Maggie Maren does it again! Feverburn is a feminist romance with small town charm and lots of spice! It is part of the Pine Bluff series. You don’t have to have read Stormbound to follow the plot of this one but it would definitely enhance your experience. 

Feverburn centers on FMC Rosie, who may sound familiar because she was the barista girlfriend in Kaylee’s unwitting love triangle that kicked off the first book. In this book, Rosie moves to Pine Bluff to open a coffee shop with Kaylee. She is smart, creative, tattooed, and witchy. She is also recovering from significant trauma that predates even the cheating boyfriend Tyler over whom she and Kaylee bonded. Carson is the grumpy “lumbersnack” MMC (almost literally - he owns a hardware store!) with a bit of a dominant streak. He has his own trauma that he has to overcome in order to go “all in” with Rosie. Like Stormbound, this novel has a lot of humor, though this time it was the MMC who made me laugh out loud. Carson’s grumpiness makes for some very funny moments. The way he described someone’s false eyelashes made me cackle. 

I am not sure why the StoryGraph form is missing the typical questions about character development and plot vs character that it normally has??? So I will just write here that the novel is primarily centered on the strong character development of lovable characters. Almost all of the conflict comes from communication or navigating their pasts. The author describes the book as enemies-to-lovers but It is not done in the traditional way.

Instead of starting out as enemies, they develop a (kind of hilarious) feud in the second act of the novel.

Feverburn also has some fun secondary characters. Kaylee, Harley, Frankie, and Dane make reappearances from the first novel. Viv adds humor and maternal good vibes. Bear is the BFF we all need.  Kiszka, Carson’s husky, is the best secondary character - he seems to understand the humans better than they understand themselves. 

The book features multiple practicing Pagans who also identify as witches. Since this isn’t a paranormal book I would count that as a form of diverse representation since it is not a dominant religion. The main and secondary characters are all white, though the author signals that a few of the tertiary characters (coffee shop employees) are not white. One of the secondary characters is a lesbian (she is in a happy relationship so I am not sure we will get her story in a subsequent book, though it would be neat if each Kouris sibling had a novel!)

As previously mentioned, the story returns us to Pine Bluff, Maine, though this time we see a lot more of the town. The author also leans way in to the witchy vibes in this sequel, with more details about holidays, crystals, and rituals. These are all details that round out the character development. 

The spice…There is plenty of it and it is seggsy as hell. Carson has a bit of a dominant streak - occasionally giving Rosie orders. And he has occasional possessiveness and “who did this to you” moments that appeal to my love of dark romance. But if those aren’t your things, don’t worry. This is not a D/s relationship and this is in no way a dark romance. The spicy scenes are 🔥🔥🔥, with seggs that centers the 3 Cs: communication, consent, and condoms. If you loved the wood chopping and in-front-of-the-fireplace scenes in Stormbound, get ready for round two of both 💦 I rate the spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 1/2.

Overall, there is much to love about this second book in the series. It is well-written with lovable characters and plenty os spice. I look forward to the next book in the Pine Bluff series and am trying to figure out who it might center on (Dane?!? Maybe Azalea or Bear? Ooh! What about Azalea *and* Bear? 😂) 

Update one month later: I can’t stop thinking about this book and some of the scenes in it. So I am revising my rating to five stars and five chili peppers. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Update after a second read six months later: This holds up on re-reading. I was laughing, grinning like a sappy fool, or fanning myself through most of the book! 😂🥰🥵