This my first book by this author. I have to say I quite enjoyed it. The main characters were well written and sympathetic. The storyline had drama and excitement as well as touching romance and sadness. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overcoming a childhood of loss, Out of the Flames, details Manhattan Sloane's life of running from love and personal attachments. Sloane was a young teenager when both of her parents were killed in a car crash from which she survived. She witnessed both of her parents claimed by the flames from the crash. As a thirty=something San Francisco police detective in the narcotics division, Sloane avoids personal connections and is absorbed by her work. One day that changes when she meets Avery Santos who works down the hallway in the San Francisco Police Department CSI lab. Avery is the mother of a teenager named Reagan. Sloane and Avery grow close and eventually marry. They seemingly have an ideal, loving relationship. While working on a drug case, Sloane is reintroduced to her first childhood crush, DEA Agent Finn Harper. After another loss impacts Sloane's life, Finn and Sloane team up to take down a drug cartel kingpin.

This was a debut novel by Stacy Lynn Miller, whose military background, obviously helped in the writing of this book. The story was highly charged with action, thrills, but also balanced with romance and moments that left this reader in tears. The pace of the book was set immediately upon reading the first chapter and did not deter. My only issue with the book is the synopsis description lead me to believe more of the book would be about the developing relationship between Sloane and Finn. However, since this is a series with several unfilled questions in the last chapter and the epilogue, this reader hopes that the romance between Sloane and Finn fully develops in the next book of the series.

I received an ARC from Bella Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overcoming major trauma. Police mystery novel. Found the first quarter hard to get through (lots of time jumping) but the last half absolutely took off. I had to stay up all night to finish because I couldn't put it down. Billed as the first in a series, I look forward to seeing where this story will go.

Manhattan Sloane spent most of her young adult life running from attachments because she carried misplaced guilt for her parents' death and believes everyone who gets close to her dies. When she meets Avery, a CSI, however, while investigating a case, Sloane is swept up and has found a new lease on life.

But tragedy strikes again - no spoilers - and Sloane is left trying to bring down a drug cartel while overcoming injury and profound grief with the help of her long-lost, tween crush-turned DEA agent.

**I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

San Francisco police detective, Manhattan Sloane lost her parents in a car crash and resultantly has developed huge emotional walls. CSI, Avery Santos somehow manages to get to Sloane and they get married. Sloane is on a case involving drug dealers when DEA Agent Finn Harper arrives to join the investigation. The Feds believe that this is a multi-state ring and have every intention of bringing in the big brain behind the whole set-up. Finn is Sloane’s school crush and Sloane finds the attraction still there, only latent and simmering instead of flaming. During a raid and the subsequent crime scene investigation, a rigged bomb explodes and Avery is a fatality.

We DNF-d the book at this point.

We have some pet peeves and thoughtless playing with people’s hearts ranks right up there. Without exception, when the MC is a player, we actively don’t like them. There are times when we are able to still read through and complete the book (mostly when there is no cavalier breaking of anyone’s heart involved). So Sloane set our teeth on edge right away.

Despite being married and co-parenting Avery’s daughter, Sloane hasn’t given Avery the comfort and confidence of being loved and of Sloane having left her player past behind. Sloane doesn’t tell Avery about Finn’s reappearance in her life. Of an innocent-but-no-entirely-innocent hug. When Avery dies, she is feeling unloved and distanced. Which is unforgiveable especially since Avery is extremely loving and took big risks in loving and pursuing Sloane. Avery deserved better from her partner.

We also get upset when characters we like die. And we really, really liked Avery.

What we can say is that the writing is solid because it made us feel. What we can also say with confidence is that we’d have continued disliking Sloane for everything she’d been in the first half of the book.

So if you don’t have the same reservations about and MC casually breaking hearts and if you don’t have the same ideals and expectations from love as we do, this one should work for you. It didn’t for us.

PS: Despite DNF-ing this one, we are giving it two stars instead of zero because we really, really, really liked Avery and we also liked what little we read of Finn. Plus, we also felt the writing was good.

For being Ms. Miller's first book, she really did a wonderful job. Right from the start she let us into Sloane's life, her pain, her struggle, you just could not help but fall in love with her and read along to get to her HEA. The story is a bit heavy in place but I personally liked that, it gave it such depth. Again this may be Ms. Miller's first book, but you would never know it, her story telling is right on mark, she brings the characters to life that you are actually crying with and for them.

At the start there is some jumping the timeline, but I liked it, it moved the characters growth along and a pace you didn't feel like it was repeating itself. Throw in the story line the crime part of Sloane's job and you have a well written book.

I look forward to more from Ms. Miller is she wish to so bless us, I will definitely keep an eye out for this author.

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, but would have written the same opinion if I had come across this author on my own.

To see my Amazon review, it is under CC-Intrigue and romance

A wonderful book to become immersed in regarding a cops and drug lords. Better yet is this appears to be book 1 of a series, so there’s more to come from Manhattan Sloan and the budding romance with her childhood crush, Finn Harper.

If you are looking for an adventure novel with mystery, intrigue, romance, and a lot of angst, then look no further than Out of the Flames by Stacy Lynn Miller. This is Ms. Miller’s debut novel, and if this book is any indication, I will definitely be looking forward to reading more of her work.

This particular story begins almost as a flashback telling the reader about a traumatic and life-changing event in the main character’s teenage years. It then moves forward twenty years to present day when the main character, Manhattan Sloane, is now a San Francisco Detective. She and her partner become involved in a narcotic investigation that will forever affect the lives of Sloane, her wife and stepdaughter, her partner Eric, and an old friend that Sloane hasn’t seen since that one fateful night twenty years ago.

I’m really impressed with how well this tale is written. The beginning is a bit slow because the author has to give so much of the back story, but the book quickly caught my interest as I continued to read. The story itself is excellent, and the characters are well-developed and easy to connect with. This book made me cry in several places. As I mentioned above, there is quite a bit of angst in this tale. I am very glad I read this book, though, and since this novel is the beginning of a series, I will be eagerly waiting for book two.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bella Books for an honest review.

Rainbow Reflections: http://rainbowreflections.home.blog/

What an emotional rollercoaster. From the book description and review comments, I know some unfortunate events were going to occur. Sadness did unfold but also good things. What appealed to my interest in this read was the self-talk and the desire to do the right thing. There are four main characters and interesting secondary characters. Avery Marcos and her daughter Reagan were both likeable and to the most extent well developed. You could feel the love and protectiveness they had for each other. Manhattan Sloane, SFPD detective with emotional weight on her shoulders. It was hard not to feel for the heartache Sloane faced while growing up. I also felt for her as she internalized her role in these unfortunate events. Finn Harper, DEA agent living with her own challenges and issues.

Slow to start but the characters and various storylines pulled me in and I was truly engaged. While reading, I thought about the various shapes families can take on, the impact of drugs on society, and the importance of friendship, relationships, and love.

This story you cannot read Without Kleenex in hand. Gut wrenching feelings from Sloan will transfer on to you. Seriously this is best book I read this year. It is very moving. The heart ache Sloan had to deal with is beyond comprehension. I love her character, it is strong even or maybe because of all the truma she went trough as a child. Again as an adult. Every time she lost somone she gained someone. Every loss was tragic and extremely painful. In general, you will love all characters in this book. So worth reading!

I'm a little torn on this one. I did enjoy it, it took twists you could kind of see coming, but not quite.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the author does with the characters in future books!

Man, what a read. It's a heavy book, was my first thought when writing this review. Well written by a new author for me (not sure if this is a debut book or not) but heavy on the death and heartache.

The cartel story and the way the whole MC Manhattan Sloane was set up was done very well. I found it fast paced and I wasn't sure what was going to happen next.

That being said, most of this first book was depressing. Sloane loses a lot of people in her life, and some of them you get to witness up close and personal. Also, don't expect the second MC Finn to be romantic with Sloane like the usual lesbian romance novels. This is a SLOOOWWW process for those two, that I'm sure the second in the series will delve into more.

Overall, good start to a new series but it comes with the heavy warning.

This was a pretty good book. The first half was a little slow as it tried to find its feet and traction. The second half was is if a light had been switched on. It became gripping and very hard to put down. The main characters were unique and easy to connect with. I became so invested in the custody fight and the investigation that I read the entire last third in one chunk, reading far past when I intended to. But I had to find out how it all turned out before I put it down!

I was interested and pleased to see there will be another book. I already have my guesses for the identity of...whoops, can't tell you that.
LOL.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Manhattan Sloane, sergeant with the SFPD, has had a tough start to life. She witnessed her parent's being killed in an horrific car accident and a series of accidents during her life have led her to believe that everyone she gets close to will die. Twenty years after her first high school crush on Finn Harper, Sloane finds herself working with Special Agent Finn Harper and the sparks are all still there.
This is the debut novel of Stacy Lynn Miller and it's very, very good. The book is a roller coaster of emotion as you ride the highs and lows with Sloane as she navigates her way through her life which is riddled with guilt, self blame and eventually love. It's easy to connect with all the main characters and sub characters, most of them are all successful strong women so what's not to love? The storyline is really solid and you can kind of guess how the next installment in this series is going to start and I can't wait for it to come out.

I received an ARC copy of the book from the publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

This is the author’s debut book.

Manhattan Sloane is a detective with the SFPD. She has sworn that she would keep all her love interests at arm’s length, never letting anyone get to close. She lost her parents when she was younger and witnessed their death and hasn’t really gotten over it.

Avery Marcos works as a CSI agent. She is widowed with a fourteen year old daughter. She meets and falls in love with Sloane.

Finn Harper is a DEA agent. She knew Sloane when she was in her teens and then they lost touch. A case involving street drugs brings them back together again.

It took me a couple of chapters to get into this book but then I couldn’t put it down. After Sloane witnesses her parents death in a car crash she has sworn off getting close to anyone, that is until she meets Avery and then all her walls that she put up around her heart were slowly broken down as she falls hard for Avery. I absolutely loved Avery and was heartbroken when something happened with her character. I loved all the characters with the exception of Avery’s parents, I enjoyed the story line, which kept me turning the page once I got over the first couple of chapters. I felt at the beginning the pace was a bit fast for my liking but then it slowed down a bit once you really got into the story. Sloane is working with Finn and her partner Eric on trying to find the leader of who is selling dangerous drugs, the problem is tracking him down and who they can trust.

For a debut novel the author has really done a great job. I would certainly read more of her work in the future.

Overall, it was a solid piece of work and I would highly recommend giving it a read.

Manhattan Sloane and Finn Harper were junior high school friends who were attracted to each other. However, when Sloan was 13 her parents died and she went to live with her grandmother. Twenty years later, Sloane was now a sergeant with the SFPD and Finn Harper was an Assistant Special Agent. When they met over a drug case there was still some underlying attraction. But Sloan was happily married and lived with her wife Avery, who was CSI, and her teenage daughter Reagan. Finn recently broke up with her long term girlfriend. Even though Sloan and her partner Eric had to hand over their drug case to Finn and her partner, Sloan secretly worked the case with Eric for personal reasons. An event occurred that left Sloan heartbroken and out for vengeance against the very dangerous cartels.

I really didn’t think this story was going to be as emotional as it was. There were many heartbreaking scenes and you felt the pain of the characters as they dealt with the loss of loved ones. But there was also hope for a better future and the possibility of finding love again. There were many interesting characters who dealt with such issues as homophobic parents, first dates, and guardianship.

This was the author’s debut novel, and it was well written. After the first few chapters the pacing increased and it became more engaging.The title was also very appropriately named since flames altered and impacted these characters lives. This was the first book in the series and I look forward to the next one.

An ARC was given for an honest review.

The writing style was almost like watching a movie, that got me confused somehow. Just cos I did not know who was talking or thinking, You get to hear the thoughts of almost everyone. Otherwise it was super pleasant read

I must say I did not want these 2 (Sloane and Finne) to get together, I loved Ev she's very likable character and fit well in the story ( the connection was well build more with her and Solane than Sloane and Finne tbh) . Moreover, I did not get how a 30 something still call her Dad daddy.
In my opinion, Sloane was not that well developed she go up and down so many times, there's no consistency in her growth. I COULD NOT sympathies with her nor understand what she went through or her pain. and for the life of me I could not think of her as mom nor as 30 something. When I read, I imagine her as 23 years old I don't know why !.

Having said all of that I did very much enjoy the book . I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.

Thank you for the Author and her team

Detective Sloane life change when her parents died in car crash and she the only one who survive she carries guilt that she couldn’t save her parents because of this she keeps everyone at arms length especially lovers. One day she meets CSI Avery and her world turn upside down and she finally met a woman who broken her walls down. Tragedy strikes when she is injured and her wife dies in explosions she blames herself because she thinks if she didn’t distract her wife because something she witness wasn’t what it seem her wife woulda had saw the bomb. As she mourns her wife she is battling control over keeping her teenage stepdaughter Reagan from her grandparents.

Finn is a DEA Agent and she arrive in San Francisco to investigate a new drug that killing people she surprises to run into Sloane and vice versus but when this new drug hit too close to home for Sloane she vow to get justice one way or the other. When Finn risk her job to help Sloane get justice it ends in tragedy and Sloane vow to get the people who killed her wife with the help of her partner Eric and Finn as she does this the crush she had on Finn when she was younger resurface but it’s not the right time because she mourning her wife and trying to be the mother her stepdaughter deserves.

I really enjoy this read and I’m looking forward to the next exstallment in this series.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.