The Fireman Who Loved Me
Jennifer Bernard
Genre: Contemporary
Heat Level: Sensual/Hot
Rating:

Fearless, smoking hot, and single: meet the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel. These firemen might be heroes, but it's their bad luck in love that makes them legendary.

News producer Melissa McGuire and Fire Captain Harry Brody couldn't be more different, though they do have one thing in common: they're both convinced they're perfectly wrong for each other. But when Melissa's matchmaking grandmother wins her a date with Brody at a Bachelor auction . . .

Sparks fly. Passion flares. Heat rises. (You get the picture.)

Add a curse, a conniving nightly news anchor, a stunningly handsome daredevil fireman, a brave little boy, a couple of exes, and one giant fire to the mix, and Melissa and Brody's love may not be the only thing that burns.

Review

The Fireman Who Loved Me is a book with the potential to be a wonderful, but suffers from too much drama and an overwhelming amount of characters.

Melissa isn’t looking for love, but her meddling grandmother knows it is time for Melissa to meet a nice man and settle down. She has a plan and isn’t going to waver from it. There is an ulterior motivation for Nelly, Melissa’s grandmother, to be setting her up that Melissa is unaware of and Melissa isn’t happy about being manipulated by her grandmother – especially when she meets Brody.

Brody is everything Melissa doesn’t want in a man. He’s a typical alpha male – overprotective, thinks he knows everything, and doesn’t have a sensitive side. At least, that’s what Melissa thinks he is. Brody is really a very decent guy. He’s alpha, but not overbearingly so. Brody isn’t looking for romance, but can’t fight his attraction to Melissa.

I liked the chemistry between Brody and Melissa. They both are so sure they aren’t meant for each other, but in reality they are perfect for each other.

What I didn’t like about the story was the number of misunderstandings between the couple and how Melissa and Brody reacted to them. For intelligent people they didn’t ask questions or want to hear the truth from each other. Also, both Melissa and Brody have exes that come back into the picture. These characters are both flat. They are both portrayed as selfish and awful with no redeeming characteristics. It felt contrived that they appeared at the same time and the reactions of the other characters were over the top.

There are an incredible amount of characters to keep track of in the story. We have Melissa, her grandmother, her father, her ex and all of her coworkers (of which they are many). On Brody’s side there is his ex and all of the men at the fire station. It was a lot to keep track of and I had to really think about whom so-and-so was when mentioned.

Although this book is lighthearted and funny, there were several moments of real emotion and I found myself liking the book more as I continued reading. I’m hoping that the next book in the series is less over the top drama-wise and focuses more on the relationship between the hero and heroine.

Reviewed by Carrie