All Fired Up was cute sapphic goodness!

Nic has just returned to Seattle after studying fire dynamics while going to college across the US. She's been in love with her BFF, Skylar forever and she thinks NOW is the time to finally pursue her. But Skylar has other plans and she lets their whole friend group know that she has some BIG PLANS by telling them in a very unique, yet fun way. When Nic finds out that her news will have Skylar moving, she teams up with Kira, a firefighter who is new to the friend group, to make Skylar realize that she is making a mistake.

I absolutely loved the friend group and liked that although both Kira and Nic were friends with Skylar, they hadn't gotten to know one another yet since Nic had just moved back. They were opposites in every way, right down to their jobs. One creating fire and one putting the fire out. But them coming together for Skylar's sake worked. The progression of friendship to attraction was steady and realistic. I just loved them and loved their story. I also liked the fact that both of their jobs were in male dominated fields and that is one hurdle that Kira had to overcome and it became another element of the plot.

Although these characters were supposed to be mid to upper 20's, they seemed more like new adults, fresh out of college. At least Nic did. She had some growing up to do, but we get to see that through the course of the story and it was done in a believable manner, with Skylar and her mom's expertise.

Overall, I really enjoyed this sapphic romance and I liked that it was more of a "quiet" progression and not as heavy on the steam. This was Nic and Kira's story, but I was definitely interested in the friend group and could see spinoff stories taking place if M.K. England decides to go that way.

If you like....
Sapphic romance
Opposites attract
Ploying friends to lovers
with a great friend group, then you will enjoy All Fired Up.

(More thoughts coming...)

We LOVE a queer romance, and this lesbian love story gives us all we could want. Found family, a chaotic love story, niche interests (a particular favorite of mine), and so much sweet friendship vibes that I could melt. One of them starts fires, the other puts them out? A match made in heaven. I also realized that sounds like one of them is very toxic, but those aren't their personalities, it's what they do for work.

Honestly, thank you so much for writing this M.K. England. I am SO grateful that I got to read this! I was grinning from ear to ear, and I now know that anything you write is a must read!

I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

I enjoyed the style of writing of this author. This was pretty easy to read. The two FMCs were both likable. I love their thing, the ~one puts out fires for a living and the other starts them~ thing. Cheesy but cute. The content was pretty corny though. The dialogue especially, which had me like “meh.” There were also a few inconsistencies, but they weren’t detrimental. Even so, I would read more of her books!

When I read the description I was excited to read this but then I read another blurb that compared it to writings of a particular author who writes similar romance. It was then that I had reservations since I was not a fan at all of them. Thankfully this book was great and not at all like the other author except being in the queer space.

Full discloser, I am not queer at all, I just like the variety of reading about people different from me. So I can’t comment on authenticity at all but from my experiences with friends and family seems to be very true to life, complete with stereotypical humor.

I loved the romance in how it unfolded whilst the characters dealt with things in their life aside from relationships. I think the book has some good teaching moments without sounding like it’s preaching.

I look forward to reading more from M. K. England!


I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary eARC from Harlequin Trade Publishing / Canary Street Press through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

This book comes out April 29, 2025
My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Nicole moves back home hoping to be open with her best friend about her feelings, Skylar. Things don’t go as planned when Skylar announces she’s moving to Fiji. Skylar’s friend Kira steps to help Nic convince Skylar to stay. This was a sweet romance with some heat.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Nicole Wells left Seattle two years ago for a master’s in fire dynamics and some much-needed space. Now she’s back, ready to hit reset on her life…and take one last chance on best friend/unrequited love Skylar Clark. But Nic’s plans crumble when Skylar announces she’s quitting her job and moving to Fiji for secret reasons—another typical Skylar disaster in the making. It’s a giant red flag, and Nic feels like she’s the only one who sees it… Until she meets Kira.

Kira McKinney stepped in as Skylar’s safety net friend while Nic was away. She’s got plenty of her own problems—can’t get promoted, cancels all her dates, her fire chief father’s legacy—but when Skylar makes her announcement, Kira knows she’s needed again. Fortunately, Kira finds an ally in Nic, and when talking to Skylar doesn’t work, there’s only one option left: shenanigans.

This was a scorcher! I really loved the premise of this story, and it was a joy getting to know Nic and Kira and to watch their relationship change and grow. Loved this one! 5⭐

I received an advanced complimentary digital copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

adorable, u love to see it! beautiful little sapphic opposites attract romance. love seeing queer joy in books, especially romances, and this one was SO GOOD. very much a warm hug.

4.75⭐️ rounded up
🌶🌶🌶

I was feeling a bit of a reading slump when I started this, and All Fired Up cured me of it!

From the start, I had so much fun reading this sweet Sapphic romance. I loved Nic and Kira's development from co-conspirators to "it's casual" to "I caught feelings". I absolutely adore the positive therapy rep. This was such a good story and exactly what I needed. I do wish there had been a bit more about the side characters, but I'm hoping we'll get more books about them in the future. I would absolutely recommend for fans of Ashley Herring Blake and Alexandria Bellefleur!

Rep: mental health, lesbian (MC), bi (MC), nonbinary (SC), queer (SC)
CW: alcohol, death of parent (past), misogyny (at MC)

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

🔥ARC Review🧯4/29 Release

🌟Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
💧Drip-o-Meter: 💦💦💦💧
💗Something I Loved (with Summary):
Nic left Seattle 2 years ago for grad school to study fire dynamics...and to get away from her best friend and unrequited love, Skylar. She's back home now but her plans to finally confess her feelings go up in flames when Sky announces she's moving to Fiji indefinitely. Nic’s worried this move is a huge mistake and finds an ally in Kira, a firefighter who joined Nic’s friend group while she was away, to help convince Skylar to stay. ✨Cue the shenanigans.✨ What I personally loved about this book was how genuine the relationship between Kira and Nic felt. As the reader, you get to be with them from the very beginning (when they’re both still slightly worried the other is their replacement as Skylar’s BFF) and follow along as they become true friends… and eventually more. The author wrote this in a way that felt so authentic, never making their chemistry feel forced and including the (very realistic) awkward moments and realizations that come with getting to know someone new. Overall I really appreciated how honest their connection felt and how organically it developed.
🫤Something I Would Have Changed: I only wish there had been a little more time to get to know all of the side characters a bit better because curious minds (aka me) need to know what the hell shenanigans they were up to. However, if this were to become a series, this would be a moot point.
🥰Favorite Moment: Nic’s grand-ish gesture apology to Kira. It was full of open and honest communication, plus mentions of the benefits of therapy 🙌🏼, and actually had me tearing up a little.
🌶️Spiciest Scene: It has to be their first time in ch. 11. And yes, I read it more than once…. for science obviously. But also the scene in ch. 18 where there is some fawking in a dressing room because both the premise and execution of it was hot, hot, hot.🥵
📚Standalone vs. Series: Standalone as far as I know but could certainly become a series centering around each member of their friend group, especially with how things were left between some of them in the end.
📖Would I Recommend: I would. It was the very definition of queer rom-com, full of both funny and heartfelt moments, great communication, a little melodrama, and a lot of queer joy. I especially loved how any issues or hesitations they had with being in a relationship were more deeply rooted and not focused on their sexuality.… finally a queer romance where none of the characters main personality traits are “questioning my sexuality!” The book itself was perfectly paced and easy to lose yourself in and overall was such a fun and enjoyable read.
💬Tropes: Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Only One Bed, Sapphic, It’s “Casual”
🙏🏼Thank you to @mk_england, @canarystreetpress, and @htpbooks for this ARC. Forever grateful.

I love reading a queer romance so much. This was opposites attract, love triangle, and was such a cute romance book. I thought both characters were authentically written and felt real, which I really appreciate in a book. There was a lot of great banter and I loved both the characters a lot.

I really had a fun (and slightly stressful) time reading All Fired Up. The characters are very engaging, I was rooting for Nic and Kira the whole time- and there were some fun twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. The pacing was well done for all the different plot points, even if while reading it I was a little confused, it all pulled together in the end. The ending was mostly good, not the biggest fan, but overall a fun read!

In their first adult romance, England delivers a scorcher.

One fights fires. The other sets them (for scientific reasons). They share a best friend. That best friend is impulsive and flaky, and now she wants to move to Fiji–and give up her 800k+ social media following.

What better way to get acquainted with the bestie your bestie made while you were out of state for grad school than to team up and try to stop her from making a huge mistake? Especially when you're in love with shared bestie and always have been, but have thus far been too afraid to admit your feelings?

But oh wait, new bestie is super hot, and things are getting complicated...

The pros:
-England has that way of writing a breezy, compulsively-readable romance that I can only compare to Courtney Milan–the problems aren't always light, but that sense of moving through the story is.
-While the characters on paper are very "opposites attract," in reality they work together very well.
-🔥 sex scenes.
-not equating "found family" with having a friend group.

The cons:
-use of the word "clean" for sexual health status, although I acknowledge the absolutely lack of replacement we have that works so succinctly.
-...that's really it. I do think the friends might've been given a little more page time as individuals, but everyone's doing SOMETHING mysterious, so hopefully we'll get another book or three about them.

Disclaimer: I know the author casually from our time in librarianship.

!!!! queer firefighter!!! this was such a fun little romp. sweet at times, some awesome chemistry happening, and love seeing more firefighter romances.

All Fired Up is a very cute sapphic romance! Two opposite-personality main characters come together in this quick read!

Overall, this was a fun, light-hearted romance with a lot of spice that I think many romance readers will enjoy! It read pretty quickly and kept my attention. I liked both of the main characters along with Skylar, but I think some of the other side characters could have been developed a little more. The ending left a little bit to be desired for me. There were a few plot points (Skylar's car, Willow's secret, etc.) that either weren't circled back to at the end or were just left opened ended, which I didn't love.

All Fired Up is a sweet queer romance following Nic, a fire scientist, and Kira, a firefighter. This book has plenty of fire and spice! Also filled with found family, you’ll see them overcome challenges and fears with their tight knit group of friends by their side. You’ll see both Nic and Kirra move on from self sabotage and come into self acceptance, no longer letting their thoughts and feelings hold them back from the lives they both need and deserve. They find each other while learning how to find themselves.

Ahhhhhhh, this book is fire! Pun intended! This is a really enjoyable chaotic romance novel with endearing main characters and not much angst. This is the perfect sweet book to read when life feels like it isn't going according to plan.

This was by far one of the cutest sapphic novels I have ever read.

The idea of a friend group coming together for one big hurrah with 2 of the members truly meeting and connecting is such a niche trope that I couldn’t even imagine myself, but one that I totally fell in love with. Though the cast of characters is on the heavier side I felt that all of them were unique and were never left out, both plot wise and general development. You can easily tell how different everyone is and why the group works the way it does.

The communication was absolutely top tier. I loved the openness and just the realness of it, not to mention the super hot consent too. I’m just saying now that sapphic novels will always have top tier spice scenes. This book made me well aware of that, and I might have read the scenes more than once… oops. Thankfully!!!! We also get a HEA which is giving all the warm and cuddly feelings.

Thank you, HTP, for the early copy!

Unfortunately, “All Fired Up” didn’t heat up enough to my liking. I thought I would enjoy it since it features many of my favorite tropes (forced proximity, opposites attract, found family, etc.) but it just didn’t click.

The main characters felt underdeveloped. Every time it seemed like they might learn from their mistakes, they would just repeat the same patterns. While they had chemistry, I often had to reread parts of the steamier scenes to figure out what was happening—there were moments where clothing items mysteriously reappeared after supposedly being removed.

I only finished this because I wanted to see what happened to their friends. However, if you love secret relationships and STEM romances, this might still work for you! I’d recommend checking out other reviews since many readers enjoyed this one.

In "All Fired Up" we follow the stories of Nic and Kira, with each chapter switching perspectives between the characters. For two characters who were clearly made for each other, it was fantastic to see how realistic their journeys were to figure it out themselves. Each character tackles challenges that are so relatable and make them feel very well-developed. Seeing one of the characters struggle and work on breaking the cycle of feeling unworthy and another work on honestly communicating boundaries, all while seeking enthusiastic consent with each other was so important. Also, having a book where the queer characters just get to be queer and the drama is centered on other things is always a treat. There isn't any hand-holding or justifying people's identities. As such, this book felt like it was written for the LGBTQ+ community with found family, a nonbinary character who never has to correct others' use of their pronouns, disaster lesbians and a lot of inside jokes that go with that trope,. and recognizing everyone's humanity, no matter where they are in their journey. This book is a wonderful peek into a tight group of amazing folks and I hope there will be more to come that focus on the supporting characters, if we're lucky enough to get more books from this author.