Bea Reviews Burning for You & Fan the Flames by Michele Dunaway

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series: Man of the Month #2
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: April 7, 2015
Challenges: Finishing the Series | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Kobo | ARe*  | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Mark your calendar: The Man of the Month series is back—with a sexy new hero who will definitely heat things up...

The Man of the Month The last thing Taylor Krebs wants is a man. Her crazy, possessive ex-boyfriend has caused her enough drama to last a lifetime. Putting drama and men behind her she focuses on her fledgling photography business. That is, until gorgeous fireman Joe Marino—otherwise known as Mr. September on the Sexy Public Servants Charity Calendar—walks into her life. Joe wants Taylor to photograph burn victims pro bono for a book he’s spearheading for the Burn Recovery Support Group...and he’ll do everything in his power to persuade her to take on his cause.

Taylor soon finds out that she isn’t immune to Joe’s persuasive charms—both professionally and personally—and soon they are burning up the sheets. But will Joe’s secrets and Taylor’s need for quiet stability tear them apart? Or will this Man of the Month also end up being Taylor’s love for all days?

Bea's Thoughts:

Take a flirty, cocky, stubborn, generous man and a determined, ambitious, compassionate woman, put them together and watch the sparks fly.

Taylor is the photographer shooting the charity calendar showcasing public servants and Joe is a firefighter who's been roped into participating. Sparks fly when they meet but Joe is more interested in hiring Taylor for a private photo project. Get your mind out of the gutter! :D She agrees to work on book for a burn recovery group to help survivors see the beauty in themselves. That message, gently worked into the story, comes through loud and clear. There are several characters in the story who have severe burns on their bodies and Dunaway shows us how challenging that can be and how it affects their self-image.

The story is not a message story though and the romance is the focus. As Taylor and Joe spend time together, working together, their feelings develop and they give in to their emotions and passion. Both of them have been hurt before and are closed off. Taylor's ex is has cropped back up again and that was...odd. He stalked her, now he's involved with another woman, but all of a sudden he's calling Taylor at a phone number he shouldn't have and it's frightening. There's more to it than that but I don't want to give away a spoiler. It was an odd secondary plot and didn't really add anything to the overall story except to make Taylor cautious and wary.

The ending was sugary sweet and involved a grand gesture on Joe's part. I'm not really a fan of grand gestures in fiction or real life so I could have done without it. I liked that they were each capable of admitting what they'd done wrong apologizing. Except for their trouble communicating late in the story, they were mature, responsible adults. :) "Burning for You" was sweet, sappy, and cute.

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Series: Man of the Month #3
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date:  August 18, 2015
Challenges: Finishing the Series | NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Kobo | ARe*  | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Former Navy SEAL turned marine rescue firefighter Brad Silverman is tasked with his toughest mission yet: taking care of his best friend's wife. The only problem is that Scarlett Harrison has always been the one-the one who got away, the one who held his heart, and the one who has always been off limits...

Now widowed Scarlett returns to her childhood home in St. Louis, determined to get her life back on track. She misses her husband but can't fight the attraction she feels for sexy fireman Brad. As she spends more time with him, the connection they have had since high school grows stronger. Are they finally ready to overcome their pasts and lose their hearts to each other?

Bea's Thoughts:

And now we have book three in the Man of the Month club. Another firefighter but out of a different house than Joe in "Burning for You". Brad is a former SEAL turned civilian firefighter. His best friend, also a SEAL, died on a mission two years ago and Brad has felt guilty ever since. Why? He believes that if he'd re-upped instead of going civilian when his enlistment was up, Todd might still be alive (they served on the same team). It doesn't help that he's been in love with Scarlett since high school.

Scarlett has reluctantly returned to her hometown several years after her husband's death. She's having trouble raising their daughter on her own and her family has been urging to come home. She rents a house from Brad, one that he's renovated extensively. She is attracted to him and after wrestling with herself, decides to jump in and go for it.

I had trouble at times believing the set up but the heat between the two was strong; I had no trouble buying them as a couple. This book, pardon the pun, was much hotter and steamier than the first two in the series.

Dunaway writes sweet, sappy love stories that you know will have a happy ending. I just wish she'd ease up on the grand, big gestures at the end of the story. The loving couple has A Big Miscommunication and they stomp off then one decides to win the other back with a big, sometimes, public grand gesture. Actually, in this one she forgoes the grand gesture, but not the Big Miscommunication, in favor of a dramatic event that brings them back together. It wasn't particularly original but it did fit the story, and again, they talked matters over.

Despite the formula, and the the Big Miscommunication, I like these stories. They're sweet, a little spicy, and have wonderful characters. We got brief appearances from the leads in the first two books, which was nice. Dunaway is building a good cast, interesting and likable. I'm looking forward to book four.

My review of book one, A Little Christmas Jingle