REVIEW: LIKE FIRE WE BURN by Ayla Dade

In LIKE FIRE WE BURN by Ayla Dade, Aria Moore returns to Aspen planning to focus on family and help run the family B&B while her mother is ill. What she doesn’t plan for is Wyatt Lopez—the ice hockey player she once loved and the man who shattered her heart. Two years and thousands of miles were supposed to be enough distance. They weren’t.

Seeing Wyatt again brings every feeling back to the surface, but Aria has no interest in repeating the past. She makes it clear that whatever happens between them now can only be friendship. The problem is, living under the same roof and sharing space makes old boundaries a lot harder to keep. As winter closes in and the tension between them becomes impossible to ignore, Aria has to decide if protecting herself matters more than the chance to believe Wyatt could be different this time.

LIKE FIRE WE BURN by Ayla Dade is a snowy second-chance romance about old heartbreak, unresolved chemistry, and what happens when the person who hurt you is suddenly impossible to avoid.

The chemistry between Aria and Wyatt was intense, but what gave the story more depth was Aria’s emotional guard. She wasn’t simply deciding whether she still wanted Wyatt—she was deciding whether she could trust herself to survive that kind of heartbreak again. That internal push and pull gave their romance something deeper than attraction alone. Aspen’s snowy backdrop, the closeness of the B&B, and the forced proximity made every moment feel more charged. Watching Aria and Wyatt work through pain, vulnerability, and the possibility of a different ending made this one easy to stay invested in.

Tropes
❤️ Second chance romance
🏠 Forced proximity
🏒 Hockey hero
❄️ Snowy small-town setting
❤️‍🔥 Unresolved chemistry

Themes
💔 Heartbreak & healing
🏔️ Family responsibility
🫶 Forgiveness & trust
🌱 Starting over
🔥 Desire vs. self-protection

LIKE FIRE WE BURN by Ayla Dade is an emotional, tension-filled romance about two people learning whether love can survive the weight of the past and still find its way forward. Perfect for readers who love second-chance angst, strong chemistry, winter settings, and romances where healing matters as much as the happily ever after.

QOTD: Do you love a second-chance romance more when the history is messy… or when the breakup was never fully explained?

Book Info:

Publication: March 31, 2026 | Berkley |

Olivia owes everything to Celia’s Place. It’s where she learned how to be a great chef. It’s also where she first fell in love. But at nineteen, Olivia had a wanderlust she couldn’t deny. And Carmello, whose mother owned the restaurant, couldn’t leave Celia’s Place behind any more than he could force Olivia to stay.

Now, ten years later, Olivia is a successful personal chef. Her job allows her to travel the world, and she has never stayed in the same place for too long. When Carmello learns that his mother left shares of her beloved restaurant to both him and Olivia, he plans to buy her portion of the shares back quickly and painlessly.

That is until Olivia shows up at the restaurant, ready to help run it. Carmello sees an opportunity: drive Olivia away from his restaurant so that she will want to sign over her shares. But Olivia sees things a bit differently. She finally has the chance to stay in one place and build a home after years on the move, and perhaps now is the right time to explore whether that home can be with the one who got away.

Soon enough, sparks begin to fly, but can Olivia and Carmello avoid the mistakes of the past?