Review of Hearts on Fire by Ashli Rose

***** (5 stars) A short, sweet read with emotion, a HOT firefighter, and steamy scenes!

Ava has a job she loves as a junior writer working for a magazine in Chicago, a great apartment with her younger sister, and her older sister lives close by. It took moving to Chicago, ten hours away from her hometown in New Jersey to escape and put the past and Gavin behind her, but she’s done it. Everything changes when Ava picks up the “Hunks in Uniform” calendar and sees Mr. August. The events of five years ago come rushing back and Ava isn’t prepared to deal with the feelings she thought were put behind her.

Ms. Rose does a beautiful job flashing back to the past and giving just enough detail for us to have an idea what happened, but still leaving some mystery as to what exactly happened between Ava and Gavin. Five years ago, Ava thought everything was perfect in her life – she’s starting a job as an intern writing for a magazine, and she has an amazing boyfriend. Gavin is sweet, romantic, and let’s not forget, a HOT firefighter! Ava is planning a night with Gavin that she thinks will change everything for them, unfortunately as the night unfolds, it doesn’t change things the way Ava expected. Misinterpretation and lack of communication leads to Ava handling conflict by running away.

As the story unfolds, fate dictates that Gavin and Ava are thrown together. Both of them still have feelings for the other, but Ava is fighting her feelings. Add in a crazy “almost” ex-girlfriend, and unexpected conflict abounds. Hearts on Fire is told from both Gavin and Ava’s perspectives. Ms. Rose handles the transitions between the two wonderfully – I always knew who was telling the story, and each character told the story in their own unique way. It was refreshing to read a story where it was not only easy to tell which character was telling the story, but it added to the personality and depth of each character, as well as flowed smoothly with the story.

Ava and Gavin definitely had a difficult road to travel, but the conflicts, misunderstandings, and communication issues added to their story. I enjoyed that their story wasn’t one where everything was sunshine and roses, but in the end, love triumphed. Sparks flew whenever Gavin and Ava were together – they fought, but they also loved. Love scenes between the two were hot and steamy and were at appropriate places in the story.

Hearts on Fire is Ms. Rose’s debut book, and one that definitely deserves five stars. She pulled me into the minds and hearts of both Ava and Gavin and I could completely understand both of their perspectives. I found myself getting angry when Ava got angry and just wanting to slap Gavin or yell at him (when she didn’t know the whole story), and I knew from Gavin’s perspective what had really happened. I will be recommending Hearts on Fire to others looking for a short, sweet read with lots of emotion, a HOT firefighter, and steamy scenes!

I hope to see more books from Ms. Rose in the future, and I will definitely be adding her next books to my “To Be Read” list.