Review: Flirting with Fire by Kate Meader (Hot in Chicago #1)


Kinsey Taylor has always been competitive and doesn't allow anything or anyone to get in her way. She's made a pretty good name for herself in public relations and now working with the mayor's office in Chicago. After an altercation between a member of the city's fire department and police department, Kinsey is tasked to head a project to rehabilitate the image of the CFD, with her main focus being Firefighter Luke Almeida. Working with the former Marine and member of the well-known Firefightin' Dempseys, a brood of foster siblings who are all part of Engine Company 6, proves to be a test of her mettle. He pushes her buttons and she returns the favor with gusto, but the chemistry between them is palpable, and they're suddenly caught between playing nice or giving in to each other's naughty fantasies. 

Flirting with Fire is the first full-length novel in the Hot in Chicago contemporary romance series from author Kate Meader. The series actually began with Rekindle the Flame, a story included in the holiday anthology entitled Baby, It's Cold Outside released in October 2014 and will be re-released as a separate prequel novella in November 2015. The series stars a close-knit group of foster siblings known as the Firefightin' Dempseys who lost their foster mother cancer and their foster father and one of their other siblings while they were trying to rescue residents during a fire. Firefighting is a family tradition and these five siblings are loyal to their job and most especially to each other. This first book focuses on the second oldest, Luke Almeida, and the assistant press secretary to the mayor, San Francisco native Kinsey Taylor.

Kinsey and Luke are two people who don't like admitting defeat nor do they like giving in to what other people expect of them. Theirs is a working relationship that's been forced upon them after Luke punched a member of the CPD and Kinsey is brought in to clean up the mess. Its fraught with tension because there is a lot of bickering that goes on between them, but there's also a different kind of tension brought on by their attraction to each other. The insta-lust is kind of tempered by their initial inability to get along, but I liked these two together because they kind of made sense the more they were together. Admittedly, there was a point were Kinsey's decision-making made me want to shake her and had me sympathizing with poor Luke. It's difficult to resist a guy who puts it all out there and then ends up getting his heart torn to shreds.

Aside from Kinsey and Luke's intense romance, I also found myself more than curious about what was going on with Luke's siblings. Youngest brother Gage Simpson definitely had some untapped potential with restaurant owner and chef Brady Smith. Then there was the only Dempsey sister, Alexandra, and the sparks she had with Chicago mayor Eli Cooper. Of course, you can't lose sight of the eldest sibling, Wyatt Fox, who may be quiet but there's a saying that it's the quiet ones that you should watch out for. I wondered if he could have ben hiding something with his late brother's widow, but I read the blurb for his book, releasing in 2016,  and it sounds like I was wrong. With me enjoying Flirting with Fire and interested in the rest of the family, Hot in Chicago is shaping up to be an entertaining series. Four stars! ♥

Date Read: 30 September 2015

Learn more about Kate Meader here.

Purchase Flirting with Fire on Amazon | B&N | Kobo.

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