Love & Other Fire Hazards: A Novel

Summary

In this irresistible, heartfelt opposites-attract debut novel, a cautious actuary and an reckless see each other again for the first time since high school and a spark ignites—but will it burn bright or will it flame out?

Kat Feeney is having a bad day. Her very carefully laid out Life Plan has been ripped up by her boyfriend of eight years who just unceremoniously dumped her because apparently, she's "boring." But you know what's not boring? Drunkenly kissing Charlie Keating—the boy (now very attractive man) she hasn't seen since high school, when they could hardly stand to be in the same room together—who is currently sitting across the bar. That'll show her ex.

Meanwhile, Charlie's Life Plan—while significantly less thought-out than Kat's—has also been recently upended. He's just become a single father to a five-year-old little girl he never knew existed, and he's trying to figure out how to be a reliable parent for her while working 24-hour shifts at the firehouse. But even with everything he has going on, he can't stop thinking about that kiss.… .

Then Kat realizes she needs a date to her stepsister's wedding because her ex is going to be the best man and is bringing his new girlfriend, and Kat can't abide the idea of facing that alone. So she asks Charlie for a favor—purely platonic, of course—to pretend to date her until the big day. But while their relationship might be fake, their chemistry is very real, and neither of them quite know what to do with it.

Because there's a very real reason they couldn't stand each other in high school, and their history makes things complicated. Time may heal all wounds, but has enough time passed for Kat and Charlie to have a future?