Review: Fun, Poignant, Romantic, and Sexy!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2013
Fearless, smoking hot, and single: meet the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel. These firemen might be heroes, but it's their bad luck in love that makes them legendary.The Fireman Who Loved Me is the first book in Jennifer Bernard's The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel series, as well as her debut novel. It's fun, it's sexy, it's poignant... it's a thoroughly entertaining story!The Curse:In my review of the prequel, One Fine Fireman, I explained a bit about the curse:First, a little background to the series title: Due to an event over 150 years ago, the firefighters assigned to this firehouse are cursed to never find love. The curse surrounds the true (supposedly) story of mail order bride Constancia B. Sidwell and says that one of the first volunteer firemen in the area, Virgil Rush, had been corresponding with Constancia B. Sidwell who was eager to start a new life in the West. Like many women of the time were doing, she hopped on a mail coach to travel across the country to meet her future husband, but before she could reach him, a gang of robbers attacked. The story goes on that she fell in love with the leader of the gang and never thought about poor Virgil again, and Virgil, subjected to the unrelenting teasing of his fellow firefighters, vowed that from that day forward, San Gabriel firefighters would suffer the same rocky road to romance that he did.As I said then, this really has little to do with the actual storyline of this book, but it's a fun "backdrop" to the entire series, so I wanted to share that with you.The Story:News producer Melissa McGuire has been burned - and not by fire. Thanks to the dog-eat-dog environment of television news, she lost her job and got her heart broken in one fell swoop. Leaving the glitz and prestige of Los Angeles behind, Melissa now finds herself living and working in not-so-glitzy San Gabriel, California, and taking care of her ailing grandmother. A grandmother with a secret whose made is her mission to match Melissa with one of the hot, legendary, "Firemen of San Gabriel."Melissa and Fire Captain Harry Brody couldn't be more different but sometimes, as the saying goes, opposites attract. And in the case of this matchmaking endeavor, they match, and match big. But that doesn't mean everything goes smoothly, though, because...Sparks fly. Passion flares. Heat rises. (You get the picture.)Add a curse, a conniving nightly news anchor, a stunningly handsome daredevil fireman, a brave little boy, a couple of exes, and one giant fire to the mix, and Melissa and Brody's love may not be the only thing that burns.My Thoughts:All I can say is Wow! What a great story this is. Lots of excitement, action, romance, humor, and sexy goodness, and even some moments that found me fighting back the tears. There was so much packed into this story that I honestly can't think of a thing it lacked.If you're a fan of contemporary romance, and if you love firefighters, then you definitely need to give this series a try. Ms. Bernard is a talented writer, giving us awesome characters, great stories, and happily ever afters we can believe in and cheer for!