When I started listening to this book in late March I was just getting used to working from home. We were going into lockdown and I found myself spending less time in my car where I did most of my audiobook listening.
I wanted something short and light that I didn’t have to get too invested in and Harlequin Categories romances seemed to fit the bill.
I logged into Hoopla for the first time and found that my library had a pretty big selection of category romances on audio. This one stood out to me because the hero Grady McGee (as you can tell by the cover) is a famous metal artist returning to his small town for a co-op charity event.
It just takes one meeting with Sapphire, the local artisan running the co-op, for sparks to ignite and these artists find all sorts of ways to burn that tension and creative energy surrounding them. Grady and Sapphire bond over their shared compassion for feral cats–which I’m sure will appeal to cat lovers.
Now, I feel like making a Grady a metalwork artist/welder and Sapphire a potter is no doubt inspired by these two movie scenes.
I’m just saying…
Anyway, Grady is a beta hero, he’s an introspective artist who is in touch with his feelings. Because this is a Blaze the characters get up to all sorts of wild steamy escapades but the story never loses touch of its small-town setting and humor.
Abby Craden narrated this audiobook and she shows off her versatility.
This was a pretty solid romance about two artists finding love and learning to trust again, thought the ending left some things open I’m sure it is resolved in the next book in the series.
The Thunder Mountain Series follows a group men who grew up at the Thunder Mountain foster home and formed a brotherhood. The series has expanded to 11 books and I’m curious to go back and read about the original men in the brotherhood.
The Blaze line went out of print a few years ago and it was one of the only Harlequin Lines I enjoyed. I like that Blaze made room for characters to have glamorous yet down-to-earth conflicts, setting, and careers.
The next closest thing was the Dare line–and now that’s gone. It just feels like the remaining lines are all about small towns, glitzy settings, alpha males, billionaires and royalty. I have a theory that this is because you can find stories similar to Blaze romance easily on KU
I’m not sure if this a Hoopla or Harlequin thing but this audiobook came in a bundle, and the second book in my bundle was not the book listed.
