Playing with Fire

by Kate Meader

Playing with Fire is the second book in Kate Meader’s Hot in Chicago series, and you don’t really need prior knowledge to jump right into this one, though it would probably help keep the large cast of characters straight in your head.

Alex, our heroine, is a female firefighter who has an antagonistic relationship with Chicago’s mayor, Eli. He’s made some comments about the difference between men and women in a job like firefighting, which have hurt his hopes of re-election. One night, Alex recues the mayor from a fire because it’s her job, despite the urge to just let him rot for his douchey comments since Alex has a temper.

Months earlier, Alex went HAM (hard as a motherfucker) on some rich asshole’s car after he crashed it and then made some very awful comments about Alex and her family when she went to rescue him. Eli uses this to goad Alex into helping out with his campaign: play nice for the cameras to show that they’re becoming friends (or more) and he’ll make sure she doesn’t get sued to shit.

So it’s nearly a fake relationship plot.

The book does some things that I thought were pretty kickass. I loved that the heroine was the firefighter for a change and that she’s the one rescuing the hero. For those who like an age difference, there’s that too. And Alex and Eli have such great banter back and forth.

However, the book started to slog for me as that’s all Alex and Eli seemed to be doing. Talking/arguing without any progression. Oh, and

I really loved the characters and how Meader reversed the typical hero/heroine roles, but I just wished the rest of the book had the same fire (heh) as the first hundred pages.

– Amanda

From popular romance author Kate Meader comes the second novel in Hot in Chicago, a brand-new, sizzling series that follows a group of firefighting foster siblings and their blazing hot love interests!

As the only female firefighter at Engine Co. 6, Alexandra Dempsey gets it from all sides: the male coworkers who think she can’t do the job, the wives and girlfriends who see her as a threat to their firefighter men, and her overprotective foster brothers who want to shelter their baby sister at all costs. So when she single-handedly saves the life of Eli Cooper, Chicago’s devastatingly handsome mayor, she assumes the respect she’s longed for will finally come her way. But it seems Mr. Mayor has other ideas…

Eli Cooper’s mayoral ratings are plummeting, his chances at reelection dead in the water. When a sexy, curvaceous firefighter gives him the kiss of life, she does more than bring him back to the land of the living—she also breathes vitality into his campaign. Riding the wave of their feel-good story might prop up Eli’s flagging political fortunes, but the sizzling attraction between them can go nowhere; he’s her boss, and there are rules that must be obeyed. But you know what they say about rules: they’re made to be broken…

Contemporary Romance, Romance