perhaps stories by the author. It's the very meh-est of romance that I've read/listened to. If it was a color it'd be beige.

How could the performance have been better?

The voices were awful, I didn't like the pacing and THATS her version of a Boston accent?!? Ha ha ha. No.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Controlled Burn?

All of the repeated scenes that we'd JUST gone over in the opposite characters pov. All of the over-explanation. All of the repetitive thoughts over and over. Maybe then there'd be some room for the couple to actually be shown falling in love and not just be pushed together because the author said so. The chemistry between them absolutely falls flat.

Any additional comments?

Save your credit. Really.