July can’t fathom why PD would want to be a cop in this day and age. Wasn’t it enough that he already had a dangerous job with the fire department? Now he has to add another, even more dangerous, job to the equation? With so many cruel people in the world who make a sport out of hurting cops just because of the badge they wear, she has to make him understand. But when he refuses to listen to her reasoning, she feels she has no other choice but to issue an ultimatum: her or the SWAT team.

Dean doesn’t like ultimatums. He’s furious with July for putting him in the awful position of having to choose between a dream and her.
July never believes for a second that he’d choose the SWAT team over her, but she is wrong.

A year later, they’re both still in love with each other, but neither one is willing to budge regardless of their feelings.

July’s feelings for Dean haven’t changed, in fact her love for him has only grown. But seeing him living his life seemingly unaffected by the loss of what they had breaks her heart over and over each time she sees him.

Dean has a good poker face, though. He’s just going through the motions of his life until finally, the smoldering embers of his feelings erupt into a full-on blaze of emotion, burning through everything but his love for July. When the smoke clears, Dean wants to know if they can reignite the fire of their love or is he destined to live his life in a constant state of controlled burn?

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 Everyone who follows my reviews knows that first, I’m a huge Lani Lynn Vale fan, and second that Kilgore Fire is my favorite series from her, so it comes to no surprise that when this book landed on e-reader, I devoured it like a thirsty woman after going through a desert! 

Controlled Burn delivered all the great  elements that make Lani’s writing so addictive and I got deeply involved within PD and July’s story.

PD, whom we know from the previous books, and July have been one year apart after their six month relationship. It may seem that his job was the main reason for they break up, but that was just the very tip of the iceberg of problems that let to that downfall.  I’ll leave the unveil of those reasons because I don’t want to spoiler the ride within the tale, but in my opinion they were both at fault at the time of their break up, just one a bit more than the other, specially given the event on itself.

Their time apart didn’t erase their need for one another, yes, they did everything to pretend the other didn’t impact on their lives, but deep down they never truly let go. 

 Fuck, who was I kidding? It didn’t matter what I did. She was always there. In my dreams. In my waking moments.
 In my fuckin’ head twenty-four goddamn seven.

Although they were aware of their own feelings, there was also too many obstacles to overcome, and amongst them all the hurt they carried for they break up, and that resentment was one of the biggest, and it proved to be the hardest too.

“You said enough a year ago when you broke my heart.”
His eyes softened.
 “Maybe,” he said. “But you broke mine, too, when you didn’t even try to fight for me.”

And here enters one of the reasons to which made me enjoy this book less than the remaining of the series, the foundation of Dean’s character. Yes, I was highly anticipating his story, but there were quite a few things that made me dislike the character in this book, and one of those was his very reasoning for being apart from the h. I do prefer better a man that fights for his h, instead of wanting for her to fight for him, like he mentioned more than once. That kind of contradicted his self proclaimed (mostly during sex) dominant alpha vibe in my eyes. 

“You didn’t seem to have any problem letting go of me when you walked away. I wanted you to love me for me. All you needed to do was find a way to talk to me about your fears about my job so we could work through them together. Then we can go back to what we had! It’s what we both fucking want!”

 

I wanted her to fight for me. I wanted her to give me what she gave nobody else in the world. Her heart. Her trust. Her loyalty.
Things that she didn’t do. If I were being honest, things that I hadn’t earned from her either.

So, yeah, he came to realize his mistakes in that matter, but it still didn’t make me forget the attitude, and the big trigger for that was the OW constantly in the picture, Alexa (and his relationship with her). Kudos here to Lani for once again creating such belivable characters that really made me want do go in July’s place and bitch slap the hell of that one – and smack Dean upside the head while I was at it, LOL. All that and some other situations made Dean one of my least favorite of Lani’s heroes, but there were also moments where I really loved him and how he loved July, and it proved LLV’s extraordinary talent, because she created this complex character that created so many emotions in me while reading it. Dean really did do that and more because after and despite the dislike I was rooting for him to get July, and he did prove that this time he wouldn’t let go. For anything or anyone…

“I’ve been living as half a man since I called it quits,” I told her. “I miss you with every breath I take,” I said. “I’m tired of not living. Come back to me. We’ll make it work. I swear.”
“You’re going to break my heart, I can tell,” she countered, devastation clear in her voice.
 “And it’s mine to put back together,” I said gruffly. “If I break it, I’ll always fix it. Swear to Christ.”

While Dean created all these reactions from me, July was a steady love from the very beginning. Her love, compassion, strong mind and independence really did steal the show for me, and I couldn’t have loved her more! Lani always creates these fantastic heroines that take an equal role in their strength and sassiness to the heroes, which is rare in romance novels these days, and I love the author even more for that.

But not is drama and romance in this story, because we sure have, as per Lani Lynn Vale fashion, a lot of ROFL moments that had me literally doing that. This kind of sarcastic humor really can’t be beat.

“I’m not going to hell. If anyone’s going to hell, it’s you. You’re a heathen who doesn’t go to church,” he informed me.
I snorted.
“Right. ‘Church’ to you is a meeting with the boys from your club. Church to normal people means actually going into a house of God and worshipping him in a sanctuary, amongst other like-minded believers. You haven’t been to church in well over a decade, if not more,” I turned to Dean. 

 

“A pessimist carries a knife with him in case of an attack.”
 “And what would an optimist do?” he teased.
“They would carry a knife in case there was cake,”

These spontaneous moments breath some lightheartedness to the romantic suspense and add a completely new dimension to her books. 

At some points, like the OW drama and the book’s climax, specially the outcome, it really reminded me of the author’s Kevlar to my Vest, but maybe it was only in my head, LOL!

I did love the story in general, and specially the female main character as I mentioned above, and Lani keeps on delivering these amazingly developed stories and proving over and over again why she is one of my all time favorite authors.

And the secondary characters… Wow! They deserve a spot of their own, and the way they are introduced and give us a taste of that humor and interactions too, while simultaneous giving us a glimpse into their own characters, is absolutely perfect! They integrate in the story effortlessly in the tale while enticing us with their own, like Wolf, whom I seriously can’t wait to read about!

Lani, can’t December please come any sooner?! Pretty please?!

I felt like the sun had come out for the first time in a year, that’s how dramatic the change in me and my disposition truly was. Where there used to be only rain and cloudy skies, now there was nothing but blue during the day and the moon and stars at night.

 

“You need to hurry up and come back to me,” I whispered, dropping my forehead to July’s fingers. “Because I’m about to fucking lose it without you. I can’t breathe without you, baby. I won’t survive without you.”  

 ARC kindly provided by the author via Enticing Book Journey Promotions in exchange for an honest review