cover image Heated

Heated

Naima Simone. Montlake, $12.95 trade paper (282p) ISBN 978-1-5420-3829-4

Simone (the Rose Bend series) launches her BURNED (for Breaking Up, Reversing Nuptials & Evading Disasters) Inc. series with a steamy contemporary. Zora Nelson and her siblings have spent a lifetime watching their parents fight, inspiring them to open BURNED Inc., a business that promises clients drama-free breakups. Zora’s latest client, Valerie, tasks her with breaking up with gorgeous lawyer Cyrus Hart—and the second Valerie shows Zora his picture, she knows she’s in trouble. Her attraction is so intense, she worries whether she’ll be able to just disappear after breaking the news. Cyrus wasn’t in love, but Valerie fits perfectly into the life he’s trying to build, and she’s broken up with him just when he needs her most, as his firm only promotes family men. Assuming that Zora is a friend of Valerie’s, rather than a professional, Cyrus asks her to atone for butting in by pretending to be his new girlfriend. The heat between them means their fake relationship could quickly turn real—that is, assuming Cyrus doesn’t panic when he learns about BURNED Inc. Simone gets off to a slow start, with lots of background information dumped into the clunky opening chapters, but the narrative finds its rhythm once the romance picks up. Readers will be eager for more. Agent: Rachel Brooks, Bookends Literary. (July)