Set My Heart Bonfire

Blueball Band of Brothers, Book 4

By: Marika Ray

Narrated by: Marie Hawkins, TJ Clark

He's a dashing millionaire who thinks everything in life is one big joke. He's also my new neighbor, and after a humiliating experience in the cemetery that is my backyard, he becomes my shadow, showing up everywhere just to annoy me.

I'm not a fan of happy people. They bother me with their constant grins and rainbows coming out of their ears, and Vander Booth is the king of smiles. Despite my efforts to scare him away with both my profession as an undertaker and my general need for frowning through most of my workday, he sticks around like a bad case of poison ivy.

He is gorgeous though. I'll give him that. And when I see the way he coordinates outfits with his grandma, I'll admit my biological clock starts ticking. Add in his fear of real human connections and suddenly I find myself cheering for the guy instead of plotting his death.

Though opposites can attract—and boy is my black lipstick attracted to his glow-in-the-dark smile—they don't stay together long-term. And they certainly can't co-exist when they're fighting constantly in a knock-down, drag-out competition for the same piece of land for their business venture. Or can they? Cue ominous organ music . . .

Contains mature themes.

©2024 Marika Ray (P)2025 Tantor Media

Lovably weird and wonderful

This hilarious story will give you all the swoony swoons while also pulling at your heartstrings with all the emotions. It is a captivating tale of acceptance, growth, and healing sneakily wrapped in a romcom. It is full of swoons, quirky townspeople, love, absurdity, drama, sweet moments, strong families, supportive friends, spicy times, painful pasts, and love. And oh the tropes in this one - reverse grump-sunshine, rivals, enemies to lovers, just a fling, black cat-golden retriever personalities - all played out by two strong, determined but wounded main characters. This story was romcom perfection. Vandar and Marlo are portrayed as real, relatable people who have flaws, but are really just trying to do their best as messy humans. Plus they are adorkable together. The banter. The internal monologues. The ridiculous insults. The swoony romance. I loved it all. The story had the perfect balance of all the best a romance can offer. Marlo is an undertaker and runs the funeral home in small town Blueball. Her family has run the business for three generations. She is grumpy and has perfected a deadpan personality. She has a few good girlfriends (FMCs in the other books in the series) but otherwise her social life is limited. She struggles with dating because of her profession. Vandar is a millionaire who recently sold his best selling app and has moved to Blueball to be near his favorite person, Grandma Milly. He is always happy and the life of the party but he has no deep relationships other than with his G-Mil. Their meet cute was equally ridiculous and adorable and weird but perfect for who they are as a couple. Vandar and Marlo’s journey to their HEA will have you feeling all the things. I have a soft spot for the people who are a bit uncomfortable in their skin because they don’t feel like they fit in or are worthy, like Vandar and Marlo. So I love when they finally see their truth and their worth and they get swoon worthy HEAs. It makes my weirdo heart so happy that these two found each other and that I have gotten to spend so much time getting to know this ridiculous town and its quirky people.

Marie Hawkins and TJ Clark did a phenomenal job narrating the story and characters into life with enough change of inflection, tone and cadence to voice multiple characters quite convincingly. I love the added dimension and audiobook gives to an already awesome story.