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This is book two in the Smokejumper series.

Tony Warren, smokejumper and commitment-phobe, decides to accompany his best friend, Kayla Gladney, on a road trip for a photography project that Kayla is working on. She also happens to be his ex-girlfriend. Tony believes he is just a bad boyfriend, and Kayla is convinced it’s because he is afraid of commitment that he can’t seem to hold on to a girlfriend. They decide to visit the girlfriends of Tony’s past as part of their road trip, to find out what went wrong, and settle the bet that they had going on.

Imagine, if you will, a slider on a line of intimacy in a relationship. Tony and Kayla started off way at the left, where everything is easy-breezy and light. And as they came closer to the end of their trip together, that slider crept slowly to the right. With the increase in intimacy, came a lot of introspection and they had to find what it is that they want for themselves first. Both had to face harsh truths about themselves and their relationships with their family.

I wouldn’t call it light, or fluffy. It dealt with some very hard real-life issues, and what Tony and Kayla had to face and overcome, was definitely not easy. There is a lot of growth here for both characters.

Overall, I enjoyed it. There is plenty of lighter moments, and lots of steam.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Was I hooked by this book? Yes.

Genre: Contemporary Romance