In Love with Romance

Jess is minding her own business, filling in for his dad at work, when she receives a call she never once imagined she'd get. To her surprise, it turns out she has grandparents. Grandparents she never knew she had.

She doesn't waste any time in packing up her stuff, and flying from San Diego to Boston. She doesn't know how she'll introduce herself to her grandparents because she's positive they don't even know she exists.

She's prepared for everything except love and care. When she meets her grandparents they're nothing like her dad had described his parents. They don't question if she truly is their grand-daughter. They welcome her with open arms and she has no idea what to do.

She also finds that they have a tenant. A very good looking tenant named Rick, who just so happens to be a firefighter. She doesn't know what to make of it other than perhaps keep her distance because the guy is just too hot to handle.

Rick is surprised the same as Jess to learn his tenants have a grand-daughter. He wants to keep his distance but he can't. He wants to make sure Jess isn't there to take advantage of his landlords and so he sticks around. The thing is his plan backfires because the more he knows about Jess the closer he wants to get.

Controlled Burn is a sweet story, with some sexy time thrown in between. I don't really get the title because it doesn't exactly tie with the story, other than Rick is a hot firefighter. It doesn't even tie to the sexy time because there was very little of it, and it wasn't that hot either. But putting that aside, overall this is a nice contemporary romance around the holidays. The holidays don't take a big part in the story, Christmas is more kind of a background noise. The story is really centered around Jess and finding her grandparents, and bridging the gap her father built between them and her. It's also about Rick and Jess finding love. It seems both haven't been very lucky in love until now. There are several things I think were unresolved, unless the author's intent is for the reader to pick the scenario they prefer for the unanswered questions.