Maddie is deeply scarred from her unhappy high school days so when her friends win her a date at the bachelor charity auction with her high school crush, poor Maddie is painfully uncomfortable interacting with him in any way. Their “date” was complete cringe, I could feel the tension and humiliation. See, back in high school, they shared a sweet night and Maddie’s first kiss, but Mauro doesn’t remember her at all. That would be hard for anyone and we can all relate to feeling invisible at times.
Despite the date ending in disaster, they run into each other soon after and things go much differently. Now Mauro really likes Maddie and she likes him too, but all those old insecurities come rushing back to torture her. When Mauro finally realizes how much his rejection hurt her, he goes to great lengths to make it up to her.
This is a sweet and fun read. The characters are likeable, the story is interesting and there’s a great cast of supporting characters. The romance has a HEA and I enjoyed everything about this book right up until the very last paragraph where there’s a cliffhanger with one of the subplots, which I can’t condone. Although I was interested in the rest of the series, that really turns me off so I’m not sure I’ll read the others. But as a standalone – if you can ignore the cliffy – this is a lovely story.
Flirting With Fire on Amazon
Flirting With Fire
by Piper Rayne
Blue Collar Brothers book 1
Published 2018
Everyone knows that if you play with fire you’ll end up getting burned…
What happens when you attend a first responder’s bachelor auction with your best friends? Well, if your name is Madison Kelly like me, your friends end up bidding on a date for you with your high school crush.
That’s right. Even back when I was ‘Fatty Maddie’ to all my classmates, I had eyes for the quarterback of our football team. Not like I was the only one.
Mauro Bianco may fight fires for a living, but he still sets my heart ablaze. One look at the rugged, muscular man he’s turned into and I want to slide down his pole.
One date. That’s all I’m committed to. A few hours and I can tuck him back into that tattered old shoebox in my closet.
As always, the universe has other plans. I never would’ve predicted that in a matter of days he’d turn from my dream guy into my business partner-and that’s when things got interesting.
