REVIEWED by Jay V.

TITLE: Hot Potato

AUTHOR: Allison Temple

SERIES: Seacroft #3

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 80,000 Words

RELEASE DATE: September 16, 2019

BLURB:

As Seacroft’s resident weirdo, Avery proudly flies a lot of freak flags. It’s a constant battle to be taken seriously when everything, from his red hair to his sexuality, makes him stand out in this small town.

Small towns are also a terrible place to keep secrets, and Lincoln has a bunch of them. But his demons aren’t going to hold him back from his dream job at the Seacroft Fire Department. His life is finally coming together, until the red-haired twink with the big smile and fast mouth calls in an emergency.

Pining for the hot firefighter is Avery’s newest flag, even if he agrees to be “just friends.” For Linc, every minute with Avery is a temptation. He needs to let go of his fear and admit the truth. Linc doesn’t want to be Avery’s friend; he wants to be his everything. But just as Linc is ready to risk it all, Avery gets an unexpected offer to spread his colorful wings and fly away.

REVIEW:

Sometimes life is a hot mess.  And Avery seems to be be in the middle of it most of the time.  He’s trying to take a big step in his life moving away from his aunt and uncle who were more like parents. But can he survive his own accident prone self?  Can the firefighter help who comes to check out a fire that Avery inadvertently created?

We first meet Avery in the second book in the Seacroft series. He pines for one of the MCs and after an misconstrued situation, Avery is still reeling from the misunderstanding, contributing more to his feeling a lack of self-worth. While he was somewhat amusing in that book, he gets to be front and center in this novel. One doesn’t need to read the second book to start this story. In fact, it felt like Avery was a bit of a hopeless case before we get to learn so much more about him now. And he’s had a harder life than you’d think. And the small town of Seacroft becomes a reminder of those memories almost crippling him at times, more him taking things a bit personally than is truly the case.

We meet Lincoln early on, as he comes to Avery’s help. Linc has been drifting for a while and is now starting to work as a fireman in town. He has the regular rookie initiations and duties, but he might be be settling in. Old family drama comes in to play, but he’s trying to find his own way.

Allison Temple does a wonderful job of developing these characters and we get a true sense of both of them. Their navigating to become a couple can be a rough ride, but they really try to love each other. The story flows with interest and you get to know their backstories that contribute so much to how they act. If they can learn to adapt and move on from these hold ups, they might just have a chance. While I enjoyed the second book, this one really struck a chord with me, maybe because we’re all just a bit clumsy in our lives.   But we pull through it, as we only can to keep living. Temple states this is the last in the series, but I’d love to learn more about the interesting people that inhabit the small town of Seacroft.  Maybe we’ll get to see them again in the future but for now, I’m glad I got to visit a little bit and meet these wonderful people.

RATING: 

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