Rating: 4
Steam: 2
PoV: dual, 1st person
Series: Station 69 #1
Genre: contemporary romance, MM
Tropes / tags: father’s best friend, small town, Daddy kink
Jacki James goes from cowboys to firefighters in this new series, and starting off with a father’s best friend romance!
I really enjoyed Caleb and Keith’s story! They started things off as an ‘experiment’ in order to get Caleb some experience with what it would be like to have a Daddy, but it was quickly obvious that the only Daddy Caleb wanted was Keith. Keith was protective of Caleb right from the start and I loved how domestic they were together – it was fantastic to see how Caleb thrived under Keith’s caretaking.
They were great at communicating, even with Caleb being new to the Daddy / boy dynamic and feeling awkward at times, he understood that Keith needed to know things in order to take care of him. I loved how good Keith was at listening and acknowledging Caleb’s feelings, especially when Caleb brought up his struggles with the dangers of Keith being a firefighter and feeling anxious whenever he knew that Keith was out on a call. I just loved how there was no miscommunications or unnecessary drama between them.
It was overall a very sweet story with just a touch of angst, thanks to the father’s best friend trope. There was also a little suspense and mystery thrown in for the overarching plot line, and at the end it was clear that something more sinister was going on than “regular” arsons. The station scenes together with the relationship development between Keith and Caleb had me completely captivated, and I didn’t want their story to end.
Controlled Burn was a great start of a new series, and I loved getting to know the firefighters and Caleb’s friend group! There was a strong found family vibe and I’m really excited to get to know more about these characters. I didn’t expect the continuing suspense / arson plot, but I’m totally here for it and can’t wait to see what will happen in the coming books!
Book links:
Amazon | Goodreads | BookBub | StoryGraph
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