Annabeth Albert’s Hotshots series continues—the emotions and intensity of Chicago Fire with the raw, natural elements of Man vs. Wild.Smoke jumping is Garrick Nelson’s life. Nothing, not severe injuries nor the brutal physical therapy that follows, is going to stop him from getting back with his crew. But when a lost dog shows up on his front porch, he can’t turn her away, and he can’t take care … back with his crew. But when a lost dog shows up on his front porch, he can’t turn her away, and he can’t take care of her on his own. Thankfully, help comes in the form of his new sexy, dog-loving neighbor. As they work together, trying to re-home their little princess, Garrick can’t resist his growing attraction for the other man, even though he knows this guy isn’t the staying type.
Rain Fisher doesn’t take anything too seriously. He dances through life, one adventure at a time, never settling in one place for too long. When his hot, conveniently buff, neighbor shows up on his doorstep, dog in tow, Rain’s determined to not just save the adorable puppy, but her reluctant owner as well. He never expects their flirtation might tempt him into stay put once and for all…
Danger lurks everywhere for Central Oregon’s fire crews, but the biggest risk of all might be losing their hearts. Don’t miss the Hotshots series from Annabeth Albert: Burn Zone, High Heat, and Feel the Fire.
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An injured homeless dog brought them together and now Rain is crushing on Garrick, who’s also injured and walks with crutches. Maybe they can have some fun, just for the time being of course. Rain will not stay long enough to start something even though that’s exactly what he’s looking for.
Rain lives next door with his gran. He’s looking for a job with the wild firefighters.
He wants Garrick, who’s a smokejumper, to train him, in exchange he’ll help with the dog.
Rain a sparkling rainbow unicorn and Garrick can only admire him. Before you know they share their bodies in a very good way.
Garrick and Rain are so smitten with each other. Garrick is getting stronger and more independent, Rain is offering an opportunity with wild firefighters only in California and not here. Rain wants Garrick to ask him to stay but Garrick won’t do it
Throughout this story, we get to know them so well. Because of the injuries parts of Garrick’s body don’t work quite well as he wished, Rain is very easygoing about it. Always the very positive one, not only positive he also got a lovely kinky side.
Together they are sweet, sensual, expanding the horizon, try out new ways.
It’s about to dare to make choices, to step out of the comfort zone.
It was a convincing narrative, entertaining, honest, and close to the heart. This author always writes in the best engaging way, always with a good balance between the main story, side stories, romance, lighthearted and heavy issues, the characters always have layers and you can only love them!
Overall a very entertaining, well developed, engaging narrative.
I was expecting “High Heat”….and got that plus all the feels!
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Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars
Kindle Unlimited: No
Standalone: Yes
Steam: 4 it is pretty darn hot flames
Triggers: Dealing with a permanent injury
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The end of book one left me in shambles when Garrick was hurt. He was such a strong, dependable character I could only hope that everything was going to work out for the best. Book two is Garrick’s book and it was a little more everything.
Garrick was hurt when he got stuck in a tree after a jump. His legs, hips, back are all damaged but he is doing his PT and by golly he is going to work his way back out to the team. He is more determined than ever to get back to doing what he loved. Smoke jumping. Even a near death experience cannot keep him down. He has to use a wheelchair and crutches to get around, but he is making progress!
Then he comes upon Cookie, a lost and injured dog. Cookie is unfortunately afraid of the wheelchair, so Garrick has to do what he likes the least…ask his neighbor, Shirley, a tie-dying, crafting, grandmother for help. This is when he meets Rain, Shirley’s grandson from Portland.
Rain agrees to help Garrick get the dog to the vet and see if she is chipped to find her owners. When the vet cannot find a chip, and there are no fosters available. Rain sweet talks Garrick into just a weekend, just to give Cookie time to heal and find her owners. Right. Just a weekend. That is what they all say 🙂
Garrick is hesitant because how is a man in a wheelchair or crutches going to take care of a dog, but Rain has that all figured out too. Rain will walk Cookie and help Garrick out for a while since he is visiting his grandmother for the summer and she does not need his help, and a friendship is born.
Rain sparkles, where Garrick is more reserved and gruffer. Rain brings sunshine to Garrick’s lonely days. Slowly as they spend more time together that bond becomes more and more. Though Garrick is worried about the age difference, but Rain finally wears him down, I mean how long can you ignore someone who shines? Not to mention, in the back of his mind Garrick sees it as only temporary, Rain will be moving at the end of the summer. Or will he?
This book deals with many subjects. From learning to deal with a disability, and how it not only effects the injured parts of your body, but your mind and soul, overcoming challenges, and sometimes learning to ask for help. I will be honest. I teared up a couple of times because it was just heartbreaking to watch Garrick struggle. However, each time I teared up, Rain was there to lighten the mood, whether it was his silky robes, pony t-shirts and silver shorts, or sexy lacy underwear. Rain was always there to brighten things up with something pretty and a smile.
These two began to fill holes in each other’s cracked armor. But how long can a summer fling last? Right? A summer… or can it last longer? You will have to read the book to find out.
This book was not quite what I was expecting, it had more emotions than I expected. High Heat definitely brings the heat, and it will warm your heart right along with the steam! I enjoyed this book and I think it was a great addition to the Hotshots series. I will continue to read this series and cannot wait to see who is next in the series.
Garrick Nelson was a smoke jumper until an accident left him partially paralyzed. Through intensive therapy, he’s managed to get himself back to his semi-independent self, but that won’t get him back to smoke jumping. When a stray dog appears on his doorstep, he knows he needs help. Knowing his neighbor has worked with animal shelters before, he decides to ask for her help. But instead of Shirley answering the door, it’s her grandson, Rain, who’s visiting for the summer.
Rain Fisher is a free spirit. He floats around from job to job, relationship to relationship; never really settling down. He’s visiting his grandmother for the summer when her very attractive neighbor, Garrick, comes calling asking for help with a stray dog.
Garrick and Rain’s love story has to be one of the most sexiest and sweetest romances I have ever read. Like, it’s got enough detailed sex scenes to be considered an explicit or erotic romance but the sex scenes aren’t dirty. Does that make sense?
Anyway, Garrick and Rain share an instant attraction but Garrick is hesitant to pursue anything because of the ten year age gap between the two and because Rain’s stay is temporary. Rain always likes a challenge; he wants Garrick but he also wants to help him. What starts off as a friendship with benefits quickly becomes more as feelings start to develop between the two. Will Rain consider staying after the summer is over? Will Garrick ask him to stay?
Like I said, this story exceeded my expectations. Aside from the sex, Garrick and Rain both spent a lot of time getting to know one another and I loved watching them take care of each other. You may need tissues with this because the road for these two is not easy and you will be feeling angry and sad at points.
Since this is a firefighter romance, you do get to see some action in regards to what firefighters (particularly forest firefighters) deal with and the dangers they face.
This is book 2 in Annabeth’s Hotshots series but I think this can be read as a standalone as I have not read Book 1, Burn Zone, yet and I was able to follow along with what happened. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes firefighter romance, age gap romance and LGBTQ romance.
Age gap and hurt/comfort are two of my favorite tropes, and I especially love them together. I would recommend High Heat to anyone who’s looking for a sexy and romantic read.
This is the second book in Hotshot series. It was ok. It wasn’t as slow for me as the first book was in this series.
Garrick and Rain’s story was nice. Rain came into Garrick’s life and shook him out of the funk he was in from his horrible accident. Rain slowly show Garrick that he still can have and do things in his current situation.
I loved how rain was so open and free. He wasn’t pushy with Garrick. I liked how he made Garrick feel relaxed with him when they were having sex.
The reason for the 3 star is even though I liked this book better than the first. It was a little slow for me. And it did take me a little bit to get into. I loved the ending.
And I’m really looking forward to the next book in this series.
*ARC provided by HARLEQUIN – Carina Press via Netgalley.*
I am LOVING this series!
Garrick Nelson was injured on the job at a pivotal moment in the first book ( Burn Zone ), but if you haven’t read that one yet, you should have no problem jumping in (see what I did there? ;)) here. High Heat takes place months later, when the most intense of Garrick’s rehab is behind him–though he still isn’t close to where he wants to be, back on his smoke jumping crew. He’s determined to make it back, though–and no one can tell him he won’t. For now he’s stuck in limbo, doing his physical therapy and isolating himself from much of his former life, seeing his dad weekly and his neighbors occasionally.
Enter Cookie, a stray dog, who decides to adopt Garrick and Rain Fisher, the grandson of Garrick’s closest neighbor, who makes it his personal mission to make sure Cookie has found her forever home. Soon the two men are spending more and more time together–on-to-the-next-adventure Rain asks for Garrick’s help with a training regimen in exchange for help with Cookie–and their attraction to each other becomes harder and harder to ignore.
I adored Garrick and Rain together–they were fabulous! Rain’s upbringing and personality made him more sensitive to the needs of others than most people, and he was the perfect guy to be there for Garrick in many ways as he came to terms with his disability and the possibility that it might be a permanent thing. Rain himself is just so unabashedly, well, 100% himself, and he did a great job of drawing Garrick back out into the world of the living. And got him started knitting, of all things. (OMG! I loved that part…) Truly, I couldn’t put this one down–I read it in a single day, and I regret nothing!
There’s a teaser chapter for the next series book ( Feel the Fire ) at the end of this one, because Ms Albert clearly wants to make sure that we are counting the days until its release…
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
Original review: https://myshelfbooks.wordpress.com/2020/10/18/review-high-heat-by-annabeth-albert/
Hotshots, zZz: This is the second book of the saga and it is not an improvement from the first one, which I didn’t enjoy. Garrick’s and Rain’s story is as uninteresting as it is uneventful. Keeping awake has been a constant struggle with this story, where every page feels like a marathon in the desert during a really hot day. And I don’t mean that because the book was too sexy for my poor heart… Reading these guys’ lack of adventures has been exhausting. The author needs to shock this saga into something bearable, because in my opinion it is her weakest work so far. You can’t sustain half the book with a story about erectile dysfunction and peculiar taste in underwear and the other half with air and a lazy conflict between the main characters.
Bad cast: I have said this before… there is nothing worse in Romance that being incapable of connecting with the main characters. That kind of rapport has to be formed with at least one of them to carry the reader through the story. Sadly, I have found both of them, Garrick and Rain, pretty boring. In such a situation, it has been impossible to tolerate the sex scenes between them… adding to the growing senssation that this book has nothing worth saving.
Interesting story with steamy moments and some real life challenges.
A smouldering romance of trust and finding peace, High Heat is the perfect escapism read.
As the second book in the Hot Shots series by Annabeth Albert, readers will find it easy to pick up this book and embrace the setting and its characters, especially after becoming invested in Garrick’s character after being introduced to him in Burn Zone.
While the intensity and chemistry are immediate, there’s a slow-burn element to this narrative that is well-paced and definitely story appropriate. The development from new friends so more is sweet and allows the reader to embrace and support the relationship between injured smoke jumper Garrick and the loveable Rain, who’s somewhat of a drifter.
The May-to-December theme is navigated well, with a nice level of realism without it being dramatised. It makes readers’ engagement with the story easy.
There’s some angst towards the end that feels a little convoluted at times, but it doesn’t distract from the journey the characters undergo.
Overall, a really lovely read about disability and acceptance and finding your place in the world.
Annabeth Albert is an excellent writer. You know going in that you’re in good hands. That said, I liked this book a lot but didn’t love it as much as I wanted to.
For a book in a series about firefighters, there isn’t a ton of firefighting action. That’s understandable, given the plot, but it sort of left me off balance, as if I were waiting for the rest of the book (though a story about a former firefighter coming to terms with a disability and a young man growing up a bit is excellent on its own—it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting). I also got a bit impatient with Rain’s and Garrick’s unwillingness/inability to talk with/listen to/really hear each other. It made sense for a while (we all have issues), but it seemed to go on longer than it needed to.
All those quibbles aside, this is a book well worth reading. I’ll be eagerly awaiting book 3 in the series.
My thanks to the author (via her Facebook group) for an advance copy of this book.
I am a huge fan of character driven novels, and High Heat does not disappoint. The main characters show growth as a individual men and as a couple. Garrick’s injury and recovery seem authentic and well researched. The happily ever after is highly satisfying and believable. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
Oh Garrick. We met him in book 1 as the best friend of Linc. The super cocky smoke jumper who was gravely injured (seriously gasp inducing as I read it) at the end of book 1. Book 2 gives us a bit of a time jump as Garrick is home now, but still in recovery mode.
His neighbor across the street is an older lady he gets along with well. And then, because of a stray dog that ended up on his porch, he meets his neighbor’s grandson. Much younger grandson.
I loved Rain. This poor kid is so lost but tries to act like he has it together. Growing up in basically a hippie commune, he is definitely a free spirit. But he is feeling the pressure of not really knowing what he wants to do with his life. He is a natural caretaker though, so when Garrick needs help with the stray dog, Rain is all in.
And so begins the older/younger we shouldn’t/but we want to game. Garrick was the typical grumbly older guy feeling like he was taking advantage of Rain. But Rain was sex positive, has no hangups about age and has no problem teasing Garrick until he caves.
All the while Garrick is determined to beat the odds and get back to smoke jumping. Even though he is still on crutches at best and in a wheelchair at worst. Being such an active guy his whole life, his ego and self worth are taking a serious beating. But Rain is so good and anticipating Garrick’s needs without taking over or making Garrick feel useless.
Oh- and a cute dog! If anything can make you feel better- I am convinced it is a dog. And Cookie definitely is her own character in the story.
Garrick and Rain each have their own personal ups and downs. They have the relationship crisis that then brings them back together again with eyes and hearts wide open.
This was sweet, fun, sexy as hell, exciting and a bit romantic. Really good follow up to book 1. Can’t wait for book 3!
Garrick is determined to get back on his feet in top physical form so he can resume his smokejumping duties. Then a scared dog shows up on his porch, and his hot neighbor offers to help him with the dog. Will this be something neither was looking for? Love? Commitment?
Rain is a free spirit. He floats around without putting down roots. When he meets a gorgeous man needing help with a scared dog, suddenly Rain might be thinking of staying put for awhile. But is helping Garrick and falling in love with him going to be enough to keep him around?
I liked this story, but have to admit that I didn’t love it. Parts of it were great – Rain’s genuine, sunny personality, the secondary cast. But I don’t know, perhaps the connection between Rain and Garrick wasn’t as strong or as passionate as I was hoping for. Something didn’t quite get me cheering, but all in all, it was entertaining and sweet and Rain was a standout.
Marvelously talented author Annabeth Albert has written another fantastic, poignant, tug-at-your-heartstrings, charming, heartwarming, heartfelt, lovely, emotionally charged, engaging, wonderful, amazing, beautiful, and totally awesome story. It pulled me in from the very first page, and I would DEFINITELY recommend getting this gem for yourself.
A real slow burn book with some angst. I enjoyed the book & was happy it was Garrick’s story to see how he was after the accident in the first book. My heart & hugs go out to him and I’m glad he found Cookie & Rain.
This is in my top 5 Annabeth reads. Not since At Attention have I enjoyed one of her couples so much. These guys were perfect for each other.
The only criticism is that I wish they wouldn’t have had such low expectations going into the relationship. Obviously, things work out, but they could have saved each other some heartache, if they’d had a conversation sooner.
Annabeth Albert writing just pulls me right into the story. I love Garrick and Rain. This is such a sweet and steamy read. This story is more then the romances between these two but also about Garrick healing and learning to adapt to his new life. I just love being on their journey to a happy ending. They are perfect for each other. I can’t wait for the next one.
Annabeth really knows how to write such wonderful stories!! This one was just so sweet, really heartwarming and romantic! Garrick was a hotshot smoke jumper, loved his job and the adrenaline of jumping out of the plane. But this also comes with great risks, an accident he thought he’d conquer and get back out there, walking and jumping out of planes, coming to terms with what you can and can’t do is a hard row to hoe! When Rain moves in with his grandmother to help out next door, Garrick needs to control himself. Rain is sexy, sweet and way to young for him. As Rain helps Garrick out with a found dog, they affectionately name Cookie, their friendship becomes more. Rain is always looking for the next adventure, not sitting still for long in the same place. Garrick is not the settling down type. So casual it starts, but the heart wants what the heart wants. Now if the two of them can actually talk and the say the words they both feel, maybe they will both get what they want!!
This books is awesome! Garrick trying to overcome his accident and come to terms with his strength and weaknesses. Rain is right there for him, helping and encouraging him. Rain maybe finding out what he was looking for all along was someone to love, to need him, and for someone to see the Rain that not many understand!
Five stars for this great book!
This is the second book in the Hotshots series. I really enjoyed this book. The characters were complicated and very interesting. The pace kept me engaged for the entire story. It was another learning experience for me on what is involved in combating wildfires. Another great story in the series, and I can’t wait for the next installment.
High Heat by Annabeth is the second book in her Hotshots series. I highly recommend reading the first book in the series, Burn Zone, before reading this one. I loved it. In High Heat, we get Garrick’s story, who as we know was hurt badly at the end of Burn Zone. He is trying to get back to work but is currently in therapy. He is one determined man and will do what he can.
When a stray dog wonders on his property, he knows he is not able to take care of it. Enter Rain, the neighbor’s grandson. The attraction is immediate and intense. Rain is just what Garrick needed. Rain is easy-going and a free spirit. Garrick on the other hand is struggling with his rehabilitation. I loved watching these two together, but is it the long-lasting kind of thing? Another great read in the Hotshots series.
Read and reviewed for Sultry Sirens Book Blog.
Happy reading!