Ghost Fire, G.G. Andrew

Laney and Lucas are hot together but a ghost and a fire stand in the way of them finding out if they've got anything more lasting than sparks.

Lucas struggles with his past in a notable fire in the community where he is now a firefighter.  There's not a day that goes by that he doesn't remember the thing that almost got him but did take his savior into the darkness that shouldn't have been real.  And now a seriously hot woman won't take no for an answer when she asks him to relive his greatest fear and worst nightmare.  But there's something irresistible about her and she brings out all his protective instincts.

Laney's struck by Lucas' magnetism more than she is by his potential to make a great story.  She needs the story to get out from under the money and the lies of her past and a little thing like the word "no" isn't going to stand in her way.  Lucas draws her in and she's determined to get to the bottom of his fear because she's sure there's nothing real about the ghost he's so afraid of.

Setting up a sleepover in the old hotel for the 20th anniversary of the Cattleman's Inn fire, Laney hopes to bring together the survivors and get a more in-depth story from the people who lived through it all in the place where it all happened.  What she didn't plan for was that the stories might just be true.  There was a twist that I really wasn't expecting and that made things more exciting.  Not everything and everyone are as they appear.

Laney is great at thinking on her feet and I really enjoy her pluck as well as her creativity.  Lucas is a little bit of a martyr and because he's so stuck in his past he hasn't learned or allowed himself to move forward.  Until Laney busts through his carefully constructed walls and shatters everything he's willing to die for by being something to live for.  I like where they leave things even though I want to read so much more about where they go from here.  The dialogue is creative and honest for two people who struggle with pasts as well as their identity.  They've got a real chance to heal and move forward individually but also together because we get a glimpse into their ability to bring out one another's strengths and vulnerabilities.  Their HFN could very easily become an HEA.  Definitely worth reading more from the world written around them.