In Flames

By: Jessica Jayne

Narrated by: Samantha Cook, Joe Arden

Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

Gracelyn Riley married a firefighter and knew that came with risks. But she never imagined herself widowed in her early 30s with two children to care for on her own. Even though her marriage to Chad Riley had its difficulties, dealing with the last year without him has not been easy. Her brother-in-law, Matt, has been the rock that has kept her from collapsing or imploding.

As a Mason Ridge fireman, Matt Riley had been at the scene when his brother, Chad, was killed. For the last year, Matt has suffered from survivor’s guilt and drank himself into oblivion. His sister-in-law, Gracelyn, supported him, lending him a shoulder to cry on. Her friendship has pulled him through time and time again until he finally sobered up.

With the one-year anniversary of Chad’s death upon them, Gracelyn and Matt turn to each for support and comfort. What they didn’t expect was to realize that their feelings for each other go beyond the solid friendship they share. Can they overcome the guilt and the scrutiny of their family and friends to find love together?

©2018 Jessica Jayne (P)2018 Jessica Jayne

Emotionally charged

Firemen have a dangerous job and Gracelyn Riley knew this when she married her husband, Chad. When her brother-in-law, Matt came to the door, she knew the danger had caught up with Chad and life was about to change. Matt being a firefighter as well, took the death of his brother hard, and with the help of Gracelyn, the two helped each other through the toughest of times. Now that their relationship has evolved over time, will the two resolve to be together? Can Gracelyn get involved with her brother-in-law? What will people say? How will it effect their kids? Will their relationship be accepted? This taboo love story is formed around heartache and distress, something that we all can relate to. The question comes, would their love be worth a try? And at what cost? I listened to this story and loved the way these two evolved into their relationship. I struggled with Matt and his guilt, and was frustrated right next to Gracelyn. I think Jessica Jayne did a wonderful job dealing with grief and a situation that is easy to quickly judge. While I can't imagine the grief these two went through, I can easily see their love and how true it is. It's a steamy, emotional listen and worth every minute.

The choice of narrators for this book is key. With it's high emotional content, narrators with the ability to go from happy to sad, frustrated to passionate is important. Joe Arden and Samantha Cook are perfect for these roles. Their talent brought the story to life, making us feel right along with Matt and Gracelyn.

Scorching and emotional

I really enjoyed listening to this! Great balance in the story between sweet and hot - and I mean scorching hot. The two main characters were so real, so likeable, and I wanted them to overcome the obstacles in the way. A couple of well-written villians added to the tension.
Narrators were terrific, both so pleasant to listen to and interpreted a myriad of emotions very well.

Soft Porn

Didn't even get past chapter 2. Kudos to Joe Arden for narrating but there's nothing but graphic sex right from the get go. So tired of listening to the same scene over and over. This isn't romance - it's just two people having sex. Come on romance writers, write something more than sex scenes!!!!

A sweet with plenty of heat taboo romance

STORY 3.5:
Jayne’s latest is a sexy contemporary taboo romance with an off the charts heat level. Gracelyn and Matt are genuine and likeable characters and their love story is touching, emotional and explosive. The author does a wonderful job of dealing with all the negative and positive consequences of this very complicated relationship including the incredibly convoluted family dynamics. Even though the read tends to be on the wordy side it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of this sweet with heat romance. The real standout of the novel is Matt and Gracelyn’s love of and dedication to their family and to each other and the love they tried so hard to ignore triumphing.

NARRATION 4:
The narrators- Samantha Cook and Joe Arden do a wonderful job of bringing the novel to life for their listeners putting emotion and feeling in every sentence and scene and making the characters more three dimentional plus they both expertly handle male and female voices. The audible edition gives the audience a more in depth experience of the story.

SUMMARY:
On the first anniversary of Chad Riley perishing in a fire his widow Gracelyn and brother and fellow firefighter Matt who was at the fire that killed him give in to an attraction that’s been building over the past year not once but multiple times –– Gracielyn’s marriage to Chad wasn’t perfect but this past year has been difficult without him and would have been more difficult if not for Matt. She’s grateful for all that he’s done to help her and her two children after losing her husband and their dad and is ready to take these feelings to the next level, to see where it might lead. Butt Matt is more pragmatic, after all he’s lived in the shadow of his big brother Chad all his life and is convinced it will only hurt the ones they love, plus he’s afraid if they go forward he won’t be able to keep his hands off her and so is totally against it.
But are they strong enough to fight the flames and if they give in again will the heat heal or consume them?

Widow sister-in law & brother-in law Fall In Love

Friendship turns to love between a firefighter and his widowed sister-in-law. He fights his feelings and guilt while she recognizes their feelings sooner and has to be patient with him. The biggest obstacle is his mother, who favoured his deceased brother.Good narration, a simple plot but fast moving dialog and a few erotic scenes. It has an abrupt ending and could have used an epilogue but an ok romance.

Steamy

Chad & Gracelyn are at the one year anniversary of his brother/her husband's death and realizing that they have very strong feelings for each other. This is best enjoyed by those who are looking for more sex and less story development, especially at the beginning. In some respects, it was actually fairly low angst, which was nice.

I love Joe Arden & Samantha Cook as narrators and for the most part they were excellent. The issue is one of continuity. Arden pronounces "Gracelyn" as two words, "Grace Lyn" and Cook as a singular fluid word. Considering how many times her name is in the book, this is pretty noticeable.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Emotionally Hot!

This was a roller coaster of emotions dealing with grief and slight taboo of the hero and heroine, I really am glad how the story panned out with the well earned HEA. Of course, the narrators were amazing.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
AudiobookObsession
AudiobooksUnleashed

Emotional and could not put it down

I was lucky to receive this audible book and in return give an honest review.
This book had my heart pounding and breaking and finally healing. I thought it was well written and the characters relatable. Dual POV are my favorite and the author did a good job bring both characters thoughts, feelings and struggles to the forefront. The narrators were able to bring all of that to life. That combination was audiobook you don’t want to hit the pause button for, and one that you feel all the emotions.
Do yourself a favor and listen/read this book. You won’t be sorry.

Hot Hot hot

Wow!! Hot Damn!! was my first thought after finishing this book. I am starting to really get in the romance genre, I have not read much in this genre so I was unaware that they had such books as these. This book is HOT like hot damn hot. I listened to this book in one sitting. I needed something to distract myself from the all the Drs visits and lab work and waiting, so I thought why not just listen to my ARC of In Flames? So I downloaded it and started to listen.

Let me say something first. It is REALLY hard to distract me when I am in a mood ad the Drs keep going just ONE MORE TEST. I was starting to get all stabby and be like bitch please you have already taken 10 tubes of blood, why do you need more? And when I got fed up, I would go home without the vampires getting more of my blood. Heh, So you can see why I needed “brain candy” to distract me and not get all bitchy at the nurses and the Drs.

I liked this audiobook so much that even when the Dr was in the room, I kept listening heh. It was only recently that I have started to get into the romance genre and damn was I missing out. I thank the Book Gods that all of Jessica Jayne books are on Kindle Unlimited. Yes, I renewed my subscription to that program to hear/read more books by Jessica Jayne.

When you first hear the story, it starts with action right away. No listening for an hour wondering if you should call it quits and DNF it or to plod on hoping that the book will redeem itself.

A pet peeve of mine is when an author takes 100 pages to set up the story. Yes, 85 percent of the time it is worth it but the rest of the time it is pure shit, and as a reader, it is difficult to know what books to throw in the towel on.

I was happy to hear some action in the first five minutes into this story. And it was a good action, not a filler; it was action that helped the overall plot of the book and the whole book is one thing after another and it kept me entertained waiting for the Dr.

I did at some point question the ethics of what happened, but then I reminded myself it is a book and it only real inside your head. At times I become so engrossed in a story that I get mad if something happened that I thought should not have.

I am not sure if this would qualify for “instant-love,” but it does get physical and fast and hot.

One word of caution though is there is umm a lot of physical “activities” that happen so if you prefer not to hear detailed descriptions of a woman getting fucked out of her mind then you should maybe pass this book on by. However, if you are NOT the prudish sort then go to Amazon and get you a copy and listen. Make sure you have six hours to do so cause once you start you will not want to stop till you reach the end.

About the narration, I listened, and I was all like OMG THE DUDE FROM CAKE IS ALSO A FIREFIGHTER! Then I looked and yes they have the same NARRATOR but completely different stories. I have only been able to understand audiobooks for a year now so I really had no idea that there are a few top-notch narrators that read a lot of the books for audio.

I

Combustible!

One year ago, Matt Riley lost his brother, Chad, to a deadly fire. Both were firefighters and he watched his brother perish. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had the horrible experience of having to tell his sister-in-law, Gracelyn her husband was gone. Matt made it his mission to support her and the two children during the next year, both sort of propping each other up when he tried to drown his sorrows and she struggled to move forward. Now on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of Chad’s death, their consolation turns to something much, much more.

The idea of a brother taking up with his brother’s wife isn’t a new one but it’s always intriguing and this one lives up to that expectation. Complicating matters is Matt having always been attracted to Gracelyn though he’d never, ever considered crossing that proverbial line. When their passion was unleashed, it was pretty combustible. These two were fearless in their feelings for each other but highly fearful of condemnation from family and colleagues. They had reason to be wary, especially of reactions from Matt’s mother, his ex-wife and their children. I thought this story got all these dynamics right especially if their relationships as aunt and uncle would transition to that of a stepparent. It’s complicated and I liked that these issues were front and center.

I enjoyed this story and felt the narrators captured the personalities of both Matt and Gracelyn. The pacing was great and I was very invested in the story. I wish we had more insight into what happened between Gracelyn and Matt in that past year as it would have made their relationship feel less like something instant. Otherwise, this worked very well for me. There were no easy answers and the resolutions felt realistic. A warning though...the steam level is off the charts!

(I received a complimentary copy from Caffeinated Services in exchange for an unbiased review)

Great story !

This is my first book by Jessica Jayne and I feel in love with this wonderful story. This is a well written and narrated story. I found the storyline extremely interesting . The book had my emotions all over the place. I have to say this is a wonderful story that is a must listen.
The narrator’s do an amazing job with the characters and voices and inflection of emotions. I will have to add these two narrator to my favorite list.
I definitely recommend this book!!