Jack and Sasha have not seen each other in four years and though Jack is still wanting to be with her she still is putting him off because of the loss of her brother. Can they somehow get past that? Read this good book to find out.

I enjoyed Jack & Sasha's book. It was an emotional & entertaining read. I got a copy of the book. And am voluntarily leaving my review.

Cute and fun short story. Part of a series but don't feel that you have to read them all to feel you will know what is going on. Some mystery, some drama and some hot times. Good afternoon read.

This is one of those books you love to hate. On one hand, you love the thought of a second chance romance and I did, but I didn't love that there wasn't any resolution to the drama behind why they split...it's almost like the author went "we'll just forget about it and carry on." I like to know how, what, where, when and why...it's just in my nature. When I don't get all of those answered - I become a cranky reader because then I'm left with all these questions and no answers. I didn't get any answers. The one thing the author did do correctly is write how to handle grief really well. I'll give her that.

Arc provided by NetGalley

A great idea that had so much potential but fell incredibly short.

I appreciated the way the author showed the grief in Sasha and her sister in law in dealing with her brother's death. It was an obvious, yet real reaction that too many authors gloss over rather than tackling because it can be so hard.

And here ends what I liked about the book.

I knew going in that this was a second chance romance, but I didn't feel that the Jack nor Sasha had to work for the romance. They seemed to just ignore the original issue Sasha left him in the first place, as if the problem was suddenly solved yet it wasn't. I wanted them to have to work for the second chance. To have some awkward moments as new roommates instead of just one random moment.

The ending pissed me off. It takes FOREVER to get some drama in this book, yet when it finally enters we get no closure from it? WTF?!?!? I get that this was a series, but I didn't see the point in introducing the drama to this story if there was going to be no closure.

** ARC received from Netgalley **

I know i haven't read the previous books, but it seems like i didn't need to either. We meet Sasha and Jack in this one. It was slightly dramatic but also hot and steamy. A very good book at that, i'm glad that the books seems to be standalone and don't need to be read in a certain order. Might see if i can get my hands on the next one!

I really was entertained by Leora Gonzales' Still Burning. Her skill at including a bit of suspense in the story was woven well. I appreciated that the novel was balanced, no one aspect seemed too heavy. Her characters are definitely clear voiced and three dimensional, primary and secondary. I was engaged in the hero and heroine's journey to happily ever after. If you're looking for more than a light read, I would recommend this book.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

Still Burning is the third book in the Braving the Heat series bringing us Jack and Sasha’s story. I liked this book, Jack has the patients of a saint but I will Sasha pushing him away was resolved earlier. I will read more of this series and recommend to other readers

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Second Chance Romance
Triggers: Arson, attempted murder

Sasha comes from a family of firefighters. However, when she loses a family member to a tragic fire, she knows that she’s not strong enough to love another firefighter and risk losing someone else.

Jack has always loved Sasha and loved being a firefighter. But when his best friend is lost to a fire, he doesn’t realize that he’ll lose Sasha too. Despite losing her, he knows that he’s supposed to be a firefighter.

Years later, when Sasha and Jack see each other again, their chemistry is still there. But after years of hiding and trying to survive, Sasha and Jack have to decide whether or not they have grown enough to try their love again. With someone around their small town setting fires, an old flame popping up and causing trouble, and old insecurities creeping up, they will have to fight to figure out if they can love each other again.

This left you feeling like they were going to try again for a relationship, but with unanswered questions looming over them and the town, it’s a wonder whether or not they will make it. I am looking forward to the next book and hope that questions left hanging will be answered.


Mary Jo – ☆☆☆☆
The reality of having a loved one work in a dangerous profession is something that some families know nothing about and others, all too much.

Having a spouse, brother, sister, mother, or father work as a law enforcement officer, a firefighter, or an EMT is both a source of pride and a silent fear. When the worst happens, it takes more than a day, a month, and sometimes years, for the person grieving to realize that the sacrifice of their loved one was made freely. The person running toward the danger is a hero both in life and in death.

Sasha's grief over the loss of her brother was compounded by the fact that a) she was dating his best friend – also a firefighter, and b) she saw the grief that her sister-in-law faced. Deciding that she couldn't be the person who waited for the call, she not only left Jack, she left town.

Jack knows why Sasha left. Jack's own demons haunt him day and night. The "could haves" tear him up inside and only the thought of Sasha gives him peace.

Jack and Sasha have many issues to overcome, yet they are determined to give love another try.

Four years ago- Sasha was cradling her niece Hazel against her chest. Sasha watched ehr twenty eight year old brother Max’s casket being lowered into the ground. Her sister in law-Annie- looked like she wasn’t really there probably due to the sedative. Max had been a firefighter and died in the line of duty saving two thirteen year old girls. He died a hero. Jack followed her to the back of the group with Hazel. She was grateful, his presence lending her comfort. To Max’s family he had been the best older brother, friend, son, husband, and a new father any of them would have wished for. Max best friend and Sasha’s boyfriend was Jack. Sasha had been with Jack for two years. Her father was captain of one of the two fire departments in town and Jack worked at the other fire department. Both fire departments had been called to this fire. After max’s death her father surprisingly was taking an early retirement. Annie had wept to cassie to never love a firefighter.The ease Sasha and Jack felt with each other was something she had always wanted but never expected. Jack was strong, smart, and sweet. He also had manners Jack was everything she had dreamed of as a little girl. But two weeks ago she seen firsthand what could happen to someone in love with a firefighter. It broke them. After everyone left the cemetery Sasha said she can’t love someone who could get a call and be taken from her. She said she couldn’t go to her parents house and Jack said he would call and let them know and they could go home. But home was Jack’s apartment that she had unofficially moved into last year. Than Sasha said” Jack I can’t be in love with a firefighter.” Jack told Sasha he loved her not to do this to them. Sasha said she was going to see if she could go with Annie to her parents in Kansas. She was leaving Colorado. Sasha was packed and ready to go. All she had to do was say goodbye to Jack. She broke up with him through lots of tears. He told her he would wait for her, she told him not to.
4 years later- Annie and Sasha, and hazel had lived in the same house since deciding to stay in Larrysville.There were random fires being set downtown and it gave Sasha the chills. Sasha was moving into hre own house . It was jazz’s house but she was moving in with her fiance ands renting the house to Sasha for cheap. Jazz’s fiance had a friend and once they got there he would be her roommate for awhile. It was a two bedroom house. Annie said she thought Sasha would leave to go back to Colorado not to her own house. Sasha’s mother told her Jack had been dating someone for about a year and there was talk of a wedding. Than Ruby showed up at the bar that Sasha had went out with Jazz and some of her friends. Ruby was one of Sashas employees but also friend. Ruby had come with ehr five male cousins. Ruby told her that her cousin Vega was already interested in Sasha before he met her. Vega was handsome and charming. But no matter how hard she tried not to she compared him to Jack. Unfortunately she didn’t feel a spark . But Jack had moved on even hre mother had said so. Sasha was happy for him even if it wasn’t her. So she said yes when vega asked her out to dinner. Annie asked her how many dates she had been on with the guy-Vega. Sasha said six, they see each other one-two times a week. Vega was nice to be around. She was taking Vega to Jazz’s and Leo’s wedding reception but it was to more like a big party. They had shared a couple of kisses but Sasha pulled away before it got into anything more physical. Annie was dating a guy named Jeremy and Sasha brought up a double date. At the wedding reception Sasha found out Jazz’s new husband Leo was from back home he was a firefighter and had been Jacks and Max’s friend. Than before Leo could warn her Jack appeared. He asked Sasha to speak with him for a minute and Sasha told vega she would be back. Jack took her outside. Jack had moved to Larryville. He wanted to know if Sasha and Vega were serious. Sasha said he had been with someone and he told her had. He couldn’t forget her. If she was serious with this guy he would step back for awhile. Vega came looking for her and she knew she just didn’t have that romantic spark for him. Which was sad Vega really was a good guy and all she should want. But she agrees to be friends and hang out at times. Than Sasha finds out Jack is the roommate she was to have for awhile. He wants her back and she doesn’t know how she feels about that but just being around him made her hot. Sasha had no idea how she was going to handle living in the same house as Jack.
I loved this book. It was a come full circle type of romantic read. This had just enough drama. I loved Sasha and jack together and was happy when Jack moved to Larryville and things started to change for both of them. I would have liked to find out who the arsonist was and why they set fires. Although I do have an idea…. I was happy Annie found someone and was working toward her HEA. I loved the pace and plot. I didn’t want to put this down. I loved that Sasha learned she could live with Jack’s career. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I highly recommend it.

The group of friends in this series are so much fun and so supportive, I just love them. And I love the way they take more and more people into their fold and make them all feel like family.

When we first meet Sasha and Jack, it’s a very sad and trying time for them both. Sasha takes things a bit harder than most and her spiraling is the downfall of their relationship. But, through the years, they never could get over their relationship. Which means that when they run into each other again, years later, their chemistry re-ignites immediately.

Although Jack and Sasha make amends pretty quickly, things aren’t all roses. They still have their past hurts to air. And just because Sasha realizes she is not happy without Jack doesn’t mean she’s instantly okay with his job. I have an appreciation for the author for her ability to keep things real yet still fun.

I find myself looking forward to this series more an more with each story. This author really knows how to bring the heat (pun intended) to her couples.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book was slow at times, but overall, worth the read. the characters were likable. Firefighter romances are my jam for sure.

Sweet and hot second chance romance. I enjoyed this quick, beach read.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

3.5⭐
Still Burning was a sweet, if at times a tiny bit schmaltzy second chance romance. That was fast paced and full of likable characters. As well as a couple of hot moments. Yet I did find the story a little disjointed and rushed too. Plus, the ending was abrupt with no real resolution to either the issues Sasha and Jack were having with Jack's ex or the arsonist.

But saying that it was engaging and easy to read. And I do like this group of characters. I just wish this story had been a little more developed.

Firefighter romances were my thing when I first started to read e-books, I loved them, I devoured them, the more the heat and angst from the dangers of the job, the better. And Leora Gonzales' books have reignited that fire for these stories in me. I can't get enough of them!

Ms. Gonzales has such an enjoyable way to tell a story, the humor and laugh-out-loud moments balance the deep sorrow, angst, and despair. The banter is spirited, the flirting is filled with titillating innuendoes, the love scenes are filled with deep emotions, tenderness, adoration, and hot-hot-hot sexual tension.
In Still Burning, the accidental roommates + second chance romance + brother's best friend romance, Sasha Kendall and Jack Turner have all the feels, connection, chemistry - everything that one could think that a relationship requires, yet they have to dig deep to find the courage to trust life to deliver moments meaningful enough to balance the danger of losing each other one day.
Add to that mix the serial arsonist keeping all the fire station personnel on their toes, and Jack's mentally unstable ex-girlfriend who comforted him after Sasha walked away -- you got all the feels, heat, humor, threat and danger in a well-twined tale that entertained.
Even though I am not a fan of the third person drama in my romance, here it worked, and towards the end made an excellent plot twist.

For those sunny, summer beach days, binge reading in the garden, or however you want to do it, Braving the Heat series entertain your romantic mind while providing the best of friends, tight brotherhood, humor, heart, laughter, danger, and swoon-worthy moments in ardent, entertaining romance tales...
~ Four Spoons

This was an interesting book. Not overly amazing but the storyline and characters were likeable. I would recommend this book to friends

Romance with a little suspense!

Sasha Kendall fell in love with her brother’s best friend and fellow firefighter but when her brother was killed on duty saving some teenagers, she couldn’t handle Jack Turner being in danger and worrying about him all the time. Sasha decided to break up with Jack and move with her widowed sister-in-law to the town where she grew up avoiding anything to do with firefighters. But that all changed when she ran into Jack at a friend’s wedding because he was friends with the groom and had taken a job at the local fire station.

Sasha and Jack work out their differences by putting their lives back together after the girl that Jack dated after breakup followed him to his new job in a new town, not accepting that Jack had broken up with her and the trouble she causes but that is covered in the book which people who like a little suspense with their romance will enjoy.

Still Burning by Leora Gonzales is the third book in the series but I was able to enjoy the book without reading the other books.

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

I adored this book. Seriously - I started it last night and am writing the review now. I thought the dynamic was real - the feelings never fizzled out even though these two were separated for four years, and I was really glad that there were no other men/women as far as true feelings were involved. I loved the secondary characters, all of Sash's friends were delightful and just the right amount of sassy. However, the reason this story is getting four stars is because the identity of the main antagonist (will not spoil) is never revealed in the book!! While I appreciate the suspense throughout the book about just who the antagonist might be, it was disappointing to not get the closure. Which, I suppose, is often how life is, but if I wanted true real life I would not be reading a fictional book. Overall, wonderful read with engaging writing and lovable characters.

I absolutely love this series, but I must say that I found Sasha’s constant need to push Jack away, and his never-ending patience exhausting. The four-year gap in their relationship was unexpected, but at least believable; however, after so much time apart, Sasha’s attitude made her appear aloof and hard to like. I really liked Jack and felt that he should have moved on and let Sasha drown in her pool of “whoa is me” self-pity. So, for me it was an OK story, but my dislike of the female lead was off-putting.

This book was so fun! This was the first book I've read from this author and I really enjoyed it. The story was different from anything I've read recently and really captured my attention. It was so well written and the characters were fantastic.