3.50 Stars. I thought this was one of Roman’s better books but it was still very up and down for me. Roman tends to write some storylines or characters that I really like, but then there is always something that doesn’t work for me. It puts a lot of her books in the middle or the road category for me, with this one being a little better than average. I feel like Roman is just a few steps away from writing a book that I absolutely love, and that feeling is why I keep reading her books.

When I saw that the two characters in this book had the jobs of emergency room nurse and master carpenter, my interest was piqued immediately. I have always been interested in wood working and I love anything even remotely medical romance-ish. I did like the scenes revolving around the characters jobs, but I wish there was more of it. I must have read the blurb wrong (which happens to me way too often) but I thought the nurse character was going to be “nursing” the carpenter back to health and their time together would be when they fell in love. That wasn’t the case though and instead I felt their connection was pretty insta quick. This is a moderately slow burn romance so it’s not insta love, but I just thought they needed more time together so that when they constantly thought of each other, it would seem more realistic.

An example of my ups and downs really came in with the characters. One character was great, romantic hot butch who is a complete gentlewoman with a good heart. I mean her character was almost too good. The other woman didn’t know how to communicate, was wishy-washy and wicked flighty. I was having trouble understanding what about her the too good to be true character liked so much. The only thing I could think of is since we are told over and over how beautiful she is, is it must be all physical attraction. It was just hard because one character is so great that you want to see her be with someone just as great.

My other main issue was how slow parts of this book were. It took me three days to read this. That is not normal for me. I pick a book up and I finish it the same day, when it comes to average sized reads. The first 50% really slowed down and there wasn’t much keeping me reading. I don’t think enough really happened in the beginning of the book. But, here comes the up, the last 50%. I enjoyed the second half much more and I flew through it in a few hours on the third day. The pace was so much better and the book more enjoyable.

There was so much of this book that was almost there for me. For every issue I had, there was something good to counterbalance. I feel like Roman is so close to a big hit if she can just put all those ups together without the downs. If you are looking for a slower paced romance with a decent amount of angst, this might be for you. I do think this was one of her better books so I’m hoping her next will take that final step and be a real winner for me.

This is my first book by this author and I think I'll read more. The book is about a carpenter, Blaze (love that name), who meets a ED (when did ED replace ER?) nurse, Trinity, after an accident. It's not a love at first site book or even a friends to lovers book. It's more of a "I come from a bad home, want a career, priorities messed up, but i don't want to be alone, but can I do it" type book. Huh, I guess that sums it up :)

Blaze is a great character. Almost too good to be true and says all the right things and though doesn't seem to know what she wants, actually does know what she wants. Trinity is the exact opposite. She claims to know what she wants and what goals need to be reached but really has no idea how to actual live a life outside of work. The overall story was pretty good but I did feel there was unnecessary repetition of certain things (ie DJ being how she is) and things it moved a bit slow. At one point I thought it had been days but it was just the next morning. Maybe it was just me.

Regardless, I did enjoy the read. And I do love me the butch/femme aspect of it, happens to be a favorite of mine. Give it a read if you have the chance, I know I will keep an eye out for future books by Roman.

4.75 stars. I quite enjoyed this book. I LOVE a good butch femme pairing and this book excelled. I appreciate that none of the obstacles they faced felt artificial or forced to add drama to the storyline. Everyone has family baggage of some kind. I was honestly surprised by DJ's revelation, but maybe I'm naive. She wasn't my favorite character, as I'm sure was intended. I really loved the inclusion of carpentry in the storyline. I love working with wood and it's rarely included as an occupation. Medical drama always rocks. This book would be 5 stars for me if one main didn't have grey eyes and the other red hair. Lesfic has so many of these while the population has 3% and 2% respectively. But that's a tiny critique in an otherwise well written book. I highly recommend this book. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

This was a good read.

Blaze is a Master carpenter she takes pride in her work that has been past down by her family. When she gets into a an accident she fears her dreams won’t come true that she won’t be able to do what she loves and pass it down to her children one day.

Trinity didn’t have much growing up so she works hard to rise above it. As she works hard to become head nurse she doesn’t has time for anything else.

When Blaze wind up in the hospital she meets Trinity and they hit off. Trinity doesn’t know why she drawn to Blaze but she can’t help herself by being around her. Blaze realize she ready to settle down and with her attraction to Trinity she may find the one as they try navigating a relationship Trinity has to learn just because you saw how your parents are doesn’t means you going to turn out the same way. I mean I get where Trinity coming from when you have so little growing up you don’t want anything to jeopardize the stability in your life but as Trinity best friend Kelly said you can have both. I like Blaze how she didn’t want to give up on Trinity because she knows they can have something real. Although Blaze best friend DJ was interfering we find out why but I did like that they repair their friendship.