Series: Everday Heroes*
Release Date: January 29th, 2018
Songwriter Dylan McCoy has been burned.
By her boyfriend she found in her bed . . . with someone else.
By the contract she signed that obligates her to work with him until the songs for his new album are complete.
By her agent when she asked Dylan to keep their breakup on the down-low.
When she finds herself in Sunnyville, she refuses to let her new roommate burn her too. Still . . . a rebound has never looked so good.
That’s her first thought when she sees firefighter Grady Malone.
Sexy. Charismatic. Unapologetic. He’s a man who carries his own scars—the ones on his back, the survivor’s guilt on his soul, and the fear in his heart. When an unexpected visitor puts their roommate status to the test, will their undeniable attraction burn out, or will they both take a chance and play with fire?
• BIPOC characters
• LGBTQIA+ characters
• characters with a disability
And doesn’t address fatphobia
• Body-image insecurities
• Cheating
• No descriptive sex scene with OW/OM… but
– The 1st time the heroine met the Hero (they’re roommates) the hero brought an OW home and had sex with her. The heroine heard them.
– Heroine saw the hero and OW kissing. After noticing the heroine’s attention, the hero ‘joked’ about other places on his body he had OW’s lipstick. The heroine got slightly aroused.
– The hero asked the heroine if she wanted to join him and the OW.
– The heroine also gets with an OM–at the hero’s encouragement.
– The hero jacks off to the heroine and OM getting together–they share a bedroom wall and the hero can hear them.
– When the hero and heroine are a couple they are completely faithful
• Does have the Hero and Heroine pushing away
• Does have a brief separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Rating: 3.25/5 stars
*Each book in the series is Standalone
To be completely honest, I felt like Combust was to going to be cuter and a romance that would bring on all the feels. Instead, I got a really realistic story of two characters having to work through their issues (this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting).
In Combust, the heroine, Dylan, is getting over her famous rock star ex-boyfriend and co-songwriter. Dylan catches her boyfriend and collaborator for many years, cheating. The worst part–especially for Dylan–was she was actually in love with him. There was no “he’s an asshole, I never actually loved him” trope, this was “I love him despite him being an asshole.” I also really didn’t enjoy how the hero, Grady, and the heroine’s brother kind of did an “I told you so” about her ex cheating on her–like talk about not helpful!
Also, both Dylan and Grady are with other people during the book (and no Dylan doesn’t get back with her ex at any point). Grady gets with an OW the same night that he meets Dylan–she moves into their shared apartment, and Grady is having a one night stand. Dylan gets with an OM after she meets Grady but also at Grady’s insistence (he essentially tells her the only way to get over someone is to get under someone else). The lack of possessiveness was refreshing, but the lack of jealousy or even hurt was confusing. It made it kind of unbelievable that the two main characters would get together in the end. Also, for all the tropes Bromberg did avoid, she used the classic cliché (putting her main characters in a situation which called for them to pretend to be GF/BF when the ex visited) to get them romantically involved.
Besides the ex drama, both main characters also have other issues that they need to resolve. Dylan suffered from a lot of insecurity over her appearance, and Grady was suffering from PTSD (he’s a firefighter). I felt so bad for Dylan because, in a sense, the reason she felt so bad was due to her ex letting the OW talk trash about her; someone she loved and trusted didn’t defend her and Dylan let that get to her. She also got content being in the shadows and letting her ex-boyfriend get all the fame. Plus, he was cheating on her with a girl that looked like Barbie.
The whole book was basically the heroine’s struggle to become more self-confident. Grady, on the other hand, kinda refused to deal with his trauma. He basically just put a band-aid on it–and this is why I struggle with the main characters as a couple–by using Dylan for sex and emotional companionship (she kept the nightmares at bay). He even told her this! Ouch.
In the end, I felt that the main characters were right for each other in the sense that Dylan got more confident and independent, and Grady faced his demons, but I didn’t really feel the love or the emotional connection. They didn’t emanate the be-all-end-all together relationship I like in romance novels, which was what I was expecting initially. Honestly, the romance felt like it was one of convenience, and I know many romances can start that way, but I felt that the couple never really left that stage. So, while I found Combust interesting, I have to say that I wasn’t feeling them as a couple–at all–which really ruined the book for me.
