Burn Zone by Annabeth Albert

Narrated by Iggy Toma

Book one in Annabeth Albert’s Hotshots series about the members of the elite wildland firefighter crew based in central Oregon, Burn Zone is a sexy age-gap romance between two smoke jumpers (and I had to look up exactly what that job is!) – Lincoln Reid, who’s been on the job for a number of years, and rookie Jacob Hartman – who happens to be the younger brother of Linc’s best friend Wyatt.

When the book opens, we meet Linc and Wyatt as they’re finishing up with an end-of-season situation check. Wyatt is pissed because nineteen-year-old Jacob came out to the family at the Sunday dinner table, and although he doesn’t say it in so many words, he obviously thinks that Linc had something to do with it. Wyatt is one of the very few people in their small hometown – or at work – who knows Linc is gay, but even though his subtle and not-so-subtle homophobia has dented their lifelong friendship, the pair have remained friends, because Wyatt and the entire Hartman clan have been more Linc’s family than Linc’s own ever was. But Jacob hasn’t made much of a secret of his huge crush on Linc, and Wyatt angrily tells to Linc to keep his hands off – no matter that Linc has never planned to go there with Jacob, even though he’s cute and his youthful confidence and warm smile are very attractive.

Six years later, and nine months after Wyatt’s death in a work-related accident, Linc is not pleased to discover that Jacob is one of the latest recruits to the smoke jumping team based at Painter’s Ridge. It’s bad enough that Wyatt’s mother has lost one son to the job, but now another wants to risk his neck in exactly the same way? Linc is angry – at Jacob for being so dismissive of his mother’s concerns… and at himself, when all those old feelings of attraction he’d thought dead and buried start coming back to life. But him and Jacob… still not happening. Not only is Jacob ten years his junior, Linc made a promise to Wyatt – and he never breaks a promise.

Jacob knows he’s probably the last person Linc expected to see turning up for the start of training, but he’s worked hard to earn his shot at a smoke jumper slot, and isn’t going to let Linc’s disapproval or his mother’s fears throw him off course. He and Linc clash frequently at first, partly because Linc doesn’t think Jacob should be putting himself in danger, and partly because Linc is finding it harder and harder to suppress his attraction to the younger man. On the day of Wyatt’s funeral, they’d shared a passionate, desperate and grief-fuelled kiss, which proved to both of them that the attraction that’s sparked between them for years has never gone away. Jacob knows that part of Linc’s hostility towards him relates to what happened between them that day, and now he’s sure that the attraction between them is mutual, he’s determined to prove to Linc that they could be more to each other than friends.

Jacob isn’t pushy, but he’s persistent, letting Linc know that he’s most definitely interested in hooking up, if that’s all Linc wants, and eventually Linc can’t say no to him any longer. Jacob comes up with the idea that maybe they should fuck once to get it out of their systems (oh, Jacob, any romance listener will tell you how well THAT’s going to turn out!) but I liked that the author does this with a subtle wink, as both men know they’re both too far gone for it to work even before they get as far as the bed! “Once” turns into a fling both they both assert will be short-lived (while of course hoping for the opposite), and as the weeks pass, they find themselves doing more than just fucking; night-time booty calls turn into overnights and then to just spending time together enjoying each other’s company. The relationship is – befittingly –a slow burn as both men come to realise that something they’ve always wanted is within reach. For the first time in … well, longer than he can really remember, Linc realises he’s not merely content, he’s happy, and Jacob is right there with him, finally with the man he’s wanted for so long. But even as Linc admits how happy Jacob makes him, his doubts and deep-seated insecurities lead him to hold something of himself apart, and he alternates between being loving and trying to push Jacob away by insisting he deserves better. This blow hot/blow cold behaviour is frustrating and went on a bit too long for my taste. Linc is a complex character with a lot of baggage, who feels he doesn’t deserve good things and who has always put the wants and needs of others before his own. He has to learn to choose himself before he can choose to be with Jacob, and I admit there were times I wanted to yell at him to just get over himself! And for a while, Jacob enables this behaviour. He’s a great guy; funny, smart and compassionate, and he tries to give Linc what he needs, accepting whatever crumbs of affection Linc gives him – so I was glad when he finally turned around and called him on his bullshit.

That aspect of the relationship is pretty much the only thing that didn’t work for me about the story which is otherwise expertly written and very well researched – Ms. Albert has obviously done her homework about the jobs these people do. The setting is vividly depicted, and I particularly liked the strong sense of camaraderie and mutual support that exists between the crews and their families. There’s a strong secondary cast, some of whom we’ll meet again future books.

I was so pleased to see Iggy Toma’s name attached to this series; he’s narrated a number of Ms. Albert’s books and they’ve become something of a favourite author/narrator duo of mine. Something about his voice really works for me, and all the things I expect of such an experienced narrator – strong and distinct characterisation, good pacing and the ability to key into the emotional connection between the leads and convey that to the listener – are all present and correct in his performance. He does an especially good job in bringing out the vulnerability that lurks so close to Linc’s gruff exterior, and his deep, gravelly tone and slightly more deliberate delivery contrast nicely with Jacob’s more up-beat manner and good-natured humour. The secondary characters are clearly differentiated and easy to identify (and the kids sound cute!), and the intimate scenes – both emotional and physical – are nuanced and well judged. I had one issue with the audio that isn’t really the narrator’s fault, which is that there are a number of flashback scenes in the early part of the novel that are pretty much impossible to distinguish from the present day sections of the story. Sometimes, it’s merely a line or two, sometimes, it’s a paragraph or longer; in the print edition, these are printed in italics so it’s easy to work out which is ‘now’ and which is ‘then’, but as none of the flashbacks are date-stamped, it’s not easily apparent that we’ve switched time-frames in the audiobook (this happens a few times in book three, Feel the Fire, too). I’ve read the print version of Burn Zone, so it wasn’t too much of an issue for me to realise what had happened when there seemed to be an odd switch in the narrative; listeners coming to this one without having read it might find it a little harder to figure it out.

That’s my only real issue with the audio production, though. With likeable characters, a lovely slow-burn romance and excellent narration from Iggy Toma, Burn Zone gets the Hotshots off to a cracking start.

Caz

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