ARC Review – Breath on Embers (Red Hot Holiday) by Anne Calhoun

Description:
Christmas is the perfect time for Firefighter Ronan O’Rourke to take things to the next level with his sexually adventurous girlfriend. He knows she has feelings for him—and he’s sure of his feelings for her—but when Thea refuses his invitation to sample Christmas in New York City because what they share is nothing more than sheet-burning sex, Ronan sets out to change her mind.

Deep down Thea Moretti knows she cares for Ronan, but she can’t move past her grief over her late husband. Loud music and sex with Ronan are the only things she’s got that her feel alive, so she takes as much of both as she can get. She knows Ronan wants more, but during the darkest time of the year finding her way won’t be easy.

Ronan gambles everything and challenges Thea: one night of passion with him and another man. Can he prove to her that what they share isn’t just great sex but an emotional connection strong enough to last forever?

Breath on Embers is a highly emotional journey, but sooooo darn worth it! A story with very realistic and heart wrenching look at the grieving process, and about finding that one person that can help you out of that dark place grief takes you.

Thea Moretti is going through life, but she isn’t truly living. Three years ago she lost her husband, and she basically stopped living too. When she moved to New York, her family back in Ohio made her promise to see a grief therapist. She met FDNY’s Lieutenant, Ronan O’Rourke, on St. Patrick’s Day this year, the same day her therapist told her she should think about dating again. But instead of asking him on a date she has been sleeping with him for almost a year now. It is now Christmas time, and she feels like she wants to literally crawl into a hole until it is over. Christmas was a big deal in both her family and her husband’s, and it takes everything she has just to breathe.

Ronan knows that it is her fear that has her keeping him at a distance, so he doesn’t let her. When she tries to keep things all about sex he shows up at her work to take her skating in Rockefeller Center. When she has a toy drive at work for a local shelter arranges for a fire truck full of not only firemen but Santa too. But can he get her to see there is life after loss?? He knows first hand after losing his uncle he was very close to on 9/11, and losing his close friend a couple months before he met her. He will do whatever it takes, even having a sexy threesome with her and his friend from work.

I absolutely loved this book! Even with the length of it being a novella you didn’t feel like he rushed her to move on. He is beyond a great man. It would have been so easy for him to just use her, and leave her in that dark place. My heart hurt with Thea. I can’t even begin to imagine what it is like to lose the love of your like, and then try to pick up the pieces. And on top of all that greatness you get some smoking hot sex between them too.

4.75 Stars