He’s infuriating…

Dempsey Jones has been a nuisance my entire life, the straight-laced Boy Scout grown up to be a firefighter, of all things. He was the one helping kittens out of trees and old ladies cross the road while I was lighting cherry bombs with my best friend in abandoned buildings, and now that we’re all grown up—even if my Dad doesn’t agree—he’s still just as annoying. 

She’s impossible…

Taite Ridley has been a constant my whole life, the curly haired mischievous daughter of the police chief, charming and devious and alluring. She was wild in ways I never dared to be and too big for our little town. But she’s here, a small town cop, and I can’t avoid her, even if I wanted to. 

And I don’t want to. 

It’s like mixing fire and gasoline and when these two collide, someone is gonna get burned…

SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW

I think when you read as many books as I do that you always hope to be surprised, delighted, swept away, but so frequently are. Within a few pages, I knew that Fireball by Nazarea Andrews was going to be one of those very seldom books.

Because I practically speed-read this novel and it’s actually very late (or early, depending on your perspective), I am approaching this review somewhat differently than I normally would.

The very first word I’d use to describe this novel is affection. I felt like Andrews loved these characters. I felt like these characters loved each other. This is a quality that I find so frequently missing in so much of the current romance writing. There was teasing. There was snark. There was rivalry. There were familial interactions. All of these interactions were underscored by affection. As a reader, this just makes an incredible difference. It makes me smile. It makes me turn the pages and look forward to every scene. It enhanced the steamy scenes for me to the nth degree. Ultimately I loved these characters.

Which is a perfect segue to: characterization. Andrews breathed life into these characters. She tossed out bits of information so cleverly so that you were discovering Taite and Dempsey along the way, as well as their vibrant set of family and friends. Taite and Dempsey felt like flesh and blood people with all of their insecurities and flaws and gifts.

At the very beginning, thinking that I knew what was going to happen, she turned that expectation on its ear and threw in a curveball, an oh-so-satisfying curveball.

Fireball is steamy, fun, sad, affectionate, and most of all wonderfully entertaining and I am looking forward to more in this series. This is book #1 in the River Street Bar series.

If you like first responder romances that are sexy, funny, warm, serious, different (amongst so many other things), read this book!

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

rating: 

4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies

Nazarea Andrews (N to almost everyone) is an avid reader and tends to write the stories she wants to read. Which means she writes everything from zombies and dystopia to contemporary love stories. When not writing, she can most often be found driving her kids to practice and burning dinner while she reads, or binging watching TV shows on Netflix. N loves chocolate, wine, and coffee almost as much as she loves books, but not quite as much as she loves her kids. She lives in south Georgia with her husband, daughters, spoiled cat and overgrown dog. She is the author of World Without End series, Neverland Found, Edge of the Falls, and The University of Branton Series. Stop by her twitter (@NazareaAndrews) and tell her what fantastic book she should read next.

Author Links:

Site – http://www.nazareaandrews.com/
Blog – http://www.nazarea-andrews.blogspot.com/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/NazareaAndrews
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/NazareaAndrewsAuthor/
Street Team – https://www.facebook.com/groups/427502530700422/
Newsletter – http://eepurl.com/MtHwj