Format read: paperback provided by BookTribFormats available: ebook, paperback, mass market paperback, audiobook
Genre: Contemporary romance
Series: The Sullivans, #3
Length: 336 pages
Publisher: Originally self-published; expanded edition published by Harlequin MIRA
Date Released: December 9, 2011 (original edition); July 30, 2013 (expanded edition)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository
How much is worth risking?
Gabe Sullivan risks his life every day as a firefighter in San Francisco, but he knows better than to risk giving his heart again. Especially not to the woman he saved from a deadly apartment fire…and can’t stop thinking about.
Megan Harris owes everything to the heroic firefighter who saved her and her daughter. Everything except her heart. Because after losing her pilot husband, she has vowed to never suffer through loving—and losing—a man with a dangerous job again.
But when Gabe and Megan meet again, how can he possibly ignore her courage, determination and beauty? And how can she deny not only his strong bond with her daughter…but also his sweetly sensual kisses, challenging her to risk everything she’s been guarding for so long?
My Review:
What makes someone a risk-taker? An adrenaline junkie? A thrill-seeker? What makes another play it safe?
Can you change your fundamental nature from one to the other? Can you make someone else change theirs?
Those are the questions at the heart of Bella Andre’s contemporary romance, Can’t Help Falling In Love, the third book in her Sullivans series. As the title says, Megan Harris and Gabe Sullivan can’t seem to keep from falling in love with one another from the moment they meet.
But it’s not that simple, or we wouldn’t have this marvelous story to read.
Gabe Sullivan is a San Francisco firefighter. He risks his life every time he goes out on a fire call. The story begins when he is called out from his brother Marcus’ engagement party at the end of From This Moment On (reviewed here).
But Gabe is not necessarily an adrenaline junkie. He does his job the safest way he possibly can. His goal in fighting the fire is to save people’s lives.
On that fateful fire call, the lives he saves are those of Megan Harris and her little girl Summer. He admires Megan’s bravery, because Megan’s actions kept Summer alive, not just until he could reach them, but kept him from having to carry two unconscious bodies out of a third floor walkup in an inferno–otherwise, they would have all died.
But no matter much he admires her courage, or how beautiful he believes her to be, he has one ironclad rule–he never becomes involved with fire victims. The expectations have proven to be too high.
Summer wants to thank the firefighter who saved their lives. When Megan takes her to the hospital to visit the injured man, she discovers that he is attractive, adores her daughter, and seems to detest her.
It shouldn’t matter to her. Megan has sworn off any man who chases danger for a living. Any man who might be like the fighter pilot husband who died and left her with a two-year-old to raise alone.
But little Summer is determined to keep on seeing the man who saved them. She’s way smarter than both of the adults in her life. She also knows that rules are made to be broken.
Summer is the biggest risk-taker of them all. It’s lucky for everyone that she’s absolutely right!
Escape Rating B+: One of the things I like about Andre’s Sullivans series is the way that each story starts smoothly from the previously one and leads equally smoothly into the next one. They’re not cliffhangers, it’s feeling that they really are a family and that their stories intertwine.
Although the Sullivans stories I have read so far rely on the insta-love concept, Can’t Help Falling In Love makes it work. Gabe and Megan meet under just the kind of circumstances guaranteed to make two people feel an instant connection–Gabe holds Megan’s life in his hands. They almost die together. The heightened emotions demand a heightened response.
But the reasons they resist any involvement make equal sense. Gabe’s previous attempt at a relationship with a fire victim ended in utter disaster, and Megan’s husband left her a widow because he loved danger more than his family. Megan’s response has been to play the rest of her life “safe”, and to suppress her own need for a little adrenaline in her life.
Megan is an amazing parent. Even though fear has controlled her own life, she has been vigilant about not letting that fear rule Summer’s life. Summer is fearless. Summer is a very well-drawn character in her own right, and not just a prop to match-make the two adults. Summer schemes and connives to get her way, but she’s indulged rather than spoiled. I’m glad that she gets a HEA out of this story too, to be part of a big family.
The next story should be even more fun than this one. The heroine of I Only Have Eyes for You is a librarian!
~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~
Bella is giving away one paperback copy of Can’t Help Falling in Love to one lucky winner (US only)! To enter, use the Rafflecopter below:
thanks for the great post and giveaway!!! No… I don’t think you can get away with playing safe in romance 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Being in love is all about risk-taking. You can never tell where you are going in a relationship and so there will be risk that must happens. If you play safe, then not always will it work out in the end. Thanks for the giveaway and review!
think you have to take risks
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR BOOK AND THANKS FOR THE GIVEAWAY!
Being in love is usually a risk and I don’t know if you can play it safe.
Can I just say I loved Gabe *swoons* he is my favorite brother to date!
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