Smolder by Cassie Cole

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m the only female smoke-jumper in Northern California.
Fighting wildfires surrounded by sweaty, chiselled, axe-wielding hunks.

I could usually ignore the gorgeous men around me… Until I met the three of THEM.

Foxy, the tattoo-covered goofball who’s always making jokes–and who smiles like he wants to tell me a secret. 
Derek, the pretty-boy blond who has been flirting with me since jump school… And who harbours a dark past. 
Trace, the shredded six-foot-six weightlifter. Thighs like ripped tree trunks, with the ability to easily lift me with one arm. 

Now we’re all living in the same barracks. Eating together. Fighting wildfires together. Playingtogether. 

But if we’re not careful? 
Getting caught will be the least of our worries. 

Because the raging wildfires in California aren’t the only dangers we face. 

Someone is sabotaging our gear. 
Sending us on missions too dangerous for normal smoke-jumpers.

And if we don’t stop them soon? 
Our sizzling love affair will go up in smoke. 

SMOLDER is a scorching, stand-alone MFMM Reverse Harem love story filled with humour, suspense, and a race-to-the-finish ending that will leave you sweaty and breathless. HEA guaranteed!

Smolder

Interesting story!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🖤💚❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌎
Character development: 😚😔🤓🥰

The heroine: Haley – she is former Air Force and is the only female in the heavily male dominated field of smoke jumping in Northern California. The job is an especially dangerous one and takes a lot of effort, ability and stamina. She just graduated from smoke jumping school in Idaho. She had been a volunteer firefighter at home in North Carolina prior to smoke jumping school.

The Heroes: Fox, Derek & Trace – smokejumpers at Redding Base.
Foxy – a tall, muscular, tattooed covered goofball. He is former Navy and was on the fire control team on an aircraft carrier.
Derek – blond haired and blue-eyed all-American boy next door. He was a bit of a flirt. He and Haley were best friends in smoke jumping school. He spent six years in the Army Rangers before he became a smokejumper.
Trace – he is one of the smokejumper team leads at the Redding California base. He ends up getting the job to lead the three rookies in a four-man team. He is a former marine and has been a smokejumper for over five years now.

The Story: After graduating from smokejumper school, Haley, Foxy, and Derek are all assigned to the same base in Redding California where there is currently a wildfire that is out of control and reinforcements are sorely needed. The Shasta wildfire has already severely injured six smokejumpers and people just out of smoke jumping school usually aren’t sent to hot areas like that right after they graduate. Derek thinks their assignment has some shady reasoning behind it, but he can’t do anything about it.

I knew from reading many of Cassie Cole’s other books, that this one would really dive into the lives of the smoke jumpers. She is terrific at world building and really does the research on what she writes about, whether it be crypto currency, ski patrol or smoke jumping. I love that her books are so detailed, and it really brings you into the world you are reading about. That is why I keep reading her books and I think once I get through them all, I will be hard pressed to find another author that is such a great storyteller.

I also love the way Cassie Cole is able to write such steamy reverse harem romances that seem to have just the right balance between hot intimate scenes and the story. She is terrific at character building and I love the fact that her reverse-harem romances are always with three guys and one woman. Some of the RH romances out there tend to have too big of a ratio of Heroes to heroine that the individual Hero characters get lost, and it not only gets confusing to the reader as to which character is which, but there are just too many intimate scenes and not enough story building.

Though I do have to say, I was a bit turned off by how quickly Heather broke her own rules and got intimate with the guys while at the base. She went on about how a woman among so many men would be teased and treated like a slut if it came out that she slept with one or more of her coworkers. Though each of the smokejumpers had their own room, it certainly didn’t take long before she was hooking up with Foxy in her room and really anyone could have found out easily enough. It seemed very unprofessional to me.

I really liked the story about the wildfires though and there was some intrigue about the team being put into very dangerous situations by someone that might be out for revenge on one of them. That was really interesting. The steamy scenes were really steamy, including menage with toys and more. Though I don’t see how they could have done all that in Haley’s room at Redding base without being found out. But hey, if I was one of the smokejumpers and I saw that some of the other ones were relieving their stress in the privacy of their own room. I would say let them be.

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