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Paradise, Colorado #3

Safe in the Fireman's Arms

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Running away from her sheltered life,  Maggie Jones wants to start fresh. Instead,  she finds trouble in Paradise, Colorado.  Within days she's on the radar of fire chief  Jake MacLaughlin. And when her family starts to play matchmaker, Maggie's plans for a quiet life are turned upside down. Though he's the small town's most eligible bachelor, Jake is far from a playboy.  The widower isn't interested in dating.  But when Maggie transforms from mousy to magnificent, and suitors start lining up, the fireman can't resist a rescue. Pretending to be a couple rekindles their spark for life…and for love.

Fireman to the Rescue 

Running away from her sheltered life, Maggie Jones wants to start fresh. Instead, she finds trouble in Paradise, Colorado. Within days she's on the radar of fire chief Jake MacLaughlin. And when her family starts to play matchmaker, Maggie's plans for a quiet life are turned upside down. Though he's the small town's most eligible bachelor, Jake is far from a playboy. The widower isn't interested in dating. But when Maggie transforms from mousy to magnificent, and suitors start lining up, the fireman can't resist a rescue. Pretending to be a couple rekindles their spark for life…and for love.

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2015

37 people are currently reading
149 people want to read

About the author

Tina Radcliffe

90 books470 followers
Tina Radcliffe is a Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers Honor Roll member. A five-time ACFW Carol Award finalist, Tina’s Harlequin novels have won the ACFW Carol Award, the Holt Medallion, and appeared on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller list.
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5 stars
114 (57%)
4 stars
49 (24%)
3 stars
31 (15%)
2 stars
4 (2%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
3,925 reviews1,763 followers
July 3, 2015
Romantic comedy at its best. I love the way Radcliffe puts a spin on scene endings that leave me chuckling out loud. But there are some lovely heart-tugging scenes as well. The perfect combination for a captivating read.

Best secondary character ever -- Bitsy Harmony. There's nothing bitsy about the impact she makes on the story...or the whole town of Paradise for that matter. According to Bitsy, "If you came here for quiet, fine. If you came here for privacy, well, good luck." And that's the problem Maggie runs into. There's plenty of folks in town who aren't shy of sticking their nose in her business and that's one of the things that makes this read so much fun.

Maggie and Jake don't stand a chance with what seems like the whole town conspiring against them (with Bitsy in the lead, of course.) And really, who can resist a fire fighting hero who rescues kittens? Not me, that's for sure! The kind of book that keeps you smiling long after the story is over.
Profile Image for Natalie Gleb.
Author 1 book23 followers
September 6, 2015
What a fun story!

Maggie's character is so unique. She's into fixing things, computers, toasters, maintenence, you name it. But she's girly and feminine, too, though a little bit uncomfortable "dressing up." Her makeover was tons of fun to read about.
The relationship between her and Jake is so sweet. He had my heart from the beginning, being a widower who guards his relationships very closely. And the secondary characters! Young and old, I loved them all. Such unique, fresh personalities. I felt like I was living in the town of Paradise while reading. Looking forward to more by Tina Radcliffe.
Profile Image for June.
1,542 reviews17 followers
April 6, 2015
Everyone loves a fireman, and Jake is a great example of a loving, caring fireman. It seems Maggie attracts trouble. And the first time Jake sees her, not only is she causing trouble with smoke, but also to his heart.

Small town life, full of rumors and busybodies. Some of the things that happened had me laughing while others just brought a smile to my face. Small town life at its best.

Enjoyed this story very much.
Profile Image for CP.
47 reviews
August 10, 2015
This book was very sweet and heartwarming. I loved it!
Profile Image for Lynn Spencer.
1,426 reviews84 followers
November 20, 2018
3.5 stars If you like small-town romance, this one is light and fun. Maggie Jones has spent her entire life under the thumb of her domineering - and very academic - parents. She has a Ph.D. in agronomy and is doing the expected thing by teaching at a college. She is also set to marry a parent-approved young professor.

Luckily, before she actually does go through with the wedding, Maggie decides that she needs to build the life that she needs rather than the one her parents want for her. So, she quits the job she doesn't love and calls off the wedding to the fiance that covets her parents' ability to get him tenure more than he cherishes her.

Maggie has happy memories of summers spent with her aunt and uncle in Paradise, Colorado, so she heads down there. She will manage her uncle's fix-it shop while he takes a much-needed vacation. Maggie has an aptitude for inventions, gadgets and all kinds of repairs, so this temporary gig is a perfect fit for her.

And then the local fire chief comes into her life. Maggie isn't looking for a man, but between her matchmaking cousin and her own bad luck with fire mishaps, Maggie lands on the radar of Jake McLaughlin. It starts off as a friendship but blossoms into more. By and large, I found this to be a sweet story. There's a little bit of angst as Maggie and Jake both have past hurts to contend with, but still largely a light story.

The busybody small-town neighbors and the makeover scenes with Maggie didn't do much for me. However, I did like the secondary romance as well as the primary one. This one is nice as a comfort read, but probably not one I'll revisit.
Profile Image for Melmo2610.
3,626 reviews
January 5, 2022
A completely charming and sweet story. I loved Maggie and Jake and Bitsy is a hoot and a half! I really loved this one with its humor and a fun storyline. I will be looking for my own copy for my keeper shelf, this is one that will be reread!
Profile Image for Betsy.
490 reviews21 followers
May 3, 2025
I really enjoyed this heartwarming story of two hurting individuals who found happiness with each other. Also loved the subtle humor throughout the book and the side characters who contributed to it. Would like to read more from this series!
Profile Image for Ranie.
893 reviews19 followers
January 24, 2021
A beautiful written story.... Sweet and uplifting... Highly recommended
2,280 reviews7 followers
July 24, 2022
A friend (MH) sent me this book in a box of books. I think I have read other books by this author in the past.

So, the cover on the copy I read is a bit inaccurate. By the time Jake gives Maggie the kitten, she no longer has her ponytail haircut--also, he's not in firefighter gear when he does it. So though all the elements are part of the story, they don't fit together in the way they appear on the cover.

I relate to Maggie's nerdiness and feeling that she's different. I like that she can connect with Beck--it kind of sounds like most of the town, while they like him, don't try to reach out to him.
Profile Image for Jane.
374 reviews82 followers
March 3, 2017
4.50 stars - mild pg13

Funny, well-written, charming, sweet romance (more than one!). Loved Jake, our yummy firefighting Hero, and Maggie, our smart, clutzy, accident-prone heroine. The fun small town and all it's residents seemed like one big family. Jake's dad was great. Also loved Bitsy and her Paradise Ladies Auxiliary busybodies. Faith in God was well woven throughout but not overly "preachy". This is the third book in a series but can stand alone.

So far my favorite story by Tina Radcliffe was her short story in the Hope for the Holidays Contemporary Collection; it's the reason I've purchased other books by her. She also writes romantic comedies as Tina Russo.
Profile Image for Harlequin Books.
18.4k reviews2,804 followers
Read
January 12, 2016
"Maggie reminds the reader that the Lord always has plans, even if they may be different from our own. The characters show that it is possible for opposites to attract and demonstrate the importance of appreciating the differences of others" (RT Book Reviews, 4 stars).
Profile Image for Celia Dodge.
66 reviews
May 5, 2025
📚THE STORY📚

Scatterbrained but brilliant Maggie has a PhD, a prestigious professorship - and the smoking ruins of an engagement she called off at the last minute. On the run from her disapproving parents, she ends up in the small town where she used to spend summers with her cousins.

Thanks to her penchant for forgetting about things like eggs on the stove and hot soldering irons, she starts seeing a lot of the local fire chief, Jake. At first, the two strike up a wary friendship - but when local buzz starts to focus on Maggie’s love life, she asks him to hang around in a way that might put off other potential suitors.

The arrangement works a little too well. Wagging tongues and meddling matchmakers get involved, and soon the whole town is scheming to make sure Maggie and Jake end up together for real. These neighbors will use everything in their arsenal - peach pies, makeovers, local papers, raffle tickets - to bring about this romance. Will it work?

💕THE ROMANCE💕

Maggie and Jake get along well from the start, though there is some “opposites attract” friction. Jake has already suffered loss in his life and sees a lot of danger during his work as a firefighter, so he worries about Maggie’s safety and has to come to grips with some of her more chaotic tendencies.

It’s fun to see the way external forces come together to try and push the romance forward - everyone in this story really puts the “supporting” in supporting character! Jake and Maggie have to figure out how to navigate the private nuances of their relationship while enjoying the opportunities they’re given (or rather, forced into) to spend quality time together.

✝️FAITH ELEMENTS✝️

Maggie doesn’t truly feel like she belongs. She’s never been considered pretty, and her parents were quite judgmental and aloof with her. Over the course of the story, she learns to embrace her own uniqueness as a beloved child of God, created to be her and nobody else.

Maggie and Jake pray and take faith based advice from other characters, with a focus on prayer and bringing all struggles and situations to God, then trusting God to hold and guide them through it all.

📝MY THOUGHTS📝

Though it’s never explicitly mentioned, Maggie’s character has shades of ADHD in terms of her forgetfulness, her clumsiness, her hyperfocus, and her sense of being different when it comes to her interests and perspectives. She’s intelligent and honest, but not always good at smoothly navigating social expectations. I really related to her, and it was nice seeing a depiction of a woman like this who is not only finding herself, but finding others who love her just the way she is.

I also liked how Maggie’s skills in fixing things and her independence and courage helped drive the story. She’s absolutely no damsel in distress, and she and Jake are both individuals with richly developed characters.
Profile Image for JudyAnnLovesBooks.
2,121 reviews75 followers
July 6, 2025
In this adorable opposites attract, small town romance we meet Maggie and Jake.

She is a hot mess and I love that about her because that's me every day and twice on Sundays!

Jake is a sexy volunteer firefighter with a wounded, but not broken, heart of gold.

They say it takes a village to raise a child but in this case, it takes a village to make two people fall in love. Thanks to the hilarious matchmaking aspirations of meddlesome friends and family, Maggie and Jake are thrown together until they can't help but fall for each other.

SAFE IN THE FIREMAN'S ARMS was my first Tina Radcliffe romance and most certainly will not be my last! I read this in one sitting and am giving it the judy.ann.loves.books stamp of approval, TBR and Enjoy!
Profile Image for Amy.
54 reviews1 follower
April 14, 2024
Jake and Maggie live in Paradise, Colorado--a close knit small town, where everyone knows your business. I loved the connection and dialog between Jake and Maggie. I could not wait to get to their HEA.

Bitsy, Mack, Aunt Betty, Beck, Duffy, Susan---I want all of them to be my friends too.

I am a fan of Ms. Radcliffe, and this is now my favorite of all of her books.
Profile Image for Dorel.
4,341 reviews38 followers
August 11, 2022
This is the 1st book I read by Tina Radcliffe. This book's storyline was okay. I liked the Christian ✝️ theme in this story. Maggie's character was okay. Jake's character was okay. I liked the ending.
230 reviews
May 30, 2025
A wonderful read!

I truly enjoyed this story. It was very well-written and the characters well-rounded. A new author to me, and I will be looking for more like this thoughtful and delightful book. Would recommend.
158 reviews
January 22, 2019
Delightful! While I loved the developing story between Jake and Maggie, the involvement of the Auxiliary and Bitsy was perfect.
Profile Image for Sheila.
3,098 reviews123 followers
April 2, 2023
This was an okay story, with ok characters. One of the main characters name was Jake, but they called him Jack once in this book, that should of been checked.
844 reviews
May 1, 2025
Great idea

It is a wonderful idea to have the fire chief as a main character. He is older and damaged by loss. He needs someone who understands.
Profile Image for Rita.
305 reviews
August 25, 2017
Another great read by Tina Radcliffe! This is book #3 in Paradise, Colorado Series. What a nice love story between Maggie and Jake. Can't wait to read the next book in the series..."Rocky Mountain Reunion".
Profile Image for Cindy.
Author 1 book26 followers
June 3, 2015
Maggie is the ugly duckling about to transform into swanhood. Jake is the fireman who guards his heart from love, not counting his dog Chuck. Together they make the most unlikely, least-in-common, made-for-each-other couple ever.
Returning to Paradise, Colorado for another Tina Radcliffe romance was an even better vacation from reality than my first two trips there. I loved Maggie’s resolve to be herself, faults and all, while opening herself to change when it was for the better. Jake’s inability to resist Maggie’s slightly clumsy, rather accident prone nature in contrast to his own safe, unencumbered life as a small town business man-slash-firefighter is completely endearing. As I read, I wanted Maggie for Jake and hoped Jake would yield his heart to Maggie. Oh, how they need each other and yet remain too stubborn to give in. And that same hard-headed stubbornness – totally loveable in each of them.
And while we’re in Paradise, don’t forget to make friends with Bitsy Harmony. Bitsy is one of the most interesting secondary characters I’ve ever met in this small town. You might want to really like her, but it’s difficult when she so annoying. Gentle-hearted, blunt, generous, nosy, wise and manipulative. That’s Bitsy and you’ll love everything about her. Except what you don’t.
I have looked forward to reading this book since long before its release and now that I have, I am not disappointed except for the fact that it’s over. This is one to reread, laugh out loud and cry over whenever a lighthearted, sweet romance is what you’re craving. My admiration and thanks to Tina Radcliffe. Please take us to Paradise again soon.
Profile Image for Pam Graber.
1,128 reviews40 followers
June 20, 2015
I don't give many Love Inspired books top marks but this one was so much fun to read that it deserved it! From their first meeting to the satisfying ending, Maggie Jones and Jake MacLaughlin were brought to life in the pages of this story.

Maggie runs to Paradise, Colorado - a place she spent nearly every summer of her youth - trying to re-invent herself. At home in Denver, she lived the life her parents wanted her to live which included marrying the man they wanted her to marry. A week before her wedding, she realized that her fiance was only marrying her because of her parents so she took off for her aunt and uncle's in Paradise.

Jake, the town fire chief, meets Maggie when a neighbor calls in a fire alarm on her house. He arrives in full turnout gear to find Maggie engrossed in an appliance manual and eggs burning on her stove. His reaction to her is nearly instant which shocks him. As the town's most eligible bachelor he's been turning down women since his wife died ten years ago and he's determined not to be interested in Maggie either. Her second fire - this time in the engine of her uncle's truck - brings out Jake's protective instincts. When her family gets involved in matchmaking, the hilarity ensues.

I definitely recommend reading this one! I giggled, snickered and sighed from beginning to end.
Profile Image for Sherida Stewart.
Author 2 books40 followers
May 14, 2015
A HEART-WARMING STORY OF LOVE IN A SMALL TOWN!
With sweet touches of romance and a bit of mystery, this story features handsome Fire Chief Jake, who shies away from relationships, and newcomer Maggie, who is looking for a quiet retreat. This hero and heroine touched my heart with their past situations. Paradise is a charming mountain community filled with lovable characters who come together to help their neighbors.
There are so many beautiful thoughts expressed through this story--about friendship, prayer, faith, pride, trust, love, and lasting relationships. I liked this touching quote about faith: “In my heart, I feel as though the Lord is calling me to take a step out in faith, toward the life He has for me.”
Safe in the Fireman’s Arms, by Tina Radcliffe, is a delight to read. I highly recommend a visit to Paradise…and Patti Jo’s Café and Bakery!
*I was graciously given a copy of this book, with no requirement to post a review. This review is my honest opinion.
1,760 reviews33 followers
June 3, 2015
This is the third book set in the fictional town of Paradise, Colorado. I want to live there! The reason I really enjoyed this story is because the heroine (Maggie) doesn't "fit the mold" of the average heroine - meaning she's clutzy, wears glasses, is super smart, knows how to fix broken toasters and such and was an assistant professor! She also ran away from an engagement in a taxi and took it to the little town of Paradise which was hours away! The girl has gumption! Her parents don't really "get" her and really just ignore her for the most part too. Jake, on the other had, who is the hero, is a widow and the fire chief of this small town and he is always running to Maggie's to put out some fire that just "happens" to start wherever she is! This is a fun & sweet book! I loved the secondary characters also. So much to enjoy that I hated for it to end!
Profile Image for Adrienne.
291 reviews
July 9, 2015

SAFE IN THE FIREMAN'S ARMS
-----------------------------
This book barely ekes out three stars--in the end, I liked it, but like cheap bookends you buy in a hurry, I only liked the stuff in the middle. The beginning felt forced, and the writing in the concluding chapter (not the epilogue) felt "off," almost as if another author wrote it or, more likely, the author was in a hurry to meet a deadline. Not the end of the world, but noticeable...

There are other small issues--how does a protagonist who is "so smart" not know what plate glass is, especially if she is trained in the physical sciences? Etc.

Overall, this is a cute story with few problems relative to the genre, and I liked it enough to consider other books by this author.
Profile Image for Kate Breslin.
Author 9 books1,117 followers
April 19, 2016
I found “Safe in the Fireman’s Arms” a delightfully humorous and engaging story! Teacher and Jill-of-all-trades Maggie Jones wants nothing more than to leave behind everyone else’s expectations for her, so she can decide her own. Her first choice is to move—returning to the place of her fondest childhood memories, Paradise, Colorado. She has a bumpy start at first, including a few run-ins with the handsome local fire chief, but it isn’t long before Maggie discovers she’s got a lot more to offer this small town than she realized. Great dialog, a wonderfully imaginative cast of characters, and some poignant moments of faith made this story exceptional reading for me. I look forward to more stories by author Tina Radcliffe!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews

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