Rating: 4 stars
When fireman Max Harrison moves to Ellery to work as the assistant to the Mayor, he still volunteers as a fireman for the town. So when the local police department’s building catches on fire, all his instincts kick in and he races into the building to rescue the last man inside. Max finds Finn Ryan, one of the three police officers to serve the small town of Ellery. Even injured, Finn finds the fireman attractive. An attraction that is returned by Max who is eager to pursue a relationship with the young cop.
But the fire turns out to be arson, and its target is Finn. With Finn at the center of the arson investigation, Max races to find the person responsible before Finn falls victim again and all hope for love perish in the flames.
Double the fun, double the hotness as R.J. Scott begins a new series with a fireman and a cop at the center of the story. Max Harrison is the older and more experienced of the two men in every aspect. He has sought out the quiet town of Ellery to escape the worst city life can offer. And almost immediately he finds Finn Ryan, local cop who grew up in Ellery and has deep roots on the mountain.
This book establishes many of the characters that I suspect will meet over the series of books to come and the author does a wonderful job of sorting out all the people and their relationship to each other. Scott never lets me down in her character development as Max and Finn are believable as well as endearing, especially Max. I look forward to more of this couple in the stories to come.
At 78 pages, however, I found this story to be a little to short to throughly explore all the elements of this story. I would love more background on Max, and the identity of the arsonist just kind of popped up out of nowhere. But the vivid descriptions of the crackling fire and the out of control blazes just intensify the drama and the anxiety the reader feels every time our main characters are in danger. The romance is sweet, and the potential for more to come makes us eagerly anticipate the next book in the series.
The Fireman and The Cop is being published by Total-E-Bound Publishing .
Cover Art by Posh Gosh. I love the landscape at the bottom, the fonts are terrific and easy to read. I only wished the models had stuck a tad closer to the characters within. One is far too young to be Max, although those suspenders are very hot.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 