Jen’s review of Heat Exchange (Boston Fire #1) by Shannon Stacey.

Lydia Kincaid’s shipping back to Boston, but she’s not happy about it. She left to get away from the firefighting community—her father was a firefighter, her brother’s a firefighter and, more important, her ex is a firefighter. But family is number one, and her father needs her help running the pub he bought when he retired. Soon, Lydia finds it hard to resist the familiar comfort and routine, and even harder to resist her brother’s handsome friend Aidan. 

Aidan Hunt is a firefighter because of the Kincaid family. He’s had the hots for Lydia for years, but if ever a woman was off-limits to him, it’s her. Aside from being his mentor’s daughter, she’s his best friend’s sister. The ex-wife of a fellow firefighter. But his plan to play it cool until she leaves town again fails, and soon he and Lydia have crossed a line they can’t uncross. 

As Aidan and Lydia’s flirtation turns into something more serious, Lydia knows she should be planning her escape. Being a firefighter’s wife was the hardest thing she’s ever done, and she doesn’t know if she has the strength to do it again. Aidan can’t imagine walking away from Boston Fire—even for Lydia. The job and the brotherhood are his life; but if he wants Lydia in it, he’ll have to decide who’s first in his heart.

This new series from Shannon Stacey focuses on firefighters, which is a subgenre I have always loved. I’ve actually known a few firefighter wives, though, and am well aware that the reality is not nearly as exciting as the fictional stories. I was hoping this book would explore that contradiction, but while it does touch on it I had hoped for a bit more complexity.

This book’s heroine is Lydia Kincaid. She’s been living in New Hampshire waiting tables, not because she particularly likes New Hampshire or the job but mostly just because it is somewhere and something else than Boston and her family’s pub, Kincaid’s. There, she’s surrounded by firefighters, including her retired dad (now the pub owner), her brother, her brother-in-law, the customers at the pub, and even her jerk of an ex-husband. Basically, when she’s in Boston her entire life revolves around supporting firefighters and working her dad’s bar, and she’s tired of it so she escapes to New Hampshire. When her sister, Ashley, begs her to come home temporarily while she sorts out her marital issues, Lydia can’t refuse and finds herself back in the exact spot she was trying to escape. It also means she runs into her brother’s best friend, Aidan Hunt, also a firefighter, naturally. He loves the job and the Kincaid’s, who are more like family than his own family. Aidan and Lydia have a sizzling attraction, and they start exploring that, but they know that it would cause friction between Aidan and the rest of the Kincaid’s, so they keep it a secret. Besides, Lydia isn’t planning on staying long, and her experiences with her family and her ex have shown her she never wants to be involved with another firefighter. (Because those kind of proclamations always work out, right?) Can they really just keep the fling casual and temporary, or will one of them have to bend?

Even though it’s certainly nothing groundbreaking, I did appreciate that Lydia’s issues with firefighters were realistic. Yes, in part her view was clouded by her domineering dad and seriously dickish ex husband, but even without them she grew up with a deep understanding of what it means to be a firefighter, and what it means to be a firefighter’s wife. She understood the sacrifices to be made, and her reluctance to take those on was certainly relatable. I also appreciated that the “best friend/sister” conflict was slightly more complex than it is in many romances. Usually fictional brothers don’t have a good reason to object to their sister’s relationship other than “but she’s my SISTER, dude!” which always prompts me to wonder why a grown man would think he should have any say in his adult sister’s relationships. Here, though, it’s a little more understandable because Aidan and Lydia’s brother are on the same fire team. They have to give each other unconditional support in life or death situations, and any messy emotional stuff could throw off the balance and possibly endanger the team. I still think some heartfelt conversations would stave off most problems, but I could see why the stakes would be higher in this situation. Lydia and Aidan were a fairly cute couple, too. Aidan in particular really just wanted a woman to hang out with, crack jokes with, and then set the sheets on fire with (har har). It was sweet to see them fall into a real relationship before either one of them even realized it.

While I enjoyed myself reading this story, I didn’t love it as much as I wanted. I feel like I’ve read this story before, same characters, same conflicts. I think my biggest disappointment, though, was Lydia. I didn’t sense much passion or personality from her. She goes to New Hampshire but has no goals or real plan for the move. She waits tables because she has food service experience but not because she has any aptitude or interest in it. She looks into college but nothing grabs her. She feels comfortable at the bar in Boston and seems to kind of enjoy it, but even there I didn’t see anything that screamed “passion” to me, more like familiarity and comfort. She kept railing against being just a supportive spouse/daughter/sister/friend for firefighters, but she had nothing else in her life besides that, and didn’t seem to want to. I wanted to see her seizing something more for herself, and I wanted to see her hopes and dreams. I didn’t like that she never really resolved anything with her dad, either. He was bossy and insensitive, and I thought her criticisms that he usually put his firefighter brotherhood before his family were justified, but while her dad has a conversation with Aidan that suggests maybe he is listening, he never works anything out with Lydia. I was also disappointed that the book never tackles some of the hard questions it raises, like how can a firefighter balance the need to develop a bond with teammates that keeps them all alive while still addressing the needs of family who also need time and support? Is it possible for a firefighter’s wife to be his true partner, or is the nature of the job such that the fire team frequently HAS to come first? I realize there aren’t definitive answers to these questions, but I wanted some more exploration.

Aidan is a nice guy, and I did appreciate that he was one of the few in the story who seemed willing to go out and grab what he so passionately wanted. He wasn’t complex enough himself to carry the story, though. Again, I don’t want to suggest that I didn’t like the book. It was a perfectly lovely way to spend an afternoon. I just had hoped for a bit more.

Grade: 3.75 out of 5

This book is available from Carina Press. You can purchase it here or here in e-format.  This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.