This was by far the best novel of this series. It doesn’t hurt that it’s two of my favorite tropes: second chance and single dad, but it also felt more like the Annabeth Albert I’m used to reading.
Feel the Fire is book three of her Hotshots series and we met Tucker in High Heat as Garrick’s quiet and very private coworker. He had kids young after a one night experiment with his best female friend and that changed the entire trajectory of his life. Now, nearly 18 years later, Luis, his best friend and first love who moved away in high school has been sent back to help out with a rough fire season and to help identify an arsonist. Luis never really got over Tucker, but brings his own tragic baggage with him.
It’s hard to put my finger on what exactly made this other than the trope. Both Tucker and Luis brought so much baggage I generally would think the story would be bogged down and a slow read, but it wasn’t. I’m wondering if this one was better because they actually tried to talk through what happened. They didn’t avoid it for the whole novel, they didn’t sweep it under the rug. They acknowledged what happened, they talked about their past and they came to a better place.
‘I know this isn’t exactly the middle. But I keep coming back in my head to where it started.’
‘Me too. God, how many hours did we spend in those bleachers talking?’ Tucker swore that if he squinted he could see the ghosts of their younger selves up there, second row from the top of the home team section. (Chapter 23)
What they didn’t do, however, was talk about the future until it was almost too late and that did annoy me. But, that is to be expected in 99% of these novels. It’s the main drama in a novel, if everything is perfect and wonderful there’s always a moment of “Oh no! We forgot to talk about the future! How will we ever figure this out!?” and yes, it’s very annoying but not the worst thing that could happen.
Albert’s story really shone in this novel. Her minor characters, especially Tucker’s twins and their mother, really made the novel feel like one of the Albert novels I usually enjoy. The first two had strong minor characters, but they just didn’t feel like they added as much to the story as this one. (It’s 100% recency bias, as I’m writing this I’m remembering how hilarious Jacob’s family was in Burn Zone.)
I didn’t have any issues with the sex scenes, Albert as far as I can remember has always walked the walk when it comes to vers characters and she’s one of the better writers when it comes to slow burn and not having the characters get together too early if they’re not supposed to. I want to say this was a high tension slow build and they didn’t even kiss until maybe a third to a half way through the book and the sex was definitely over halfway, which worked because they had so much they had to talk through.
Recommendation: Definitely my favorite of the four books in the series, mostly due to the tropes, but the characters also just felt more relatable and rounded. There was also better incorporation of the minor characters that felt missing from the other novels. It took roughly the same amount of time to read as the other novels in the series, but didn’t feel as heavy or as long.
Opening Line: “‘You want me to go where?’ Luis paced the narrow length of his boss’s office, ignoring the visitor’s chair in front of where Rosalind sat.”
Closing Line: “The future was glittery with the love they shared, and he couldn’t wait to experience it together.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)
