Wild Hearts. The Healing Hearts Series, #3

What happens when two ice queens collide and neither one melts first?Shannon McAllister runs search and rescue in the Colorado mountains with iron discipline and zero tolerance for small talk. She has not let anyone close in five years. Not because she does not feel things, but because she does, and that is worse. She has made herself untouchable. It has worked so far. Tess Calder has been hired to decide whether Shannon's job should exist.
She is the consultant nobody wants and everybody underestimates. Analytical, guarded, and so tightly wound she colour-codes her panty drawer, Tess does not do feelings. She does data. Data does not let you down, does not leave, and does not look at you the way Shannon McAllister looks at her when she thinks no one is watching. Two women who have perfected the art of keeping everyone at arm's length.
One three month audit that puts them in each other's orbit. Neither of them is prepared for what happens when distance stops working. When a wildfire tears through the mountains, it rips through every certainty they have clung to. Tess now has a report to write that could end Shannon's career or destroy her own. Shannon must decide what terrifies her more: losing her job or letting someone stay. Meanwhile, Tess's mother Colette arrives uninvited.
Part chaos agent, part unwanted life coach, and entirely without boundaries, she unpacks her crystals, discovers Tess's most private possession, and sets her sights on a captivating eighty-three-year-old grandmother named Yaya. You will either love her or want to lock her in a cupboard. Possibly both. A career-ending report. A woman who runs towards danger but cannot stop running from love. A dog who knows exactly who belongs in his house.
And one question neither of them can answer alone. What happens when the thing you are most afraid of is the only thing that can save you? Wild Hearts is a slow-burn sapphic romance featuring:A fresh take on the double ice queen trope with two guarded women undoing each otherForced proximity and workplace tension with real professional stakesA wildfire rescue that changes everythingFound family in a mountain search and rescue teamA scene-stealing mother readers will argue about for daysA dog called Kep who absolutely deserves his own bookSteam that earns its slow burnAll the feelings.
Bring tissues. Thousands of readers say this is slow-burn lesbian romance at its best.