Reviewed by Susan65
Title: Lights and Sirens
Author: Lisa Henry
Series: Emergency Services #2
Heroes: Hayden Kinsella/Matt Deakin
Genre: MM Contemporary
Length: 231 Pages
Publisher: Lisa Henry
Release Date: September 13, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Paramedic Hayden Kinsella is single and the life of the party. He likes driving fast and saving lives, and he doesn’t do relationships—he does hookups. Except he wouldn’t hook up with copper Matt Deakin if he were the last guy on the planet. Hayden thinks the feeling is mutual . . . until clearing the air leads to a drunken one-night stand, which leads to something neither of them was expecting: a genuine connection.
Police officer Matt Deakin moved to Townsville to take care of his elderly grandfather. In between keeping an eye on Grandad, renovating his house, and the demands of his job, he somehow finds himself in a tentative relationship with Hayden and very slowly gets to know the damaged guy beneath the happy-go-lucky persona.
But the stressors of shift work, fatigue, and constant exposure to trauma threaten to tear Hayden and Matt apart before they’ve even found their footing together. In the high-pressure lives of emergency services workers, it turns out it’s not the getting together part that’s hard, it’s the staying together.
Review: Hayden, the paramedic, and Matt, the police officer, get off on the wrong foot, but easily become two of the hottest first responders I have had the good fortune to read about. These two constantly run into each other in their small town in northern Australia, and though they appreciate the attraction, the past has a way of stopping any desire to act on it. Especially when one side, Hayden, sees the other as a complete dick, and Matt has no idea why Hayden is so well loved by everyone but stops smiling the minute he lays eyes on Matt. Let me tell you a secret, it’s called miscommunication and misunderstanding…or men being men, same thing,
However, this doesn’t last too long, and once they have that “one night,” the rest is history. But, it is not all roses and rainbows for these two. As with many first responders, they see things that others cannot imagine and share in a form of PTSD specific to their jobs. Hayden especially seems to suffer, and it doesn’t help that he’s teamed up with a fool for a partner.
I would say my two favorite aspects of this story are Matt’s interactions with his naughty grandpa, and Matt’s grandpa with Hayden. That was written so well that I spent a lot of time laughing and smiling. It was some much needed levity in circumstances that have a way of leveling a person. Another fun time was revisiting with Gio Valeri, from the first book in this series. He was handed a rough deal in his story, and it was nice to see he was doing okay.
I love the way this author writes, and I love this series based on first responders. I am not sure how many books are planned, but I look forward to reading more.
Overall Impression: I really liked it!
*I received a copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.*
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