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New Release Review! FAKE FLAME by Adele Buck (First Responders #1)

Fake Flame cover

In this fun, fast-paced romantic comedy, a bookish firefighter who knows his Jane Austen suggests a little fake dating to fend off an ex. What’s a feminist English professor to do—except say yes…

You can’t fake heat like this…

To an observer, hauling a baby grand piano onto a college quad to publicly serenade an ex might seem like a romantic gesture. To literature professor Eva Campbell, it’s the latest manipulative move by a cheating jerk who won’t take a hint. Plus, she never liked that song anyway.

Setting the piano on fire  might  be an overreaction, but Eva’s at the end of her rope, at least until hot young firefighter Sean Hannigan talks her down. And that’s not all Sean does. Soon he’s offering to be Eva’s fake boyfriend to get her creepy ex off her back. Unexpected, maybe, but there’s something about Sean—beyond the angelic face and take-me-now body—that makes Eva say yes.

Sean battles infernos for a living, reads romance on the side and is a straight-up, family-loving good guy. Eva’s not sure she’s ready for the danger he poses to her jaded heart. Given their differences, a relationship can’t last, right? But the line between fake and real keeps blurring, daring her to take the biggest risk of all…

From showing up to glowing up, these characters are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way.

Don’t miss these other fun titles from Afterglow

The (Fake) Dating Game by Timothy Janovsky
The Bookbinder’s Guide to Love by Katherine Garbera
The Devil in Blue Jeans by Stacey Kennedy
Frenemy Fix-Up by Yahrah St. John
The Boyfriend Subscription by Steven Salvatore
Manila Takes Manhattan by Carla de Guzman
Out of Office by A.H. Cunningham

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Review:

This was cute! There’s a few too many POV switches per chapter–separated in the ARCs by easily-missed really narrow spaces with tiny asterisks in them (hopefully the finished book makes them more obvious?), and often with a slight overlap where we see the same part of a scene twice–but overall I did like the story.

I mean, and English professor, her cute little dog, and a hunky firefighter will never be something I say no to.

It would be nice to see more romance books normalizing

I really liked that Eva made her wants clear, they had a grown up discussion, and Sean agreed. We need to see this more in romance, IMO.

Hopefully Thea’s book is next? 🙂

Rating: 4 stars / B+

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

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