This book tried to fit too many tropes in it without actually going anywhere substantial. Within the first few pages, the story sets up a billionaire, firefighter, best friend's little sister taboo romance. A few chapters later there's the added virgin saving it for someone special and I was rolling my eyes. There were a stack of cliches thrown in, quite a bit of repetition a plot that was drawn out and went pretty much nowhere. I obviously missed the bit in the description that said this book ends of a cliffhanger, so if you avoid trilogies, you've been warned.
Ben had been continuing his father's legacy, running his billion-dollar company after his dad and his step-mother died in a plane crash. He's incredibly rich and has women everywhere but sells the company to his uncle to go back home to Portland and chase his dream of being a firefighter. After catching up with his best friend, Jerrod, he runs into Mila, Jerrod's little sister. She's now a looker and he's instantly attracted. Mila's had a crush on Ben since she was young and is still pining after him.
*Slight spoilers below*
I had quite a few problems with the book. Firstly, apart from a stack of repetition where they swoon for each other, there's only a few steamy kisses a couple of times and that's it. There's a slight twist chucked in when the uncle dies (again by a plane crash - what are the chances...) and there's a possible nefarious motive threatening Ben's company as a result. There was a heap of 'he/she's really hot and I want to be with them but it's a big no-no with the brother so we can never be'. Wash, rinse and repeat because this was brought up throughout the whole book, unnecessarily I might add.
While there weren't any obvious grammatical issues, I found the writing very stilted with a lot of random details thrown in. If the characters were thinking it or doing it, the author included it which meant there was a whole lot of nothing in the book and it made Ben and Mila come across as a bit juvenile. There was also the constant harping on about how firefighters and nurses (Mila was the latter) risk their lives and do it for the good of the community, but how fulfilling their job is even though it's so difficult to be such heroes. It was laid on really thick and brought up a lot to the point where there was more eye rolling from me. Righto, superheroes, you're both amazing, selfless people. We get it. But just in case you didn't, the author jammed in a lot about how they're just ordinary people that save lives. Well, thank goodness we cleared that superhero complex right up.
Lines from Mila included rubbish like 'A thrill went through me to think that Ben and I had so much in common. But I suppressed it almost immediately. Just because we thought alike didn't mean we were soul mates'. Yep. Mila then says she was being a silly girl with a crush and that pretty much summed it up. Ben wanted to do something good for humanity as all the women and money just weren't cutting it. Tough gig. There was also a bit of possible falling in love within the first section of the book. And it would be remiss of me to not mention when Mila makes a pun about playing with fire and Ben laughs at her joke and thinks about how her wit surprises him. That's condescending, Ben. Maybe she's surprised that you even got her reference. Die in a fire.
The book was pretty much made up of Ben returning, he and Mila having a couple of casual dates under the premise of catch-ups, Ben starting his firefighting career and Mila working in the ER. Seriously, that was about it. There was some gratuitous other woman drama thrown in that also went nowhere and, quite frankly, was ridiculous. On his first call out, Ben is called back by a supervisor to share his opinion. Three others run in and the house collapses and his workmates are injured. Ben was freaked out and his workmates were already close to him like brothers (eye roll - this was just over a third of the way in). Why am I bring this up? Because the author did for CHAPTERS. Sheesh. Ben gets a call back to New York, Mila gets upset because he doesn't say goodbye (because he's gutless). They lament over the relationship that never actually was anyway. Throw in an anti-climatic cliffhanger. The end.
I wasn't invested in Ben and Mila's story. Neither of them managed to endear themselves to me as characters, both were walking cliches and nothing in the plot drew me in. I ended up having to skim the book after about half way for my own sanity. Needless to say, I won't be continuing with the series. Oh, and the cover model for Mila is blonde - she's a brunette in the story. This always drives me up the wall.