You know who’s awesome? Meg. Meg is a triathlete and physician’s assistant whose father, a firefighter, died in a blaze ten years earlier. She’s terrified of fire, so can’t follow in her dad (and brothers’) footsteps, so instead she becomes a trainer for smokejumpers, those brave men and women – mostly men – who parachute into forest fires, because that is a thing that people do. In her first class is Lance Redmond, son of the man who may have been responsible for her father’s death, and her childhood crush. She has every reason to hate Lance, but she doesn’t. She goes out of her way to be fair to him, even when he is really not that great to her. And slowly, Lance becomes worthy of Meg, and the extended training montage of the book – which is great – gives way to a mystery – which is also great – and then more personal things, and that is great too. It’s just an all-around great book about heroic men and women dealing with jealousies, rivalries and their own tortured pasts, with a Childhood Sweethearts romance at its core. More Smokejumpers, please! – Rachel Hyland

This review appears in Romantic Intentions Quarterly #2, out July 3