Hot Response by Shannon Stacey

Narrated by Tatiana Sokolov

Hot Response is the first in a new trilogy set in the world of Boston Fire and features firefighter Gavin Boudreaux and EMT Cait Tasker. The previous Boston Fire couples make appearances in one way or another but it’s not necessary to have read or listened to the earlier books to understand what’s happening here. Hot Response stands alone very well.

Gavin and Cait have bumped into each other a few times and after Gavin called Cait “ma’am” she became very offended and since then they have rubbed each other the wrong way. I admit I didn’t quite understand why “ma’am” was such an insult. Evidently it made Cait feel old. However, once she finds out that Gavin has been raised to call all women he doesn’t know ma’am, she unbends and they begin to explore the attraction which has always simmered between them.

Cait is currently living with her mother and younger brother. After Cait’s stepdad passed away unexpectedly six months earlier, Cait became very concerned about how her mother was coping. She moved back home to help. It’s only supposed to be temporary but when the book begins she’s a little despairing that it’s taking longer than she hoped for her mother to get back on her feet.

The grief that Cait’s mother is experiencing is dealt with sensitively. It particularly resonated with me because my own stepdad passed away a few months ago and I could definitely relate to how Cait was feeling about her mother and to how her mother was feeling after losing a pillar of her world.

The main conflict between Cait and Gavin is Cait’s commitment to her mother and brother, which limits her and Gavin’s future somewhat; they can’t move on together until Cait is ready to let her mother stand on her own again. As such the book is what I’d call “quiet”. There is no massive drama, the pair are well-suited to each other and the only conflict is about Cait’s family. I wasn’t bored but it is also not a story which has a lot of action either.

The narration by Tatiana Sokolov was very good, as I’ve come to expect from her. The various male cast members had fairly distinctive voices as did the women and the tone, pacing and emotion was solid. There were a couple of bits in there where Cait or her mother had a “wobble” in their voices according to the text, as they struggled not to cry, and Ms. Sokolov gave me that audio to match the words on the page. I enjoy those kinds of subtle additions to a narration. It really enhances my listening experience.

I expect I enjoyed the story more purely because of the narration. As I said above, there is not a ton of action in the book but the pleasant tones of Ms. Sokolov helped hold my interest as the story progressed. I don’t mind a quieter book from time to time; sometimes it’s nice to not have super-high stakes at play. I’d recommend saving Hot Response for when one is in that kind of mood for maximum enjoyment.

Kaetrin