Review: Hot Shot by Karina Halle

Hot Shot by Karina Halle
Series: Nelson Brothers of North Ridge #3
Published by Self Published on 1/9/18
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 317
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If love is friendship set on fire, then theirs is about to go up in flames

Delilah Gordon has a secret.

She's been in love with her best friend and the boy next door, Fox Nelson, since she was six years old.

And while most of her friends and family know about her unrequited crush, the one person who remains oblivious is Fox himself. To Delilah, it's better this way. She'd rather pretend that they're just friends, even though her feelings for the moody, rugged mountain man are anything but tame.

Fox Nelson has a secret too. As a wildland firefighter or "hot shot," Fox heads into danger every day he's on the job, risking all to fight wildfires that threaten ranches, forests and thousands of lives. But while Fox's job is only for the brave, inside he feels anything but. The more he grapples with his raging demons, the more he realizes Delilah is the only one who can put out the flames.

As the two friends grow closer - and more intimate - than ever before, the more complicated their relationship becomes.
And Delilah has one more secret to reveal.

A secret that will change both their lives...forever.

***This is book #3 of the North Ridge Series, however like the previous two books, Wild Card (#1) and Maverick (#2), it stands alone and can be read without reading the others***

This book contains excess profanity/swearing and scenes of a graphic sexual nature. Sensitive readers who do not wish to expose themselves to bad language and sex scenes should take note. You have been officially warned..

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Jessica’s Review

5 “This was Everything” Stars!

I can’t even say it enough: I LOVE THIS SERIES. Wild Card and Maverick are two of my absolute TOP FAVORITE Karina Halle books EVER. I don’t know what it is about the North Ridge series, why I felt so much on these pages, why I clicked with it so instantly, why it’s a personal favorite of mine but it’s a world I just adored and one I never wanted to leave. Still, I went in fully prepared for Hot Shot not to live up to the first two books. I loved Wild Card so much, so I never expected Maverick to measure up. When it absolutely did, I was certain that Hot Shot would end up being the weak link in the chain. Once again, I was wrong. Karina Halle does it again, hitting it home with ANOTHER fantastic, unputdownable storyline, this time following the oldest Nelson brother, and I loved it completely, loved it just as much as I loved the books before it.

Starting this book gave me instant giddy feels. It was a rush, a fully enveloping fire that engulfed me right from the very first page and that heat, that fire, that delicious burn never relented. The emotions in this book are explosive, an all consuming rage of feels that I could not get enough of. I was giddy. I knew it was going to be good, knew it’d be sexy, knew watching Del and Fox sort out this mess was going to be addictive. I just wasn’t expecting it to be so heavy, wasn’t anticipating how emotionally taxing it would get, how touching it could be. It was a roller coaster of delicious romance and fiery heartache and I just loved it.

The friends to lovers trope is one that I absolutely adore but there was something especially addictive about Hot Shot that truly sets it apart from the rest. Maybe it’s the backdrop, the rough and rugged terrain of the small Canadian town where the Nelson brothers work and play and reluctantly fall in love. Maybe it’s this beautiful ensemble of characters that I just connected with so immensely. Maybe it’s the authenticity of the mess that Fox and Delilah find themselves mixed up in. I don’t know what it was, but I liked it. I felt it. I understood it. It frustrated me to no end, it had me on edge the whole way through and it filled me with all these delicious things I’ve so longed to feel every time I’ve picked up a book but that have evaded me for the last few months.

This book was EVERYTHING. Hot Shot could’ve been called Hot Mess as that’s exactly what Fox and Del become as they blur the line between friends and lovers. That’s what Fox is all by himself, truthfully, as he epically fails to avoid dealing with a lifetimes worth of repressed feelings and unwanted attraction toward his best friend. That’s what this dynamic becomes with each turn of the page. With each twist and each confession, a deliciously messy firestorm ensues and I FREAKING LOVED IT.

I don’t know why I doubted for a second that Fox’s story would live up to Shane and Mav’s. Karina Halle could write her grocery list on a napkin and it’d be one of the most riveting things i could read. She nailed it with Hot Shot, she nailed it with Fox and Del’s romance, she nailed it with the entire North Ridge series and I’m completely HEARTBROKEN that it’s over. Hot Shot is hot as hell, an explosively emotional friends to lovers romance that just became my first 5 STAR read of the year. I loved it and I just want more.

About the Author

Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.

Halle is represented by the Root Literary and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.

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