The authors of this book called their hero Dusty Conrad. I called him something else, and it wasn’t anything nice. At the beginning of the book, I wondered how the authors could make me like a man who had deserted his wife because things got a little rough. At the end of the book, I knew they answer: they couldn’t make me like him.

Dusty Conrad was a firefighter in small town Ohio – until the day he lost his brother, also a firefighter. He blames himself, even though it wasn’t his fault. His wife, Jolie, is a fire fighter too. When she refuses to quit, he deserts her and goes to live in Toledo for six months. Now he’s back, because he wants Jolie to sign the divorce papers.

Jolie still loves Dusty, and when he shows up back on her doorstep she hardly knows what to do. The curious townspeople all are eager to find out what’s going on between them. Although it is a town with 45,000 people, they all know each other, and they all know Jolie and Dusty.

Essentially, it all boils down to this:

1. Jolie still loves Dusty.
2. Boy is he hot.
3. Dusty thinks Jolie’s pretty hot too.
4. Dusty doesn’t want Jolie to be a firefighter.
5. Jolie wants to be a firefighter.
6. They both want to have sex.

That’s pretty much it as far as the plot goes, except for the part when Dusty changes his mind on the last page and tells Jolie that oh yeah, he’d rather stay together after all. I’ve never been a huge reader of series romances, but every once in awhile I am really in the mood for one – a quick read and a cute romance. But reading this didn’t feel like light fun; it felt like work.

The writing itself is not bad at all. I’ve read books written by author teams that seemed choppy and confusing, but that wasn’t the case here. If I hadn’t known the authors were a husband-wife writing team I wouldn’t have guessed that the book was written by two people. There is also a storyline involving a child that actually manages to go in an unexpected way. Unfortunately, that’s about the only nice thing I can say about the book.

Dusty was, quite simply, a total jerk. He blamed himself irrationally for his brother’s death, and used that as a convenient excuse to walk away from his marriage and his sister-in-law. I guess we were supposed to feel sorry for him. I don’t mind a reunion story, but when the hero decides to leave all his responsibilities behind and disappear, there had better be some groveling in there somewhere. Towards the end of the book, Dusty has the amazing revelation that perhaps he is to blame for their marital problems. Unfortunately, he never shares this revelation with Jolie.

For every jerk hero you need a doormat heroine who is willing to take his abuse, and Jolie fits the bill perfectly. She spent the entire book mooning over Dusty, thinking how hot he was, and missing him like crazy. Never was there a sense of outrage for the way she had been treated. I kept wishing she’d sign the divorce papers and throw Dusty out on his sexy butt, but no such luck.

I thought it was high-handed for Dusty to demand for Jolie to leave the fire department, even though I could see why he was concerned. After all, she doesn’t exactly work in an ordinary town. This town of 45,000 people seems to be singularly deficient in smoke alarms and sprinkler systems, and buildings catch on fire almost every day. The fire fatality rate is remarkably high, perhaps due to the aforesaid lack of smoke alarms. Or maybe it’s the disturbing lack of curiosity among the members of the fire department, who seldom seem to even wonder why all these fires start.

At any rate, this isn’t a book I would recommend, even if you just love firefighters. There are many series romances published every month, and many of them are better than this one.