Heat by Ophelia Sexton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When pastry chef Annabeth Jones goes on the run from her abusive fiance, the small town of Bearpaw Ridge offers her a safe haven. Nestled at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, with friendly neighbors and a bakery/cafe that needs a new owner, it’s the perfect place for her to start over. 

Firefighter and bear shifter Dane Swanson knows at once that kind, curvy Annabeth is his fated mate. She’s also human, in a world where shifters must keep their existence secret. Annabeth has no idea that Bearpaw Ridge’s population is more shifter than human … but if they’re to be mated, Dane will have to find a way to tell her everything. 

Wary of new relationships, Annabeth can’t help warming to the strong, handsome man who can’t get enough of her cinnamon rolls … or her. But her fragile hopes are shattered when her ex tracks her down, determined to reclaim her. 

Dane is equally determined to protect his mate — but will Annabeth still accept him when he reveals the other side of his nature? 

Heat

Nice bear shifter story!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🖤❤️💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍
Character development: 🤨😟😳😍

The heroine: Annabeth – she worked at a bakery since graduating from the culinary institute and she, along with the owner had made it quite a success. She was engaged to a man named Roger, whom her mother thought she was lucky to get since she was a curvy girl. Though ever since moving in with Roger he has become abusive. He doesn’t yell at her or hit her, but whenever he is unhappy with her, he thinks of a punishment that will really hurt her and enacts it. Once it was breaking every piece of china in her grandmother’s prized tea set, and this time he was mad at her for not taking a day off and he stole her keys and broke into the bakery destroying everything.

The Heroes: Dane – he is a grizzly bear shifter and a volunteer fireman in Bearpaw Ridge Idaho, along with his brothers. He also managed the Grizzly Creek ranch which his family owned. His father died a few years ago and now he runs it with his mother, it will be his someday. He didn’t ever plan on finding his fated mate, especially a human one, since that meant telling her what he was. He once had another girlfriend who didn’t react well to that news, and what happened back then had affected him more than he knew.

The Story: Annabeth knew that Roger would become more abusive as time went on, he was already very controlling, which included lots of calls and text messages whenever she wasn’t home with him and the acts of destruction that have been getting worse as time went on. It had gotten so bad that Annabeth started to think it was her fault for making him mad, not his fault for behaving psychotically when he didn’t get his way. So, when her boss told her about a bakery in Bearpaw Ridge Idaho that was for sale, she left to get away from Roger and her mother.

I am not a big fan of the BBW trope, I just don’t understand why a woman’s weight or lack of it should even be mentioned in a romance book. Plus, it seems like in all the curvy girl romances it always seems to be such an issue. It is never just a casual mention, it is always a ton of mentions and the heroine is usually not any happier with her body than other people. I like a woman who is confident and happy with her body no matter what weight she is, that is why I just wish it was a non-issue. I was glad, that this story didn’t focus too much on her weight though, this was one of the few that didn’t bother me at all.

It seems like quite a few romance books have the heroine as the owner of a bakery, which strikes me as odd since bakery owners/workers have to get up at like 3 am to make the baked goods for the day. It seems they wouldn’t have as much time to start up a new romance as people in other jobs, especially ones like Annabeth who is just starting up a business. Though this worked out well since Dane worked on a ranch and for the most part kept the same hours as Annabeth.

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