Alaska Dawn: The Blazing Hearts Wildfire Series

By LoLo Paige

Ryan O'Connor's hotshot fire crew pulls out all the stops to save a trapped family in a Southern California firestorm. But when his crew is unable to reach them in time, Ryan considers the loss of lives a personal failure. He decides to apply and train with the Delta Force of wildland fire—the Alaska Smokejumpers. If Ryan can make it through the ball-busting training, his life will be set on a new trajectory…one that could lead him to the woman of his dreams.

 

Tara Waters loves being a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula, Montana, and has worked hard to prove herself capable. But when the hunky Missoula smokejumper, Travis McGuire, aims his parachute at Tara, her worlds collide. Her father is against Tara dating any firefighter—especially smokejumpers. Others warn her she's setting herself up for heartbreak, but she can't resist when Travis shows her how hot a real wildfire can be…is he The One?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Avoca Press Publishing
• Release date: Jun 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223851608

LoLo Paige

LoLo is a former wildland firefighter, adventure seeker, and award-winning author who writes tough women firefighters and hunky smokejumpers. In 2015, The Anchorage Press published a nonfiction story about LoLo’s true life escape while fighting a dangerous fire in Alaska’s wild Interior. Her Embers of Memories story won an Alaska Press Club award, which led to her debut novel, Alaska Spark. LoLo loves writing about the trust, friendship, and pitfalls of falling in love while working in the perilous world of wildland fire. Although her stories are works of fiction, they’re loosely based on her personal experience fighting wildfire in Montana, California, and Alaska. The men and women in her stories not only battle flames, they risk everything for love. Lolo also writes romantic suspense thrillers and romantic comedies.

Book preview

About the Book

Ryan O’Connor’s hotshot fire crew pulls out all the stops to save a trapped family in a Southern California firestorm. But when his crew is unable to reach them in time, Ryan considers the loss a personal failure. He decides to apply and train with the Delta Force of wildland fire—the Alaska Smokejumpers. If Ryan can get through the ball-busting training, his life will be on a new trajectory...one that could lead him to the woman of his dreams.

Tara Waters loves being a wildland firefighter and has worked hard to prove herself capable. But when the hunky Missoula smokejumper, Travis McGuire, aims his parachute at Tara, her worlds collide. Her firefighter father believes Tara is setting herself up for heartbreak. Can she resist when Travis shows her how hot a real wildfire can be? Is he The One?

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I’m thrilled to introduce this origin story for the first book in my Blazing Hearts Wildfire series, Alaska Spark . As a former wildland firefighter, the experiences I had fighting fire in the American West influenced me and taught me invaluable lessons. The friendships, camaraderie, and learning to work as a team when our lives depended on it were priceless. Most of all, the relationships we had with one another were challenging, as you can imagine. I love writing about the pitfalls of friendships and love relationships in the action-packed, perilous world of wildfire. The men and women in my stories don’t just battle flames, they fight for survival—and risk everything for love. I hope you enjoy this story!

~~ LoLo

Chapter 1

The Mendocino Hotshots Crew Base, Stonyford, Northern California

Ryan O’Connor dragged himself through the door of the house he shared with three other wildland firefighters at his crew base in Stonyford. He shuffled his filthy boots down the hallway to his room and kicked open the door. The heavy fire pack slid from his shoulder to the floor. He gave it a pained look and let out a weary sigh. The springs on the mattress squeaked as he fell backwards onto his bed.

The Angelus San Bernardino Fire in Southern California that his Mendocino Hotshots crew had just demobilized from, was one of the worst he’d ever encountered. The Santa Ana winds had spun the inferno from a lightning strike on the San Bernardino Forest into hell on earth. Residents in the densely populated neighborhoods barely had time to evacuate their homes when the powerful, relentless winds plunged the hella firestorm into their midst. Both city fire and wildland firefighters had been powerless to stop the conflagration intent on destruction.

Ryan was thankful to be back in Northern California at his Mendocino Hotshots crew base in Stonyford. The base was within spitting distance of the six national forests in the surrounding area, and so far none had lit up yet this fire season, knock on wood. Lightning strikes were the culprits in this neck of the woods, but skies had been clear the past several weeks.

I’m spent. Gunnar Alexanderson, Ryan’s buddy and fellow crewmate shuffled in behind him and leaned on the doorway.

Me too, bro, groaned out Ryan, his forearm over his face. His feet hung off the end of the bed and he didn’t care. Hard to fit his six-foot-four frame on any bed he landed in, especially on the short cots at fire camp. He often wondered whether the fire cache warehouse got the memo that tall people fought fires too. He made a mental note to let them know.

This SoCal fire sucked big time. The whole thing was a cluster fu—

Ryan cut in, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. I know, bro. I know.

You shower first. I need to be prone. Gunnar pushed off the doorway and lumbered across the hall to his room.

Thanks. Ryan pushed to sit with great effort, his arm muscles shuddering from adrenalized over-exertion for the last seventy-two hours.

Ryan stripped off his blackened fire clothing and rubbed a hand over his stubble as he padded into the bathroom and ran the shower. He glanced in the mirror. Guilt and despair stared back at him, along with a host of other bullshit that goes with failing to save lives.

He stepped into the steamy shower and let the water beat on his sore, mangled body as the event played in his mind for the gazillionth time. It was the screaming that had brought him to his knees. And not a damn thing the Mendocino Hotshot crew could have done about it. They’d been busy laying hose, sawing trees, and chopping out the chaparral and eucalyptus to starve the ravenous firestorm of fuel—when they realized one hillside home still contained its residents. A family of five became trapped in a house and for the life of him, Ryan couldn’t figure out why they’d ignored the Go part of the Ready Set Go evacuation orders. He never questioned people’s reasons for what they did or didn’t do, but when it came to wildland fire in the rural-urban interface, where wildlands met city neighborhoods, you don’t question it when California law enforcement officers show up at your door telling you to get out NOW!

It had all happened too quickly.

And it wasn’t until after mop-up fifteen hours later, that the hotshot crew of twenty realized the extent of property loss and the lives that had gone down hours before.

I’m done with motherfucking firefighting! one of his crew had shouted, before breaking down and flinging his Pulaski, not giving a shit where it landed. "God, why didn’t that family leave? Why?"

No one had an answer. Everyone had suffered their torment in silence, each dealing in his and her own way. Ryan and Gunnar, who normally teased and bantered with their crewmates—stayed silent for the remainder of their shift.

There was nothing to say.

Now that Ryan was alone to grasp the reality of not having saved the family, his eyes stung with salty tears. He squeezed them shut and gripped the shower nozzle with both hands, aiming his face at the spray to wash away what he was powerless to stop.

Oh God... He wept quietly, not wanting to be heard—for that was a sign of weakness, he thought bitterly. Firefighters were tough. Strong. The stalwart, dependable force everyone looked up to and depended on each year when fiery shit storms rained down on drought-stricken California.

What he couldn’t rinse away was the agonizing guilt. He wished with all his heart that he could. Worst of all was recalling how his tough, thick-skinned crew boss had lost his shit when they couldn’t retrieve the family from the burning house. All anyone could do was watch helplessly as the wildfire engulfed the home. When the crew was forced to retreat from the roaring flames, the last thing Ryan remembered was the