Bella Andre – Never too hot

The third book in the Hot Shots: Men of Fire series, published June 15, 2010.
Genre: contemporary romance
Cover: blah, my book has the new hot cover, much better!



A sexy wounded fireman is about to meet his match …
Wounded firefighter Connor MacKenzie has come returned home to rebuild his family’s cabin - and to be alone. A horrific blaze has left him scarred inside and out and determined that no woman will ever get close to him again.
Ginger Sinclair has been burned by a different kind of fire. Having just escaped from a bad marriage, she's retreated to the safety of this small lakeside town to start a new life. She's done with men and relationships - until she unexpectedly encounters Connor. As summer on the lake grows ever hotter, they find themselves sharing a cabin - and a romance that will swiftly engulf them both.


Another great instalment in the hot firefighters series by Bella Andre, and I think this one is my favourite of the three.
Connor has been fighting to get back on his hotshots team, and not only be a living reminder of the new hotshots he has been teaching the ropes to. He wants to get back on that mountain, and fight fire! Unfortunately, his appeals have been denied, he is supposedly a liability, endangering himself and his teammates. His brother is about to get married to his livelong love Diana, and they want to get married at their grandparents cabin at Blue Mountain Lake, deep in the Adirondack mountains. But first, the cabin will have to be renovated, it is over a 100 years old. The brother’s haven’t been back to the cabin since they went to Lake Tahoe to fight fires, even though they really loved their summers there. Their grandparents have moved south, and don’t visit anymore either, and their parents, they never came there since their own youth. But Connor is not prepared for the fact that the cabin is rented to a gorgeous young woman, who does not want to vacate it for his sake! She has a contract, and she loves it here, she is not leaving. And to allow him access to the building to start the renovations? Too make noise when she needs the quiet to paint? No way. But when Connor starts to list the dangers of the old cabin, she sees her refuge with different eyes. But Connor is not going to stay at the cabin, he will have to go to the B&B in town!
Unfortunately, the B&B and every other hotel in the area is booked solid for a big wedding, and Connor will have no choice but to stay on his old friends couch until after the wedding and rooms are available. He really is not happy with that. So when he unexpectedly meets Ginger in the diner, he takes advantage of her, and persuades her to let him stay at the cabin after all. There are plenty of bed rooms. Ginger doesn’t know what makes her agree, but she does. And then her friend and boss warns her about Connor. Those MacKenzie men are not to be trusted, apparently she has a history with Connor’s father, Andrew, who broke her heart as a young girl.

Ginger has just left a bad marriage, and has come to Blue Mountain Lake to start a new. She want to find out if she can really paint, and make a career out of it, without having to fall back on her ex-husband’s money, or her parents. Something her parents really do not understand. She even enjoys working in the diner as a waitress, which is a big difference from the fundraising for all kinds of charity she uses to do. Ginger is also involved in the children’s art program at the local school. She enjoys her new life, dressing as she wants to and not as was expected of her as the wife of an important business man. And then there is the attraction to Connor. Who warns her time and again, that he has nothing left to give her, he cannot love her. But still, she falls for him, big time, and she will accept what he can offer her.

There is also the secondary romance thread of Andrew and Isabel, and Isabel’s teenage son sure adds teenage drama to the story.


I enjoyed reading this book very much, it was a nice story, and I felt for both Ginger and Connor. Of course Connor was stubborn and blind, until he almost lost Ginger. And by then, he had to fight to win her back. And I do enjoy a woman who is not a doormat. Ginger is determined not to repeat her old mistakes, to do everything she can to please Connor, while neglecting herself. It is not easy to change herself after 10 years of marriage, and it is also not easy to believe Connor when he calls her beautiful. Her husband sure did not think so, as she is not model skinny. But she has her friend Isabel for advice, and to confide in, and I did like the two of them together.
Connor is a very scarred fire fighter, who barely survived a wild fire a few years back. He wants nothing more than to go back to Lake Tahoe and start firefighting again. He is blind to the options he has here, back home. But when that option is closed to him for good, he needs Ginger as his anchor. But still he denies himself, and her, love.
I do understand his past, and his agony, but well, he is too stubborn, and a lot controlling. Together they sure have a lot of fire.

A good story, that had me crying and laughing for them, and I really do hope there will be more books in this series. Or perhaps a short story as epilogue, to see how they are all doing in a few years.

I like Bella Andre’s writing voice, the story is fast paced, and filled with feelings and great characters, very lifelike. I fell for them all, and want to live there myself.

9 stars

© 2012 Reviews by Aurian