Boston Fire series seems to trade off between on story being more mystery\suspense and the other more romance with a small tiny little bite of a mystery\suspense.

Flare Up is romance with a small bite of mystery\suspense that might disappoint readers if they are expecting the stalker part of the story to be the lead. Its not and it only gets a slight mention at the end.

The story is a second chance romance that readers of the series have been waiting for.

The story had me scratching my head trying to figure out why she ran away because it didn't make any since. The author wanted to create tension and build up but will leave most readers as confused as Grant was as to why Wren left. It almost feels as if the author didn't have a reason for her leaving and came up with something that could fill .25 % of the book to give a readers a reason for this second chance romance.



Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher Carina Press for the advance copy Shannon Stacey Flare Up

Grant and Wren were in love with each other, when suddenly Wren broke up with him over the phone. That was 5 months back and Grant is still learning to live without Wren. When a fire call brings Wren back in his life, he needs to know why she broke off with him.
Wren was happy with Grant but the fear of her ex had her breaking off with Grant. What will she do now with Grant back in her life ?
One thing I really liked about this book is that the reunion is not dragged out and also the family like bond shared by firefighters. My only disappointment was the suspense ended pretty tamely.
I have voluntarily read and reviewed the arc from Netgalley.

3.25-3.5 stars [ARC REVIEW]

Bottom Line, Up Top. An unusual second-chance romance with a lot of potential, but the heroine, underdeveloped subplot (with the most anticlimactic ending ever), and lack of insight into the beginning of their relationship really brought it down for me. The hero and secondary cast of characters are what saved the book, but not enough to give it a higher rating. Grant really was a great hero though, and the book might be worth reading for him alone; Stacey does a great job of portraying how devastated he was by Wren's abandonment and how conflicted he feels about her return, PLUS he's dreamy—he's super in love with her and treats her with such tenderness and sensitivity (as well as some great sexy times). When it comes to Wren, we're told that she's a private person and is used to being a bit closed off with people, and I guess Stacey does a good job of depicting that, because in the end, Wren feels too closed off to and private from the reader as well.

Summary. Wren and Grant (who is oh so wonderful) were dating for several months (a little under a year, though it's never specified exactly how long) and Grant was on the brink of proposing when Wren pulled a disappearing act, breaking up with him over the phone and saying she never wanted him to contact her again, without giving any explanation as to why. It turns out, she has a really horrible, manipulative, violent ex who caught up with her, and out of fear of what he would do to Grant and the other people in her life, she decided to run (though she didn't leave the Boston area, where all of this takes place). Ben, the ex, was never violent with her, but he beat up her brother so badly he almost killed him, all because the brother kept on trying to tell her how bad Ben was and that she needed to get away from him. He was put in jail, but has since gotten out, and when she receives a phone call from him, it freaks her out and she "runs" (again, though doesn't actually leave).

Grant is a firefighter and Wren enters back into his life unexpectedly when he and his team (squad?) are called to a fire at an apartment building, where he is shocked to find a nearly-unconscious Wren. She loses everything in the fire and Gavin (one of Grant's fellow firefighters) and Cait (an EMT and Gavin's fiancée), who had previously been friends of hers through Grant, offer to put her up for a bit until she can get back on her feet. She ends up only staying a few days and then moves in with Cait's mom and rent's a room from her.

Meanwhile, she is back in Grant's life and he is back in hers. She relatively quickly explains why she disappeared, which was at least reassuring—I was afraid she was going to hold on to that one and it would be drawn out during the whole story. Grant tries to understand her fear, but doesn't completely get why she didn't confide in him, especially given he has connections in law enforcement and can protect her. He's hurt and figures that their love must not have been as strong as he thought it was if she could just run like that, and if she didn't feel she could trust him enough to confide in him. While they try to determine what their relationship status is and how it should progress, they also need to deal with the shadowy threat of Ben, who is kind of omnipresent but also a big question mark, since his status is unknown, apparently he's in Virginia as he should be when Grant looks into it, but then Wren starts getting weird phone calls again, etc.

Thoughts. There were some things I really loved about this book, namely the hero and his entourage, but there were other things I really had issues with. Flare Up is essentially a second-chance romance story, which are not my favorite—especially when what caused the issue is a Big Misunderstanding or Things Left Unsaid. This was an unusual second-chance story in that a lot of times, the hero and heroine have a young romance and then years go by before they meet up again, so we are able to see them fall in love all over again. Usually, we also get glimpses of the beginning of their relationship, either at the beginning of the book or with flashbacks throughout. This book was different in that we get no views of their previous relationship and only 5 months have gone by, not 5 years or something like that.

The focus of the book is really on their relationship and them getting back together, though Ben is a huge driver of what has happened and the dynamic that continues between them. You would think, therefore, that Ben would have a greater presence, but the guy is honestly kind of a ghost in the book and (view spoiler). The whole way that subplot is resolved is SUPER anticlimactic, especially given that HE IS THE DRIVER OF EVERYTHING!!! Of why Wren was in Boston, of why she left Grant, of why she stayed away from Grant, of why she's nervous about getting close to him again, of why he's nervous she might run again, and on and on.

Also, like I said, we don't really get insight into Wren and Grant's earlier relationship. We get some memories when they think back or remember something and we hear their thoughts about it, but I really feel like we got cheated out of their original love story. Part of what I love about romances is watching the developing relationship go from whatever-it-was-or-wasn't to love, and by the time we meet them they're already there, have been for awhile, and that's been maintained steady ever since for both of them. It also made it a bit challenging for me to understand the dynamic and connection between the two of them though; yes, through each of their POV's we learn that he loves x about her and she loves y about him, but there felt like there were these huge pieces missing, because they're already in love—and I don't want just the final product, I want to know the ingredients and see the different steps that lead to creating that final product. And like I said at the beginning, when there's a big time gap between the first time a couple falls in love and the second, as we almost always have in second-chance romances, not only do we usually have flashbacks/POVs from that point, but the time apart means that even if the love was still felt, there is at least SOME process of falling in love that has to happen again, because so much time has passed and in many ways they are different people from who they once were.

In terms of the characters, I loved the full cast and as I did with the other Shannon Stacey book, I really appreciated the supporting characters—they add a lot to the story. I will say it was a bit tough jumping into the series at Book 6, because you see ALL the characters and couples from previous books and it gets to be a bit confusing at times about who is related to whom, who is with/married to whom, who works with whom, etc. (there's a variety of relational links among the characters).

Between Wren and Grant, Wren left something to be desired, whereas Grant really shone through. We get both of their POVs, but I could never really get a hold on Wren and she felt a bit flat and one-dimensional to me. I wanted to like her—one always wants to like the heroine, there was nothing objectionable about her, and I felt for what she's gone through—but I couldn't muster up the emotion to really feel one way or the other. It's a little challenging for me to understand why she ran at the beginning, and I can chalk this up to never having been in her position and felt that fear, but then isn't it the author's responsibility to make that experience accessible to us and make us understand what it's like to be in the character's shoes? Books are all about placing ourselves in the lives of others, which are vastly different than our own, and with a good author, we're able to make those connections and gain those understandings. I don't know if maybe this missing piece had been filled in for me I would have been able to connect with her more or not, but it's one thing I can point to that I know was lacking. Intellectually, I understand how this situation could happen and how her actions could unfold the way they did, but either I couldn't tap into her to begin with and so couldn't connect with this aspect of her story, vice versa, or those two issues just exist simultaneously and independently.

Now to be clear, I'm not saying Stacey is a sucky writer, because while I couldn't get a handle on Wren, I felt like I completely had a handle on Grant. I felt so much more connected to his POV and thought she did a really great job of portraying his love, confusion, and conflicting feelings of relief and anger. Grant fell for Wren and he fell for her HARD (and oh how I wish we could have seen it ... but okay, okay, I'll get off that soapbox now, I promise), and his residual devastation is very vividly depicted for us. He is so happy to find out she's okay and have her back in his life, but is also, of course and understandably, both angry and confused about why she left, even after she explains it to him. He thought they had this unbelievable bond full of love and trust—he was about to propose to her!!! Had the ring picked out and everything—and then she up and disappears. He wants her back in his life, but he's also wary, because he was really put through the ringer emotionally when she left. And how could he not be?! Not only did the love of his life break up with him, but without any explanation or indication as to why. In the morning she's saying have a good day and she loves him, and then a few hours later she's calling him and saying they have to break up and she never wants to hear from or see him again.

What probably also helped with Grant's rounding out as a character was that we got to see so many of the people in his life—we meet his parents, and all the supporting characters are friends of his, either because they're his firefighter brothers or they're related to, dating, or married to his firefighter brothers. Wren is alone; her parents are gone or dead, her brother stopped speaking to her after Ben almost killed him, and any friends she made in Boston were Grant's friends.

*This review is of an ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Some changes and/or edits may be made to the final published version.

I volunteered to read and review an advanced readers copy of Flare Up thru Netgallery . I really enjoyed reading this story . This is a story from The Boston Fire Series . This story is a well written .
It's full of suspense and intrigue that keeps you on the edge and definitely flipping pages . The characters are fantastic .The fire fighters and their women are like a big wonderful family .
They all watch out for each other and support each other thru think and thin .
Grant Cutter and Caitlin Tasker haven't had the easiest relationship Cait's past
Throws darkness and despair at them .
I was pulled into this story from the start and I couldn't stop reading . The story held my interest the entire story .
It's a beautiful second chance with suspense and romance story .
I highly recommend taking the time to read and enjoy the .

I’ve really enjoyed this series and this book wraps everything up nicely. I do not recommend this book as a standalone because there is so much backstory, I think readers would miss a lot if this was the only book read in the series. This book is about Grant and Wren. We were introduced to them in a previous book, but then Wren suddenly disappeared on Grant right when he was about to propose. Grant has been pretty depressed about his situation and I like that as an alpha male, he showed vulnerability. His friends have been trying to help him, but he’s had a hard time moving on. One day, during work, Grant pulls Wren out of a fire in her apartment. He never thought she was still in the same city and was not expecting to run into her. So it really threw him for a loop. Since her apartment had burned down, Wren had no place to stay so Cait invited her to stay with them. Since Cait’s significant other is Gavin, one of Grant’s fireman’s family, it was inevitable that they would need to talk.

Readers will find out all about Wren’s backstory and why she ran. I was kind of mad at her for not telling Grant what sort of trouble she was in because, hello, he has like 100 fireman & police officer friends who could help!!! While they were both cautious about jumping into a relationship again, you could tell they never got over each other. They just lost 5 months together. I thought the author really showed the power of friendship and family, but the way all of Grant’s friends and family tried to support him and how they reacted to Wren coming back. Being involved with Grant means getting a huge family who has your back in tough times. Grant is so nice, thoughtful and romantic. OMG. Just perfect husband material. I loved being in the Boston Fire family in this series. It was a good story and a perfect read for these cold winter nights. I highly recommend it.

Grant Cutter got his heart broke by the women he loved and was about to proposed to. Debating on weather to stay with Boston Fire or pack it in and move on a fire call he runs smack dab into the women who left him. All is not as it seems though when he finds that woman living in a run down apartment and living quiet. Wren Everett was hoping the man who shattered her life would leave her alone but hints are coming that he hasn't. She left Grant to protect him. Now though she's faced with telling him everything. I really enjoyed this book. I loved Grant and Wren and i loved them together. The only thing i had a bit of a problem with was the wrap up. I expected a confrontation and didn't get one. I felt there was a build up for something big to happen and then it really didn't. Still a OK read and i enjoyed it.

Find out more about Shannon Stacey and this series here www.shannonstacey.com

Grant is a firefighter done with love after Wren - the woman he intended to propose to - left him/broke up with him over the phone. Harsh, right?
Poor guy.

Imagine his surprise when 5 months later he sees Wren while at a fire. In an apartment that was practically condemned to begin with.
We soon learn why Wren broke it off with him, but I gotta say, she was an idiot. I enjoyed this book even though she annoyed me at times.
Grant was amazing the while time. I kinda think he was too good for her... she did have some redeeming qualities...

The ending was great!
I recommend this book and this series.
This is book 6. It can be read on its own.

This series is a really good one, and you don’t have to read them all but it really does put the whole story together. I didn’t think I’d like Wren, but when I found out her back story I really could enjoy this book fully. Grant was a great character and I love the communication he and Wren had together in this book. I loved the epilogue!

Firefighter, Grant, has been depressed for several months because the girl he planned to ask to marry him disappeared 5 months ago. He hadn't seen or heard from her until he shows up at a fire one day and rescues her. When Grant finds out why Wren just left him (because she was afraid for his safety due to her abusive ex) he's baffled by why she didn't tell him. Frankly so was I. I liked the Grant a lot but couldn't really see what he saw in Wren. I enjoyed the romance but had to suspend my disbelief in her reasoning.

I have to confess that I did not read the previous books in this series. Thus the reason I feel I was not able to totally be engaged in the story.
The story about Grant Cutter and his ex Wren Everett was interesting but this push and pull of their relationship and second chance romance just didn’t pull me in. He was too nice, and she was just going back and forth with the poor man.
A good story, but that was it.
I was entrusted a copy of this book by Netgalley. The opinions expressed are solely my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, for this free eARC.

Flare Up was my 1st book by Shannon Stacey. When I requested this book, I did not realize that it was number 6 in the series. 🙈 From now on, I'll have to pay better attention. Even though I knew nothing about the characters or their back stories, I jumped right in, and enjoyed this book.

This book was about second chances. Grant is nursing a broken heart. Right away we get thrown into action, and Grant is responding to a fire call, where he finds his ex, Wren.

As he learns Wren's reasoning for leaving him out of the blue, he quickly realizes how much stress she is under. As they get to know each other again, the man Wren is most afraid of, comes back into her life, and in the worst way possible.

Now Wren has a choice to make. To run again, or let Grant and her family, help her this time.

Pub date January 29th, 2019.

Grant was ready to pack up everything he owned and move back to New Hampshire. Living in Boston no longer holds the same allure after Wren broke his heart. How could she just tell him it was over? He had been ready to take the next step to buy a ring. Helping Wren take the next step and protecting her is all that matters. Rekindling their relationship will define icing on the cake. The one important thing was to keep her safe and fallin love all over again.

LOVED THIS.

I enjoyed all the books in this series but Flare Up is my favourite out of all, just because Grant is #husbandmaterial. I love how soft he is with Wren, but also how protective he is without overpowering her or disregarding her feelings. Wren breaking up and ghosting Grant was a shitty thing that's happened and there was a deeper story to that, but I love how they dealt with it--by honest communication and Wren acknowledging and apologizing for hurting him.

The epilogue made me cry.

FLARE UP by Shannon Stacy is another story in the amazing Boston Fire series! This book is about Grant and Wren, each book in this series covers one of the firefighters. Wren has a troubled past with a crazy ex-boyfriend. This story also gives us a chance to visit with the firefighters we've come to love in previous stories!

I normally love second chance romances, but this one left me feeling meh. I felt like Grant’s book was written because it was an expected conclusion to a series rather then the character yelling “hey, I need my story written too!” I’m sad I wasn’t more vested in whether or not Grant and Wren got an HEA. I was just hoping Grant wouldn’t get ditched again before the end of the book!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

ARC received for review

Another great book in this series.

I was unsure about this one, because I thought Wren was shady in the last book. But of course, she had good reason to be. I liked how Ms. Stacey didn't drag it out, but we found out pretty quickly what Wren's reasons were. Grant is just as yummy as all the other guys. I'm thinking this is the last book with the way the epilogue was written, but I could be wrong.

Shannon Stacey’s second-change romance trope begins with a character’s rather illogical stupidity—Wren leaving Grant because she’s afraid of hurting him as an ex hunts her down—is how ‘Flare Up’ begins. The backstory quickly unravels (Stacey doesn’t take too long in expounding this history after Wren walks away) and from there on, the story rolls on without too much angsty rehashing. Past Grant’s heartbreak and the bit where he gets justifiably angry, there’s still the hero-complex that insists on keeping Wren safe despite his better judgement.

For someone who moans that characters seldom talk it through like the adults they are, it’s easy to appreciate that Stacey doesn’t leave the unfinished business between Grant/Wren before the slight suspense and action kick in. I liked that they talked it out and laid all the cards on the table, and if the story’s a bit of a slow start with a lesson learned, who am I to argue?

Still, Grant/Wren’s actual getting back together—along with the time taken to get back their footing—was where it flagged and got staid for me, but maybe that’s because I’m the sort of reader who likes the first-time thrill more than the tentative steps back into vulnerability in a second-chance romance. In fact, I was looking forward to more firefighting action but instead stumbled into pages of Wren’s slow reintroduction to Grant’s circle of friends and their eventual coupledom.

The actual stalker-business sort of does pick up towards the end of the story, but the build is slow nonetheless, which never quite led up to anything more than a whimper of a climax when I’d been expecting a little more bang. In short, it’ll be a slow, pleasant read if you like more romance rather than suspense/firefighting, but sadly, this one turned out to be more of a miss than a hit for me.

I'm totally hooked on firefighters lately, so this was right up my alley :)

The story was sweet with a little heat. Although the premise sounds good, it left a little bit of a bad taste with me. I can understand what motivated the characters, but I can't necessarily agree wiht it and it made it a little far fetched.

This is a hard call for me because I"m a HUGE Shannon Stacey fan and I really love this series.

3.5 stars. I loved the idea of finding out why someone left him and seeing if they could rebuild, only that's not what this felt like, and even the characters address that they're kind of just skipping right back to where they were--even as the hero says five or six times that he doesn't get why she didn't tell him. I didn't see him shift that or build off of that or anything.

But what left me feeling most confused was I never really felt sure what type of book I was reading. It felt like it kept almost being a suspense and so I kept thinking OOOO SS is writing suspense! but it never *really* went there.

And, so, sadly, this is a 3.5 for me. I can't wait for what Ms. Stacey does next as she is a go-to author for me.

Well, apparently this is the month of disappointing series enders. 😩

And for this one in particular, I am TRULY pained to write the review I’m writing.

I really enjoyed the five previous books in the Boston Fire series (the first three I listened to the audiobooks, the last two I read). I loved the humorous banter between the firefighters of Engine 59 and Ladder 37. I loved these manly men who loved their women - but were without the grunting, chest banging, order barking behavior of the stereotypical alpha-male hero. I loved how the author stayed away from the cliche storylines, and instead had realistic stories, with mature people. There was no literary ground being broken by these stories, but they were solid, entertaining books.

So, I was really looking forward to Grant’s story. We met him in the previous book, and at the beginning he was dating Wren and really excited about her, and then we learn she broke things off out of the blue. I love a man who is heartbroken when he loses the love of his life, and doesn’t go all manwhore to get her out of his system!

When Flare Up begins, the men of E59 and L37 have responded to a fire in a run down apartment building. While searching to make sure no one is still in the building, Grant hears a faint noise, busts down a door, and rushes in to rescue...Wren.

First he’s stunned, then he’s angry. But after a day, he decides he wants to see her.

Wren has mixed feelings about seeing Grant again. She left Grant because of her dangerous ex-boyfriend, not because she didn’t love him. So she’s glad to see him, but knows she hurt him badly. When Grant shows up where she’s staying (at his friend’s apartment), Wren is apologetic, but still reluctant to tell Grant why she left. When she finally does tell him, he tells her how stupid her reason was. And quite frankly, I agreed with him. If anyone has the resources to keep you - or your friends safe - it’s a firefighter.

Anyway, after their reunion, all is forgiven pretty easily and they decide to get back together. After that, not much really happens other than they both go to work, and Wren spends all her time looking over her shoulder for her ex. Where the strength of the previous books was that the stories were people living their lives (without ridiculous situations and over-the-top angst), for some reason it didn’t work this time.

Maybe it was because this story tried to be suspenseful, but ended up feeling flat. There were things I thought were clues - a man in a hallway, a man standing by the road - that ended up being random details that never tied back to the story. They never went anywhere and were never mentioned again. These aren’t exactly plot holes, but were loose ends for this reader who likes everything tied up nice and neat. Also, the resolution with the bad guy happened off page, then they lived happily ever after. All their problems and issues solved.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad book. Just not what I was looking forward to reading. As in the previous books, the banter between the guys is humorous and plentiful. But it departed from the previous books where the characters were mature, and talked through their feelings/issues. Even some of the “humor” was more slapstick and silly instead of clever (making jokes about eating bad seafood and the issues that supposedly caused??? Are these men adults, or are they 4th graders?).

And finally (while I’m on a roll listing all my grievances about this book), the bad guy’s name is Ben. That’s right...Ben and Wren. Really??? Does that not make anyone else’s eyes roll??? Could the author NOT come up with a name that didn’t rhyme with the heroine’s?!

I really, REALLY feel bad that I didn’t like this book. I even contemplated not posting this review until there were a bunch more already published - because I truly hate that this may knock down the book’s rating (even if only temporarily). But at the end of the day, I’ve agreed to post an honest review. And the honest truth is that Flare Up hardly sparked an ember for me.

* thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin - Carina Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review