Playing Through Every Choices Book In Order (Part 119: Hearts On Fire)

Hey! Today we become a firefighter and try to stop the rampant fires of an arsonist!

Next time, we enter a baking competition to save our beloved local bakery.

Link to previous reviews: https://www.reddit.com/user/stresseatingdog/comments/sj3s3m/all_choices_reviews_megapost/

Hearts On Fire

M/C: Jung Ray

Love Interest(s): Shea

Favorite Character(s): Shea, Lux, Amelia, Declan, Harold, Smokey

Least Favorite Character(s): Michael

Rating: 4/10

Review:

This book certainly didn't set anything afire in my heart, I can tell you that much.

Let's begin with the plot. We have two main storylines here: the division in the squad and Liang/Shea's bad blood, and the arsonist plot. Neither thread is handled particularly well, in my opinion. The squad kinda just becomes friends super early on and stays that way. Liang and Shea have a mildly interesting conflict, but after the Shelly reveal, it kinda just fades away before being resolved super quickly after Declan/the Commissioner's death. The arsonist plot is somewhat intriguing, but it's just not that engaging. Michael is so obviously the culprit, and he sets like...two fires? How threatening. He also just disappears after the fire at O'Malleys, and we don't get any closure or final words with him.

The choice between saving Declan or the Commissioner is neat, but I feel like not enough is done with it. M/C seems to be the only person deeply affected to me. Still, it's something novel at least.

Shea is an ok LI. I don't really care for M/C and Shea as a couple, because the conflict between them feels forced. If it was that easy for Shea to just say, "we're a couple", then what was all the meandering for the majority of the book about? I like Shea's character for the most part, but the romance just feels kinda downplayed and in the backseat.

The other characters are nice enough. Amelia, Lux, Declan, Harold, they're all sweet, but not exceptional or above-average characters. Smokey the dog is adorable, and the cat you can adopt is cute too. The Commissioner is nice enough too, but I didn't have enough emotional connection to her or Declan to really care about which one to save, as bad as that sounds. I did end up saving Declan, mainly because of his relationship with Amelia, but...I honestly didn't care all that much.

The first dirty thirty in this book is a fade-to-black. I was actually in disbelief when I saw it. 30 diamonds and the scene fades to black? And the other two sex scenes aren't great either, but at least they have substance. I think the fade to black is pretty lame. Why make people pay diamonds for a scene and not deliver?

I do appreciate that this book is GOC, so there's that.

Overall, I feel very apathetic about this book. The plot is mildly interesting at points, and some unique things are done in this book, but it just feels very half-baked at the end of the day.