Good farm boy Mitch is riddled with grief, depression, and lingering effects of PTSD but manages to pull himself out of it not with therapy and help, but by throwing himself in to the Milwaukee Fire Department and playing white savior to the Black kids who live near his assignment in "the core."

I see what this author was trying to accomplish but I found parts perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Mitch, as a character, is not saying racist harmful things, but he is surrounded by other characters who are and do.

The audience of this story will be similar to those who are drawn to "feel good films" like The Blind Side or The Help, those who want to believe hard work and good will is all it takes to foster good "race relations."

As a romance reader, I also found the depiction of women in this story to be shallow and one-dimensional. Every woman that is not a kid or a granny is first described by her breast size and sexual interest in Mitch, god among men. There's a slight second-chance romance arc that truly doesn't pay off, as both Mitch's sweetheart from HS and the colleague he bangs and gets sexually harassed by WHILE ON THE CLOCK are one-note characters. The sex scenes are clumsy and I was bummed the only female firefighter on page was hyper-sexualized.

CW: Super violent and graphic, lots of on page death (children, pets, friends), and racist slurs.