⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
🌶️🌶️🌶️

When Hearts Ignite is the first book in the Orchid series by Victoria Lum. This continues with the Orchid club introduced in her previous series.

Steven Kingsly is a billionaire, Wall Street genius who has no interest in love. However, he was not prepared for the smart intern, Grace, who showed up hours early every day to work where they slowly built a friendship. She needs to land one of the few jobs at his company to help take care of her mother’s debts and her sister’s ballet school. Things do not turn out the way she needed, and she is forced to do a different type of job and disappears from Steven’s life. When Steven runs into her at the Orchid, he can not let her go and pursues her hard.

Let me tell you, I loved Steven Kinglsey! I always love a hero who doesn’t want or believe in love, yet they always fall hard. Steven was so swoon-worthy and treated Grace like a queen. He recognized her intelligence and beauty from the inside out. Grace did not want to be like her mother, who was in love with being in love and always had her heart broken, but once she lets down her walls, these two have a beautiful connection. There is a plot twist that I saw coming, even though the reveal is supposed to be a shock, but I didn’t mind it. The way the characters came together after this reveal was beautiful, and I appreciated the communication.

These two were so hot together, and I loved Steven’s dirty mouth. The spice was amazing due to their emotional connection and slow burn. I also loved that they started out as friends and how Steven never tried anything with her when she was his intern. 

This is only my second Victoria Lum book, but I absolutely love her writing style. She writes beautifully and sucks you into the story. I enjoy a character driven story, and she writes the perfect book boyfriends. I am very excited to read Ryland’s book next, especially since it is a teacher/student romance.

Thank you to Literally Yours PR and the author for providing the ARC.