Most of the time I choose to read full length novels. I think it might be because I want to stay with characters and stories I’ve fallen in love with as long as I can. Luckily Three Alarm Response by Erin Dutton gives me the best of both worlds.

This is a collection of three novellas that are interconnected. Each story builds on and continues from the story before using the same main setting and some of the same characters. Each story is also about first responders (firefighters, paramedics, and police officers) and the women they fall in love with. All three novellas are well written. The main characters and the secondary characters in each tale are easy to engage with. The romances are passionate, and each tale is entertaining. The angst that runs through all three novellas just makes the stories that much better.

I really liked reading these three novellas. They are short enough to read in one sitting individually, and together they make a great overall story with not one, but three different romances. If you enjoy a good love story with women in uniform as the main characters, then you are in for a treat with Three Alarm Response.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

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As the title implies, this is a book of three shorter stories about first responders that also happen to be interconnected as friends (or other things).

It starts with the story Rescued. Firefighter Britt doesn't let Claire, whose apartment is on fire, go back in to get her dog. Then, Claire goes on TV and gets Britt in a bit of trouble for that (the dog does wind up okay. Go Stu). That brings Britt and Claire back together, and it starts a bit firey, but, they soon start falling in love and even liking each other.

The second story is Pushed. It's about Nicole and Traci who are both at a Music Festival. One as hired security, the other as an attendee. They both get thrown into the deep end when a car plows into the people attending the festival. They then get closer and closer in the aftermath as they both have to go through the emotions that come from being at the center of a tragedy.

Finally there's Healed. Jenna is even more at the center of the music festival tragedy as she's actually hit by the car that crashed through the festival. The story touches on that, and then it picks up as she's recovering from her injuries. And then when she goes back to work with her EMT partner Candace. But, do one or both of them want more than to be just work partners?

I really liked how well all three stories flowed into and around each other. Although there was a bit of a timeline through the first to last story. I feel as though if I read them in a different order, I still would have gotten the whole picture of the story just as well. It was really cool.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.

What a nice and romantic read. While reading I thought about the value and importance of friendship. Three stories about first responders and their search for relationship and/or love. Each story connected which provided a sense of what happens next. All characters were likable and easy to cheer for. Claire and Britt, burning building and rescued dog (Rescued). Nicole and Traci festival helpers, going from incident to incident (Pushed). Jenn and Candace, hit by car, recovery and unspoken love (Healed).

I really enjoyed these three stories that have some overlap.

This book consists of three novellas, but it isn’t a novella collection you might expect. The three story revolve around one big event and a group of first responders, the first is leading up to the event, the second during the event and the third after. The first story is about firefighter Britt Everett and Claire. Claire’s evacuated from her building and wants to go back in to safe her dog, Britt is being a total bitch and not listening. Britt doesn’t like animals, but somehow in the midsts of having to volunteer for Claire’s rescue agency she likes pets and Claire. They seem to be complete opposites, but as they say opposites attract.
Second story is about police officer Traci Sam and Nicole. First off, Traci Sam is a confusing name for me. When she was mentioned in the first story I thought Sam was her first name. In this story the big event happens. Nicole saves a kid with some help from Traci. They find comfort and support with each other. This is my favourite story with my favourite characters.
In the third story we get to know what happened with the injured paramedic Jenna and her partner Candace. Jenna had surgery on her shoulder and returns to the job after a couple of months. Candace has had a crush on her since they met, Jenna is unaware of the crush. Their work reunion is uncomfortable and painful. Jenna is a very grumpy and moody character, which was already made clear in the first story. When they are on loan to a different district they have to share a motel room. Their first night there they confess their true feelings and all of a sudden all is well.

I likeD the characters and the story of the second novella the best, I could have read an entire book about those two and have the other two stories as a subplot or something. Britt and Jenna are horrible characters, but they do warm up towards the end of their stories and I almost like them. I did like how all the stories are connected and how this group of friends gets together in each story. I think Claire and Nicole strike up a friendship if you read between the lines and I really would have liked to read Moreau about Nicole and Traci, so that could have been in that story. Maybe a follow up book of triple dates is in order ;)

Really enjoyed this book its a set of three short stories about a firefighter, a police officer and a paramedic as they find women to date. This is a quick and easy read, stories are engaging, the characters the romances and their meetings are believable. The daily life of first responders is interesting and informative and the lives of the women who aren't 1st responders is also interesting. One runs a animal rescue shelter and the other is an accountant. The stories are interlinked as the three main characters are all friends and they are all caught up in a major incident.

With thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

OMG I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
This book has three different stories involving a group of friends and all revolving around the same event. Rescued introduces us to firefighter Britt Everett and Claire who has been rescued from a fire without her dog and let me tell you, she is NOT happy about that!!! In Pushed, Police officer Traci Sam and the brave Nicole work to save people after a tragic event takes place at a music festival. Finally, in Healed we see the struggles the incident has on Paramedics Candice and Jenna as they find a way out of the nightmare….

This is brilliant!! I ADORE books in a series that revolve around other people from the first book and in this book I get all of that in one place!! The stories are riveting, engaging, intriguing fascinating and really well written…. I loved the characters, the settings and the situations. All three love stories gave me the warm fuzzies and made me very happy. I liked that this book was broken into three parts, making it easy to read a bit at a time and pick back up later. Although you may not want to wait to read it, instead going from cover to cover in a sitting! This is a lovely book that I can easily see myself reading again and again!!!

These were all quick novellas that were connected. I found the concept to be very interesting. They were easy reads without a lot of character drama.

The book was well-edited, but I couldn't connect with the characters. Perhaps if each segment was longer, instead of short novella, they could have been better fleshed out. I didn't care for the characters in the first segment at all, and felt a bit flat about the others.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review, but my opinions are my own.

I loved the concept of Three Alarm Response. You have three stories that are all linked together because most of the mains are first responders. In Rescued, Firefighter Britt Everett responds to the scene is a apartment fire. She is forced to keep Clare Willow from running back in to rescue her beloved dog. Things are tense between the two and the aftermath leaves Britt and her crew having to volunteer at Clare's job. What I liked about this one was even though the two mains didn't get along, there was still chemistry between them and eventually they give into it. The end of this story builds to the next.

Pushed continues at the scene of a car crashing into people attending at music festival. Nicole Klein and Police officer Traci Sam work together to save lives. At the end of the day the continue to spend time together not only because of the events that happen but because they have this other connection. What I enjoyed was that even though these two went threw a terrible experience together, they are able to see that they are attracted to one another and are able to heal together. There is also a sweet secondary story in this one.

Healed is the last story. We are introduced to both mains Jenna Teele and Candace Cooper in Rescued. Candace and Jenna work as EMTs and have worked together for three years. Candance has also been in love with Jenna most of those three years. After Jenna is hurt in the music festival concert when she was hit by the car, it takes a few months for her to heal. As Candance continues to pine for Jenna, her friends try to get her to express her love. I would say this was my least favorite of all the stories. It seemed that Jenna's returned feelings were an afterthought. I don't want to go much into detail because these are short stories and it's easy to give to much away.

Overall, I liked how Dutton put these stories together. Even thought the chemistry was strong in the first two, I did feel that the sex scenes were lacking. I just needed a little more to really feel the connection between the characters. The funny things is I felt the sex scene was better in the last story than the first two even though the chemistry wasn't as good. I rate the first two stories 4 stars and the last story 3.25. Overall rating 3.75

This book of 3 novellas was amazing! Typically, I don't choose short stories, but these were longer than the typical shorts and who doesn't love first responder lesfic??? I'm a fan of this author as well and she really out did herself this time. I will say that I would have preferred each story to be a stand alone book so there would have been three books instead of one, but that's because I'm greedy!!! There was a depth of detail, especially regarding the disasters that the characters responded to that felt immersive. I'm more of a thinking reader as opposed to a visualizing reader and I could "see" those scenes in detail. Not typical for me but I loved it. I'm hoping this author will have a sequel book say 10 years in the future letting us know where they all ended up. Please??? I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 ,,,,Ladies in uniforms ;)
Three different stories, while i didnt feel a deep connection to the characters cause of the short lenght of each story, it was still a fun read.

3 books in one from a writer I usually have on my to read list. Normally the strong point of her writing are the characters for me, combined with good dialogue and a satisfying plot.

This book was a little bit different with it being 3 short stories in one book. I liked that they all evolved around the same tragic incident and you get a perspective from the different people (and first responders) involved and how it affects them. This was interesting and kept my attention, unfortunately for the romance part of this book it made it difficult for me to really connect to the characters because there just wasn't enough time to delve into them. Things moved very fast too, but I can see how that happens when being in a high pressure situation.
So while this book won't be a feature in my reading again book tower as it wasn't the best I have read from Erin Dutton, it is still worth your time.

*** An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***

I am a medic wife so I loved all of these stories. This was the first set of F/F romance I have read. They were all very well-written and well plotted. I will definitely be reading more by all of these authors. I think the story about Everett and Claire is my favorite. It was nice to see a set of stories that humanized the patches and badges.

I liked this book - I don’t normally love short stories but this kind of felt like one bigger story because the three were interlinked , not only because the characters appeared in all 3 stories but also in terms of the event before , during and after

I felt all 3 stories were quite rushed and the couples weren’t developed as much as I’d have liked but the stories were enjoyable and feel good.

In this three stories are about first responders which are connected to the same town Bellbrook Indiana.

Britt is a firefighter who got on the wrong foot with a woman name Claire who was trying to save her dog Stu from a fire. Claire thought she was a jerk but when spending more time with Britt she realize she not so different from her.

Traci is a police officer working a musical festival when chaos breaks loose when a man plow into the festival. Nicole decide to get out her comfort zone to go festival to see one of the band when she sees a man plow into the festival. Traci and Nicole bond while attending to the injured and love is born between them.

Paramedic Jenna was injured at the festival. When partner and fellow friend Courtney was there to attend to her, her feelings for Jenna started six months ago after being EMS partners for three years but she never told Jenna in fear of losing their friendship. After surviving a act of violence they both had to re-examine what they mean to each other and wether they act on it or remain friends.

I like all three stories my favorite is Britt and Claire because I do like hate to love trope. Traci and Nicole were good and to find a bond after such tragedies. Courtney and Jenna were good but I their story should’ve been more fresh out more.

Overall a good read.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

Three Alarm Response was a compilation of three first responder stories which were connected by some of the same characters and the same town of Bellbrook, Indiana. The three short stories were titled Rescued, Pushed, and Healed.

My favorite of the three was Pushed, where Nicole, a by-the-book financial specialist, is slightly injured by a young man who purposely plows down music festival attendees with his vehicle. Police Officer, Traci Sam, and Nicole work together to help other festival goers who are badly injured. They develop a relationship in the aftermath.

Due to the short nature of all of the stories, there wasn't a lot of time to fully develop characters or the general storylines. The stories tended toward sharing romantic interest, falling directly into bed, and then immediately professing I-love-you's. Overall the collection was an easy read which I rated at 3 stars.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

**Thank you to Bold Stroke Books for giving me ARC in exchange for honest review.**
This is a collection of 3 inter-connected, short stories, each of which has a First Responder as the main character. Overall, I like all 3 of these stories. My favourite is the first one, It's a hate-to-love trope involving Britt, a firefighter, and Claire, who works at an animal rescue centre. So, bonus, this story also features a cute dog. I also like that the timeline of the stories goes from one to the other. So, even though the focus is on different couples, there's a certain cohesiveness.

I have a read maybe a couple of books by Erin Dutton. I don't know what drew me to want to read this one but I did and actually enjoyed it. Not surprising really but for some reason I was surprised. This is a bit of an odd book as it is three separate yet connected stories which I feel if given a little more time and pages could have easily been a full novel with three stories. I hope that makes sense but I digress. The first story, the firefighter, was actually my favorite with the last one, the paramedics, being my least favorite. I feel that story, the one with the two paramedics, would have been better if there was more time. A friends to lover story I feel needs more background than two people meeting randomly. History and changing a relationship dynamic always takes time. But that is my opinion. All the characters were fun to read about and while the stories aren't deep or life changing they were happy, with little to no angst and just a hint of drama. I enjoyed it and I think a lot of people will too because who can resist a HEA with people in uniform.

This was a three story novella about first responders, but these stories were actually connected to each other. The first story, Rescued, started with the confrontational meeting between firefighter Britt Everett and Claire Willow who had to quickly evacuate her apartment because of a fire. Claire wanted someone to rescue her dog. When Britt refused, Claire tried to reenter the building only to be restrained by Britt. Eventually, Britt told firefighters who were already in the building where to search for Stu. Once reunited with her dog, Claire was still livid about Britt’s actions, and it became public knowledge via a news report. Britt and her colleagues were forced to make amends and volunteer at Claire’s animal rescue. In time, after the women made peace, they began a relationship.

Pushed - Nicole, a financial advisor, was at an outdoor music festival and Officer Traci Sam was working the festival to get some much needed overtime pay. When a car barreled through the festival’s barricades, the women worked together to help those injured, especially a teenage boy with excessive bleeding. They stayed in contact and helped each other deal with trust issues and the emotional aftermath of the act of violence. Soon they began a relationship and Nicole was introduced to Traci’s friends, including Britt and Claire.

Healed – When paramedic Jenna was badly injured by an act of violence, her EMS partner Candace was by her side throughout the ordeal. Candace and Jenna were partners for 3 years, but after 6 months working together, Candace developed feelings for Jenna. She kept it hidden because she didn’t want to lose Jenna’s friendship if she didn’t feel the same way. With the aftermath of the act of violence and jealousy issues, their friendship splintered to the brink of irreparable damage. They realized they needed to re-examine their friendship with honest communication and decide whether or not to take it to a more intimate level.

In each novella, the act of violence became the catalyst for these women to re-examine their life and their priorities. Since this was a novella, the relationships and declaration of love happened rather quickly. However, their actions were defined by the realistic theme throughout the novella - tomorrow is not promised, days are numbered, and not to take another day for granted. This allowed the women to make sure the people they were involved with knew the extent of their love physically and verbally.

The stories were interesting and some of the characters were more likable than others. I also liked the human interest story that involved police officer Traci helping a homeless teenager reclaim his life after he was kicked out of his house when his parents found out he was gay.
Overall, this was an interesting novella and the connection between the stories made it feel more like one complete story.

An ARC was given for an honest review.

3.50 Stars. I’m a sucker for women in uniform so this was a must read for me. While this is not my favorite by Dutton, it still was a pretty good read. There were a few things I struggled with, but there were also parts I really liked.

While this is a book of three novellas, this is not the normal novella collection you might expect. Actually, what Dutton did here was quite clever and it made this read more enjoyable for me. What Dutton did is she took a major event, which required first responders, and put all three novellas around it. Story one is before and leading up to the event, story two is during the event, and the final story is what happens after. So by doing it this way was like reading one big story instead of just three random stories. The three stories focus on a group of women that are friends and each book stars a different friend finding love while doing their jobs. And because it is about a group of friends, you will see the characters from the first novella appear in the second and so on. It was a great idea and a fun way to do novellas.

I also really enjoyed how each story was about a different type of first responder. The first was a firefighter, the second a police officer, and the third a paramedic. My favorite story of all was the second one Pushed. It was the most exciting taking place in the middle of the big event and was staring the police officer. It wasn’t only that it was the most exciting, it was also sweet. I really liked both mains and instantly thought they had good chemistry between each other. Since these are novellas the relationships move pretty fast, but I completely believed in these two as a possible couple.

While there was a lot I liked here, I did have some bumps. The biggest was that in the first and third stories, one of the mains was an asshole. The firefighter in the first book is worse that the paramedic in story three. I have a hard time trusting people who don’t like animals for one, but for two her mouth just kept running, making her very unappealing. She was a totally jerk for more than half the story. Now, I must admit in both stories the jerk characters had pretty much won me over by the end, but just barely. It is hard for me with a story so short, to take so long to like a main character. I don’t think it is a surprise that the story I loved the most had two very likeable main characters. Anyway, the last little bump is that some of the stories the romance moved very quickly. Again, I get it since these are novellas. But “I like you”, “let’s have sex”, and now “I love you”, almost right in a row is a bit quick for me personally.

While this did have some bumps, it was entertaining and kept my attention. This was such a clever way to do novellas that I would love to see other authors try this. If you are like me and love some first responder’s stories, you might just enjoy this too.