5 Smooches!
Synopsis
July Dupree and Dean ‘PD’ Hargrove fell head over heels in love. When PD comes home to tell July the good news about joining the SWAT team as a tactical medic, everything changes.
July can’t fathom why PD would want to be a cop in this day and age. Wasn’t it enough that he already had a dangerous job with the fire department? Now he has to add another, even more dangerous, job to the equation? With so many cruel people in the world who make a sport out of hurting cops just because of the badge they wear, she has to make him understand. But when he refuses to listen to her reasoning, she feels she has no other choice but to issue an ultimatum: her or the SWAT team.
Dean doesn’t like ultimatums. He’s furious with July for putting him in the awful position of having to choose between a dream and her.
July never believes for a second that he’d choose the SWAT team over her, but she is wrong.
A year later, they’re both still in love with each other, but neither one is willing to budge regardless of their feelings.
July’s feelings for Dean haven’t changed, in fact her love for him has only grown. But seeing him living his life seemingly unaffected by the loss of what they had breaks her heart over and over each time she sees him.
Dean has a good poker face, though. He’s just going through the motions of his life until finally, the smoldering embers of his feelings erupt into a full-on blaze of emotion, burning through everything but his love for July. When the smoke clears, Dean wants to know if they can reignite the fire of their love or is he destined to live his life in a constant state of controlled burn?
REVIEW
Lani Lynn Vale’s Kilgore Fire series has fast become a favorite of mine. I love how she blends the stories of the new cast of characters in this series with fan favorite characters from her other Kilgore, Texas-based series, and in the case of this story, her Uncertain Saints MC series. This series is hot, hot, hot – and it has nothing to do with fires.
I’ve been waiting for Dean’s story since he was introduced in the first book of the series, and Vale did not disappoint with this character. He’s an all-alpha male, perhaps one of the most alpha that Vale has ever written, and if you’ve read her work, then you know that’s really saying something. He’s dominant, he’s bossy, he likes a bit of kink with his sex, and he knows what he wants, both in the bedroom and out.
July is a strong and sassy heroine. She’s got some demons from her childhood, though, and unfortunately, they fed into her insecurities and tainted her relationship with Dean. Their relationship was on the fast-track – Dean and July fell for each other deep, hard and instantly. But some miscommunications along with July’s demons and the fact that Dean didn’t fully grasp them or their impact on her, fueled their relationship’s downfall. A long, heartbreaking year apart later, and neither one of them has really moved on from the other. They want to be together, but there is a lot they need to work through to get there.
The love story of Dean and July isn’t the only thing happening in Controlled Burn, though. Not by a long shot! Lani Lynn Vale has weaved a positively riveting suspense plot into this story, and I was on the edge of my seat reading it. Vale knows exactly how to deliver the ‘shock and awe’ factor in her books, and let me tell you, she really did that here. It unexpected, exciting and really held my attention – I couldn’t get through it fast enough. I never fail to devour her books when one lands on my Kindle, but this series it different. It’s just so much more intense, raw and gritty than readers have seen from Vale in her previous works. Yet even with the darker, sexier, gripping storyline, incredibly Lani has still managed to hang onto that unique sense of humor that her readers love and expect to find in her stories. It’s right there, threaded throughout the story, popping up in expected places and ways. I loved it and this book.
I adore this series, and this was a fabulous addition to the series. Heart aching, heart racing and full of heat and humor, Lani Lynn Vale’s Controlled Burn gets 5 smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
