Leigh Bale

Runaway Amish bride, well kind of, but not quite, especially as you quickly turn the pages, and not all is as it appears.
The author touches on some tough subjects here, and we meet them head on with putting faces to how people deal with grief, especially children. One little boy was naughty, but you will chuckle on how this young fellow deals with what he perceives as a threat to his deceased mom. Poor Abby!
We also put a face to abuse, both physical and mental, and how to deal with someone that has had that happened to them, all the while wondering how such evil could exist in supposedly Godly people?
Will warn you that once you turn the first page you will not be able to put the book down, it is a real compelling read.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harlequin, and was not required to give a positive review.… (more)

From the title, you can probably guess that this book is about firefighters. For this type of book, it is decently done--and it is a clean romance, which for me is a plus. It's not as well done as some in that I didn't really connect with the characters.

Megan Rocklin is a widow whose husband was killed during a wildfire. She's vowed to never again love someone whose career is in a dangerous profession. I can certainly understand the pain Megan has at losing a husband she loved and in not wanting to repeat that if she can avoid it. Thankfully, Megan inherited a diner from her husband's side of the family (I think before the husband died) . In fact, she's the only restaurant in the small town of Minoa.

For this reason, the new forest manager, Jared Marshall, seeks her out to provide food on site for crews brought in to fight forest fires.

Megan's kids, June and Caleb, were the characters who resonated most with me. I could identify with June's standoffish-ness when it came to a new man in her mom's life, but I was also glad to see that she could accept it for the right man. Both kids had the bluntness and honesty of young children which led to some awkward moments in the plot.

But I grew tired of the tired-and-true genre plot device of denying the attraction because of some reason from the past. Megan brings up the "I don't want to marry a firefighter" over and over again both to herself and to others--so much so that I was ready to throw the book at her if I could--I mean it's obvious that they are going to get together by the end--I'm just sorry it took a time of such extreme danger for Megan to realize her true feelings for Jared.… (more)