“I love you, too,” she whispered. “And I’m really scared.” “So am I. Scared shitless. But I realized that I’d rather have a year or a month or even a week of the happiness I feel when I’m with you than live in a place where I know I can’t get hurt. That’s not a life. Not a life I want anyway. I want a life with you for as long as you’l have me in it.” “Forever,” she said planting a kiss on my mouth. “That works for me.”

WARNING: This review does contain some spoilers!

It’s important to note that I’ve never read a fireman romance novel that I liked. I always feel like it’s too much of a stretch to be believable and sometimes the storylines are outlandish and a little too dramatic for my taste. That’s not the case with this book. This story is about a woman who is a volunteer firefighter and the man she falls for: her chief.  

I absolutely loved that this book was written with dual POVs. I always appreciate when we get to experience what both characters are thinking and feeling during a story. Especially with this one, when sh*t goes down a little over fifty percent of the way through the book, we are able to see the aftermath pretty quickly from both sides. 

Sophie is the bomb.com. She’s completely herself all the time, she loves her life (for the most part), she’s caring and considerate, she’s smart and driven, and she’s all about woman power. I love how spunky and sophisticated she is and how, even though she meets the man of her dreams, she doesn’t change anything about herself. She has absolutely no filter and that’s part of the reason Nick falls for her. Nick is a super sexy, cocky, motivated firefighter who shows up in Sophie’s hometown of Lilly Valley to interview for the position of firefighter chief. On his way to the interview, there is a major car crash that he pulls over and helps direct. That’s where he meets the volunteer fire fighter crew including Sophie (who is the one in charge) and the other men (none of which are important in any capacity). He falls for Sophie immediately, commenting on how she is the smallest firefighter he’s ever seen, but she knows what she’s doing and can command a group just as well as any man. He immediately wants to take her out and sleep with her, but before he can do that, he finds out that he got the job as chief over her. He still takes her out and they mess around a bit after she’s had a few drinks, but he tells her the next day who he is, and she is NOT about it. She’s furious with him for lying by omission and not telling her that he is the new chief even though she had been speaking poorly about whoever the new guy was the entire time they were drinking. It’s a pretty hilarious few chapters of Nick trying to get back into Sophie’s good graces.

Eventually Sophie gives in and invites him over and they get it on, and that’s when we find out that *ahem* Sophie is a VIRGIN! So now you know what “First In” actually means LOL. I love it. They have incredible sex and chemistry and, because there is no place to rent in town, Nick moves into Sophie’s house as her roommate. Now this is where I was a little sad and disappointed with the plot. We only get a few chapters of our couple being a happy couple. Just as soon as they are living together, Sophie overhears a conversation that ends with her kicking Nick out of the house. It was pretty upsetting. Although, in the end everything gets fixed up and our couple get their sweet HEA, I do wish we had been given more scenes of them together. I always enjoy basking in the happiness of a couple before the big bad thing that tears them apart comes into play. Anyway, overall I really enjoyed this novel and would definitely recommend it to a friend! 4 stars! 

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. 

“You heard me. I love you. And I need you. I need you in my life. Not as my deputy. Not as a friend. I need you like I need air. Like I need water.”