Shawn Wilson likes extreme sports; he finds putting his life in danger exhilarating, but on his latest cliff diving stunt, he injured himself a bit. With football training camp two weeks away, he must be in top shape. His teammate Hunter tells his fiancée Emerson, who knows just the person to help Shawn: her best friend Sage Kaufmann, who does therapeutic yoga. Yoga is not Shawn's idea of fun, but upon hearing the name "Sage," he knows he must go at least once to see if it's the Sage he has met once before.

The premise for HOT & HEAVY is not the most original, as I have read a couple of stories in a similar vein recently, but on the strength of how much I had enjoyed the His Royal Highness duology, I wanted to see what this series was all about. As the title implies, HOT & HEAVY is not the book that will cool you off on a hot summer day, because it is scorching! Shawn and Sage have an insane chemistry that leaps off the page, and while the romance is solidly based on their physical connection, Tracy Wolff had me believe that they were in for the long haul.

HOT & HEAVY is told in both Sage and Shawn's points of view, and their voices are so distinctive, that the prompts when chapters switch narrators wouldn't even be necessary. The dialogues are terrific, especially between Shawn and his Lightning teammates; how often do you catch yourself laughing out loud when reading: "Seriously?" While it's obvious that HOT & HEAVY is not the first book in the series, I felt I already know some of Shawn's fellow footballers rather well: Clay and Tanner are fabulous characters, and I can't wait to read their stories. At the time, I felt the yoga scene was a tad long, but in retrospective, it was to give us a glimpse of who Shawn and Sage were deep down. While Shawn is reckless, Sage is anything but, and their respective backstories showed us why, especially in the case of Sage's mother, who is some piece of work!

Ms. Wolff's descriptions provide amazing visuals, and the rock climbing episode nearly made me dizzy with fear. The sex scenes are plentiful and really HOT & HEAVY, but the author is just as adept at conveying intense emotions and intimacy and blending everything smoothly for a well- balanced story. It seems that Tracy Wolff has another winner with the Lightning series!