Book 4 in the With Fire Series
Reviewed by CJ | Rating: 3.25/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
📖 Physical / Kindle Unlimited

⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Branded with Fire yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.

I love Tamara Rene. I love this series and I love these characters, so buckle up.

THE FULL STORY — SPOILERS INCLUDED

Bryn is a massage therapist by day who also picks up casual waitressing shifts at 10-42, a local bar owned by her good friends, one of which is a firefighter. Wyatt is a firefighter who just transferred into town (literally, he hasn’t even gone in for a shift with his new crew yet when he meets Bryn). They meet at a club and the sparks are immediate as they share a few dances, but they’re both out with friends and are swept away from each other.

Funny story though, their worlds were already connected and they don’t even know it. The next day, Wyatt uploads a video to his popular social channels making an appeal to anyone out there who knows how he can find this woman he met last night. Imagine his surprise when he finds out later that very same day that Bryn volunteers giving massages to the crew at the fire hall on her days off. The fire hall he has just reported to for his first day of work. How ’bout that, cowboy.

While he wasn’t looking for love, Wyatt falls hard and fast, and he doesn’t hide it. He’s steady, he’s patient, he shows up, and he does everything right throughout this book.

Unrelated, but woven through the early chapters, the crew has been dealing with a string of suspected arson fires. They eventually confirm it’s deliberate, that someone is setting fires on purpose, but as the story progresses, it starts to look like the arsonist has shifted their focus specifically toward Wyatt. That thread simmers in the background while the romance takes centre stage, and it’s an effective slow burn on both fronts.

The romance itself? Sweet. Deeply, genuinely sweet. They don’t want to play games with each other or cause hurt, they see the other as worthy, beautiful people and that made me happy to see. The river scene in chapter fifteen where they wander off on their own getting to know each other better while the crew does a fun day out – she’s looking at his tattoos while they’re talking about home and family; that’s the kind of moment that makes you remember why you read this genre. Easy, intimate, real.

Bryn lost her grandfather some time before this book begins so by the time we meet her, she’s already settled into a kind of trauma/grief routine of work, home, Gran, repeat with no room for anything else. No room for anything fun or indulgent or just for her. She’s not depressed exactly, she’s just… locked down. Like she’s decided that making every possible memory with Gran is the only thing that matters now, and everything else is a distraction she can’t afford until Wyatt shows up and blows the whole plan apart.

She lets herself enjoy it, lets herself enjoy him, for a very short time before Gran has a bad fall while she’s out on their second date. And that’s all Bryn needs to convince herself she made a mistake. She pulls back hard, puts firm friends-only rules in place, and we spend a significant chunk of the book watching her choose the same locked-down life over and over again while Wyatt patiently refuses to disappear.

This is where I started to struggle. I understood it emotionally, because grief does weird things to people and Bryn has trauma on top of that grief. But watching Wyatt do the right thing over and over again while Bryn obviously wanted him (I’m talking clearly, visibly, painfully wanted him) and still kept him in the friend zone? I was frustrated by chapter thirty-five. The self-imposed misery was too drawn out for me personally. It’s not a flaw in the writing. The writing is good, it was just too much for me.

Gran was what got me through this section of the book because Gran is who I aspire to be when I grow up. When Bryn tells Wyatt she doesn’t have room in her life for dating, Gran (who we also know as Ruby) takes matters into her own hands by strategically breaking things around the house so Wyatt has reasons to come over as a handyman.

Nobody is under any illusions about what she’s doing. Wyatt knows; Bryn knows. And Gran definitely knows everyone knows, but she does not care one little bit. She wins the bid on Wyatt at the firefighter charity auction (because Bryn wouldn’t bid and Ruby likes to help a gal out) and then when the day of the auction date arrives, she leaves them both a note telling them to go on without her. Her granddaughter needs to live a little, and it’s Wyatt’s job to make sure that happens.

Gran befriending Wyatt made my heart happy because it was her way of showing Bryn that there’s room for all of them. You don’t have to choose between love and family.

By chapter forty-one they’re back on track and finally on their third date moving forward. Once they stop getting in their own way, they are genuinely lovely together until the arsonist storyline reconnects in the most stressful way possible.

The guy responsible for the fires? He’s a young guy, early twenties, who was rejected from firefighter training because the program flagged him as mentally unstable. Accurate assessment, as it turns out. He’d been setting fires randomly at first, fueled by his hatred of the firefighters who rejected him, but after a night at the bar near the beginning of the book where he’s being a complete dick to Bryn until Wyatt steps in to shut it down? That’s when his focus shifts. He knows exactly who Wyatt is. And now it’s personal.

He shows up at Bryn’s massage clinic while she’s alone, taking a nap in one of the treatment rooms after a no-show cancellation. He’s already set a fire in the empty storefront next door and is there to ensure Bryn doesn’t make it out of there alive. By the time she realizes what’s happening, it’s too late to escape and he gets her restrained with cable ties attached to the table. She’s trapped, the smoke is building, and somehow the crew gets called out.

Wyatt recognizes the address immediately. He goes in with Brody, but Brody has to get another injured staff member out first, which leaves Wyatt alone (against their two-in, two-out policy) because he refuses make himself leave without finding Bryn. He finds her, but he can’t get the cable ties off without bolt cutters. Her skin is hot to the touch, the restraints have been cutting into her, the smoke inhalation is serious, and she’s in very rough shape by the time Brody returns with bolt cutters and they finally get her out.

There’s a few moments there where we’re not sure if she’s going to make it, but we’re distracted a little by the arsonist being arrested at the scene.

Her stay in Emergency is seemingly short considering the damage inflicted, and soon after she’s running up to Wyatt squealing when he gets her grandfather’s water fountain in the back yard repaired. I love a happy ending. But I’m not sure enough time passed on the page for me to fully believe that someone who went through what Bryn went through would bounce back quite that quickly. That part felt a little jarring to me and I plan to go back to see if I missed mention of a fast-forward in time because those injuries sounded serious enough to need many weeks of recovery.

The ending itself is sweet. They’re a good couple and I love them together. And there’s a preview of book five at the end (Brody’s book) and after watching him carry the grief weight of losing his family quietly in the background of this series, I am very ready for his story.

BEST PART OF THIS BOOK

Wyatt. The way he loves Bryn, steadily, patiently, without ultimatums, is exactly what the romance genre is for. He’d move heaven and earth for her and he proves it repeatedly. Gran is a very close second. Every scene she’s in is a gift.

WORST PART OF THIS BOOK

The separation arc was just too long for me. I know that’s a very personal reaction — if you love the yearning and the pining, you might eat this up. But watching two people who clearly want each other stay stuck in that holding pattern for that much of the book wore me down before we got to the good stuff. And I wish the aftermath of the arson climax had been given more definition. Bryn went through something genuinely traumatic, and the recovery felt a little fast-tracked.

THE STEAM RATING BREAKDOWN

Four flames. There are sex scenes and they’re most definitely explicit. The romance is absolutely central to the plot with it being a slow burn romance first and foremost. Content warnings for restraint, smoke inhalation, and a prolonged life-threatening situation.

THE ENDING — SATISFIED OR DISAPPOINTED?

Mostly satisfied. The arson storyline wrapped up in a way that surprised me with how high the stakes got. I didn’t expect Brynn to be in that level of danger. And the couple’s resolution was sweet and earned.

WILL I REREAD IT?

I’m no sure so, no. I love Wyatt. I love Gran. And I love this series and this author, and will reread the earlier books in the series. But the drawn-out self-imposed separation is something I know would get to me the same way on a reread. Some books you love but don’t need to live through twice.

WHO IS THIS FOR

If you love the yearning — the long looks, the pining, with the whole crew rooting for two people to just figure it out already — this is your book. Nobody in this story is cruel or manipulative. There’s no manufactured drama from outside forces trying to tear them apart. It’s just two people circling each other while dealing with trauma as everyone around them supports and cheers them on. If that’s your thing, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Where to Get This Book