***ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley***

Dak Parrish has family issues. That's what he'd jumped at the opportunity to come back to Oregon to fight fires—his father, mother and little brother live on the reservation nearby. While his mother appears not to want to have anything to do with him, his father makes an impromptu visit, blackmailing Dak into helping an arsonist investigator look into suspicious fires...A prickly female investigator that quickly gets under Dak's skin...


Like its predecessor this story also didn't bring much to the table. The characters were bland (although the heroine was slightly too bitchy for my taste), the suspense had its moments, but the final reveal (without much motive behind it, or a worthy resolution) left everything to be desired, the pacing was plodding...

Another puffed-rice-cake equivalent.

Ten years ago, the lives of two families imploded. Two men died in a fire, one was blamed for both deaths and friendships crumbled.

Lance Roberts is back in Redmond, Oregon. First, to get his father's old job and second, to uncover the truth about the death of his and his best friend's father, his father was also blamed for. He doesn't really expect a warm welcome, but he also doesn't expect threats and sabotage...Or falling (again) for his ex-best friend's sister who also happens to be his trainer.


I liked the blurb of this book...But that's pretty much all I liked. Let me put it this way. This book was the reading equivalent of puffed rice cakes. Bland, tasteless and odorless.

The characters were bland, the story was bland, the pacing was poor, the suspense lacked any oomph, the villains were one too many, the romance was lackluster at best (I preferred the angst before they got together)...

It failed to capture my attention and I was bored by the time I got to chapter 4. I admit to only skimming the rest of it, because I kept hoping something would click.

It didn't.

***eBook available for free on Amazon***

They each found their happily-ever-after in their books, now Ms Ruggle brings us their "second epilogues". Engagements, surprise weddings, puppy-napping and pregnancies, rockslides, and a brand new, surly character to herald a new series (which I'll certainly read).

Lighthearted moments mixed with some sadness, happiness folded in with just a dash of danger, these epilogues were fun to read (one of them even better than the book—which wasn't difficult).
It was fun revisiting these old friends, take a peek into their lives after HEA (which seem to be over-the-top good, but that's Romancelandia for you), and the little glimpse of the hero in the next book (and next series) whetted my appetite just enough.

One night, Carly hears something similar to a dog barking in the empty store next to hers. When she goes to investigate, she finds there really is a dog barking...Beside his obviously drunk and unconscious owner. When a fire erupts, Carly decides to save the unconscious man only to find out he was trying to commit suicide by fire...Or was he?


I don't know what happened. I simply couldn't get into the groove of the story. It felt like watching something through an opaque window. Or as if something was keeping me detached. Maybe it was the fact I felt nothing about the two leads or the fact the two had no chemistry whatsoever (even that last scene felt like an afterthought to tie the "romance" with a nice little bow). Or maybe it was the fact there was no "threat", no feeling of immigrant danger.

The entire story was lukewarm at best only showing stirrings of intensity from chapter 27 to 30. But by then it was too late.

Argh! I hate it when this happens…When I love the first book in the series and then the second ruins all the good feels. All the feels.

I can’t even say I disliked the heroine. I didn’t. I didn’t like her, I didn’t dislike her, I felt nothing. And that’s the worse feeling of all. While Lou and her story were interesting, lively, funny, sexy, a little chaotic and funky, and gave the reader a glimpse (albeit not a full one, since the story was told from the heroine’s third-person POV) into the hero’s psyche and what made him tick, Rory’s story was all about Rory. About her gun shop (since I don’t understand or share the American fascination with everything gun related, my eyes glazed over every time the shop or the merchandise was mentioned), her windows-related paranoia, her bunker, her overall paranoia, her unconventional childhood, her social ineptitude...Blah blah blah. I suppose the reader is supposed to feel sympathy for the girl, but I simply didn’t care. It wasn’t endearing, it was simply annoying.

And since it was all about Rory and her (not-in-a-good-way) craziness, everything else suffered. The hero (he simply existed, catering to her Rory-ness), the story (slow, dull, and hole-y—Why did they target Rory’s shop, when she simply sold them everything they wanted? Why did no one look into the late-listed evidence/evidence tampering?), the overall murder arc was barely touched upon, the annoying characters (the deputy who I’m certain is crooked, the unfriendly fellow firefighter who I’m sure was the one to nick the pendant) became even more annoying thanks to the general un-appeal of the story...I won’t even mention the romance, because...What romance? The hero and heroine getting together and finally knocking boots was merely another plot device with no feeling, no depth, nothing.

I was seriously considering DNF-ing this one, but my stubborn streak kicked in and I wanted to see if the story got better. I wanted it to get better. Alas, I didn’t get my wish.