Ms. Bromberg wrote a fantastically heartwarming and emotionally heavy book with Combust. Sometimes it truly isn’t about what’s on the outside, but also what’s on the inside.
Grady Malone is a hero among hero’s. He’s deep, emotionally cutoff and suffers some massive amounts of regret and grief. He doesn’t truly understand his worth among society, community and his family, not to mention his own self-esteem. He comes across as hard edged and displays moments of a-holeness, but this is just a cover to what’s truly inside.
Dylan McCoy is refreshing. She’s a lost girl/woman in the world after walking in on her boyfriend with another girl. She is the oval that’s trying to fit in the circle shape that is known as LA. She can fine tune herself to meld in, but that isn’t her true self. She’s a feisty, talented songwriter trying to make it in LA, where everywhere she looks she sees skinny, big chested blondes (like the one her boyfriend was caught with).
‘Music is my therapy, so I offer the same to him.’
Dylan needs to get away to re-coup and center herself, while she works on writing songs for her loser ex. Yep you read that right, she is contractually obligated to fulfill one more album with the douche before she can officially part ways. Her brother has a friend that is a firefighter, who is willing to let her stay while she works through her issues/songs. Her brother feels safe with allowing her to stay at Grady’s, since she hates firefighters (you have to read the book to know why😉). Grady and Dylan never expected to find each other/the other half to make them whole, while staying in the same house. As you can imagine, sparks fly in the most unbelievable way. This is a slow burn romance where they find that the other is the balm that they need to fix what’s wrong with themselves.
‘I look at him often as I work through the lyrics. Words about love and loss pass over my lips, run through my head, and are jotted down, and yet, he’s the one I keep looking for a reaction from. His fingers thrumming to an imaginary beat he hears in my work the only response he gives.’
Grady stole my heart and a little piece of my soul. Words can’t fully describe how wonderfully written he was. Imagine, this big, beautiful man in his turnout gear with eyes that burn bright, yet grief weighs heavy on his soul as a visible blanket. Oh man, he is just perfection. Dylan is truly the yin to his yang. Grady makes her feel valuable and wanted. Slowly her self-worth and self-esteem begin to grow and this is evident in everything she does.
If you are looking for a heartwarming, emotionally filled, slow burn romance that has a strong hero (despite what he is keeping inside) and an adorably invigorating heroine, this book is for you! You will truly feel ‘all the feels’ and fall in love like I did!
‘Because love is rarely pretty. It’s messy. It’s complicated. It’s often ugly, but that’s how you know when it’s right. Pretty doesn’t always last. It’s the things you have to work at that make the reward that much sweeter.’