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Phoenix Ridge Fire Department #6
Phoenix Rising
Two fierce leaders. A city in turmoil. Will their love rise from the ashes?
Fire and desire collide in this scorching enemies-to-lovers Sapphic romance from Phoenix Ridge.
Legendary Fire Chief Becky Thompson has faced down raging infernos—but nothing prepared her for Dr. Lucinda Everett. When the brilliant trauma surgeon from London rolls into Phoenix Ridge with bold ideas and a no-nonsense attitude, their fiery clash is instant. As the town’s emergency services collide, so do Becky and Lucinda, locked in a battle of wills that ignites far more than just sparks.
What begins as professional tension soon turns into undeniable chemistry. Becky and Lucinda are forced to confront not only the dangers of their jobs, but the risks of falling for someone just as strong—and stubborn—as themselves.
Will they burn brightly together? Or will they burn out?
Fire and desire collide in this scorching enemies-to-lovers Sapphic romance from Phoenix Ridge.
Legendary Fire Chief Becky Thompson has faced down raging infernos—but nothing prepared her for Dr. Lucinda Everett. When the brilliant trauma surgeon from London rolls into Phoenix Ridge with bold ideas and a no-nonsense attitude, their fiery clash is instant. As the town’s emergency services collide, so do Becky and Lucinda, locked in a battle of wills that ignites far more than just sparks.
What begins as professional tension soon turns into undeniable chemistry. Becky and Lucinda are forced to confront not only the dangers of their jobs, but the risks of falling for someone just as strong—and stubborn—as themselves.
Will they burn brightly together? Or will they burn out?
- GenresRomanceContemporary
318 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 11, 2024
38 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Emily Hayes
138 books234 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 18, 2025
Emily Hayes surpasses my expectations with each book in this series--in that each book is worse than the last. After the minus-1 star of Book 5, I didn't think it was possible. However, Emily proved me wrong by not only making the characters terrible at their jobs, but making them (well, Lucinda for sure) terrible people. And don't get me started on the days long deluge--in the desert--that somehow only caused "some flooding in low-lying areas"--I'll get to that.
After five previous books, Emily finally decided to flesh out "Legendary Fire Chief Becky Thompson" (that is her full name by the way). Now, despite book 4 noting Ember as her daughter and their resemblance--we discover in Book 6 that she was not the biological mama. That indignity went to the unseen scarcely mentioned wife that was not mentioned at all previously. Yet, somehow these people keep producing red-heads. This means both Ember and her bio-mom specifically requested a red-headed donor--because why should Ember even try to have a kid that looks like her partner--but I digress.
Lucinda, the "ice queen" on the other hand, is a wholly new character--yet another doctor--brought in to run the emergency/disaster coordination from the hospital's POV. So, naturally, she comes in hard wanting to change things simply to change things because she is a control freak.
Then, as with Book 5, they have a "Tastes Great-Less Filling" debate about "long term preparedness" and "immediate concerns"--as if a proper plan couldn't address both? Becky sure made it seem like a life-or-death battle--but actually after a single meeting and a flat tire it was all pushed aside. Apparently, she was gaslighting the reader.
So, Lucinda gets a flat tire--she doesn't know she's riding on a flat tire somehow until another driver points it out. Now "of course" Lucinda doesn't know how to change a tire because a fiercely independent control freak loves to rely on others--wait. In any case, Becky drives by and plays AAA. That she has Lucinda tighten the lug nuts on the tire before dropping the jack and doesn't crank them tight after means she probably hopes Lucinda will crash later, but alas, that does not happen.
As everyone knows, when you help a frou-frou lady change a tire, you know she'll want to bang later, and Lucinda is no different. In bed, we learn that Becky is somewhat of a control freak herself and that Ice Queen Lucinda was a closet submissive.
Here the main conflict is introduced and by main I mean it's the primary reason not that it's solid--or good. It's the laziest and weakest of relationship conflicts (and one used often in this very series) where the MCs assert they are just in this for fun--"nothing serious "despite all the evidence and actions to the contrary.
Still, at the first whiff of it seeming "truly" serious (that is, Becky's dad sees them together and assumes they are girlfriends), Lucinda snaps. She projects her sabotaging control-freaky self-fulfilling prophecy babble onto Becky and turns into what psychologists call, "a cold bitch".
Surely there must be a good reason for this behavior. I mean, she must have known tremendous--nope her dad says she was just always that way (so, she needs meds and therapy?).
Of course, over some minor disasters/major traumas (Ember gets injured--AGAIN!) the two MCs promise to "start over" and Becky shares the blame even though it was entirely Lucinda.
Then, randomly, one day Emily decides that it's raining in Phoenix Ridge. In fact, it's raining for days! In...in a desert! Now there's a dam nearby too! Where has that been hiding? Keep in mind, this isn't the Monsoon weather of Arizona. Emily makes it clear that this was building for weeks (unmentioned) and hasn't happened for decades. Then she declares the place that has been described as quite hot many times, was a temperate area. In any case, after describing the rain in Biblical terms--again in a desert--there is that aforementioned flooding in low lying areas. The city itself seemed to be low-lying but whatever. Forget that in desert regions big storm for a short time can cause severe flooding. This was days of torrential rain and--well let's hope our MCs are up to this end of the world, challenge.
What do these two heroines do? They sit at the command center and supposedly engage in the thrilling literary practice of "planning". No, we don't hear what they plan--but they are planning the shit out of this disaster. Now, throughout every disaster, both MCs think to themselves that they have to focus on the emergency and not their libido--they think it several times each time. They aren't very good at it.
Now, in the midst of this disaster--with everyone working days long shifts preparing for the worst, Becky, as is custom for the Phoenix Ridge firefighters, decides sex is more important than her job or commitment to others. She drags Lucinda to a closet and they bang--because tomorrow we may die. It was already noted that Lucinda was in two-day old clothes--so, yeah that's gross on the face of it regardless of how inappropriate it was.
Then, probably because of the power of love, the rain slows and the Dam-breaking flood waters recede. And our two MCs did absolutely nothing. They "planned" and they "banged" while others presumably risked their lives and did the actual work.
The ending makes it feel like it should be the last of the series--but given the abbreviated length of the next two books, I think Emily's AI program disagreed.
After five previous books, Emily finally decided to flesh out "Legendary Fire Chief Becky Thompson" (that is her full name by the way). Now, despite book 4 noting Ember as her daughter and their resemblance--we discover in Book 6 that she was not the biological mama. That indignity went to the unseen scarcely mentioned wife that was not mentioned at all previously. Yet, somehow these people keep producing red-heads. This means both Ember and her bio-mom specifically requested a red-headed donor--because why should Ember even try to have a kid that looks like her partner--but I digress.
Lucinda, the "ice queen" on the other hand, is a wholly new character--yet another doctor--brought in to run the emergency/disaster coordination from the hospital's POV. So, naturally, she comes in hard wanting to change things simply to change things because she is a control freak.
Then, as with Book 5, they have a "Tastes Great-Less Filling" debate about "long term preparedness" and "immediate concerns"--as if a proper plan couldn't address both? Becky sure made it seem like a life-or-death battle--but actually after a single meeting and a flat tire it was all pushed aside. Apparently, she was gaslighting the reader.
So, Lucinda gets a flat tire--she doesn't know she's riding on a flat tire somehow until another driver points it out. Now "of course" Lucinda doesn't know how to change a tire because a fiercely independent control freak loves to rely on others--wait. In any case, Becky drives by and plays AAA. That she has Lucinda tighten the lug nuts on the tire before dropping the jack and doesn't crank them tight after means she probably hopes Lucinda will crash later, but alas, that does not happen.
As everyone knows, when you help a frou-frou lady change a tire, you know she'll want to bang later, and Lucinda is no different. In bed, we learn that Becky is somewhat of a control freak herself and that Ice Queen Lucinda was a closet submissive.
Here the main conflict is introduced and by main I mean it's the primary reason not that it's solid--or good. It's the laziest and weakest of relationship conflicts (and one used often in this very series) where the MCs assert they are just in this for fun--"nothing serious "despite all the evidence and actions to the contrary.
Still, at the first whiff of it seeming "truly" serious (that is, Becky's dad sees them together and assumes they are girlfriends), Lucinda snaps. She projects her sabotaging control-freaky self-fulfilling prophecy babble onto Becky and turns into what psychologists call, "a cold bitch".
Surely there must be a good reason for this behavior. I mean, she must have known tremendous--nope her dad says she was just always that way (so, she needs meds and therapy?).
Of course, over some minor disasters/major traumas (Ember gets injured--AGAIN!) the two MCs promise to "start over" and Becky shares the blame even though it was entirely Lucinda.
Then, randomly, one day Emily decides that it's raining in Phoenix Ridge. In fact, it's raining for days! In...in a desert! Now there's a dam nearby too! Where has that been hiding? Keep in mind, this isn't the Monsoon weather of Arizona. Emily makes it clear that this was building for weeks (unmentioned) and hasn't happened for decades. Then she declares the place that has been described as quite hot many times, was a temperate area. In any case, after describing the rain in Biblical terms--again in a desert--there is that aforementioned flooding in low lying areas. The city itself seemed to be low-lying but whatever. Forget that in desert regions big storm for a short time can cause severe flooding. This was days of torrential rain and--well let's hope our MCs are up to this end of the world, challenge.
What do these two heroines do? They sit at the command center and supposedly engage in the thrilling literary practice of "planning". No, we don't hear what they plan--but they are planning the shit out of this disaster. Now, throughout every disaster, both MCs think to themselves that they have to focus on the emergency and not their libido--they think it several times each time. They aren't very good at it.
Now, in the midst of this disaster--with everyone working days long shifts preparing for the worst, Becky, as is custom for the Phoenix Ridge firefighters, decides sex is more important than her job or commitment to others. She drags Lucinda to a closet and they bang--because tomorrow we may die. It was already noted that Lucinda was in two-day old clothes--so, yeah that's gross on the face of it regardless of how inappropriate it was.
Then, probably because of the power of love, the rain slows and the Dam-breaking flood waters recede. And our two MCs did absolutely nothing. They "planned" and they "banged" while others presumably risked their lives and did the actual work.
The ending makes it feel like it should be the last of the series--but given the abbreviated length of the next two books, I think Emily's AI program disagreed.
January 4, 2025
Fire, Water, and Hot Story
Phoenix Ridge is a wonderful place to visit, and the people who inhabit this world are characters who grown on you until you love them. And I also love the way Emily Hayes weaves a story built on this world and these people.
The way the Fire Dept. and the hospital Trauma Dept. play major roles, oh and also the weather, you'll just have to read the story to understand all that. It's worth your time.
Phoenix Ridge is a wonderful place to visit, and the people who inhabit this world are characters who grown on you until you love them. And I also love the way Emily Hayes weaves a story built on this world and these people.
The way the Fire Dept. and the hospital Trauma Dept. play major roles, oh and also the weather, you'll just have to read the story to understand all that. It's worth your time.
August 15, 2025
I was drawn to this book in the series because it had strong older women trying to make a relationship work while dealing with demanding jobs and their pasts- the sex scenes were enjoyable and hopeful that women of this age have a healthy libido….my only issue was the cover art- the woman looks 20 . I was disappointed that one or both of the older beautiful women from the story were depicted on the cover.
November 13, 2024
Two Hearts Merge
Dr. Lucinda Everett moves from London to Phonix Ridge to head the emergency department at the hospital. She and Fire Chief Becky Thompson clash in the first meeting of the city council emergency management team. But the tension was like foreplay rather than fighting. An exciting sapphic romance. Love the series.
Dr. Lucinda Everett moves from London to Phonix Ridge to head the emergency department at the hospital. She and Fire Chief Becky Thompson clash in the first meeting of the city council emergency management team. But the tension was like foreplay rather than fighting. An exciting sapphic romance. Love the series.
December 18, 2024
Loved It
Meeting the characters from Phoenix Ridge has been a treat. Lucinda and Becky are the newest couple. Starting off hot, but burning out their romance was definitely Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Meeting the characters from Phoenix Ridge has been a treat. Lucinda and Becky are the newest couple. Starting off hot, but burning out their romance was definitely Phoenix rising from the ashes.
January 27, 2026
Fantastic
Emily another amazing book. You are quite the author I've no idea anymore how many of you're books I've read but I think its probably over 20. Keep up the great sexy writing.
Emily another amazing book. You are quite the author I've no idea anymore how many of you're books I've read but I think its probably over 20. Keep up the great sexy writing.
November 13, 2024
This is one of the best of this series. Nice Spice!
November 27, 2024
ups and downs
Loved reading this book and the series tbh getting swept up in the emergencies the turmoil and eventual commitment 🌈
Loved reading this book and the series tbh getting swept up in the emergencies the turmoil and eventual commitment 🌈
December 11, 2024
Lucinda insecurity almost cost her HEA. Good story
February 9, 2025
I love seeing more mature characters grapple with finding love and dealing with life's challenges.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews