Hard to Burn: A Slow Burn, Found Family Small Town Romance (Halvorsen Brothers #3)

A firefighter with something to prove. A paramedic who’s done saving anyone but herself. A ten-year-old girl who needs more than either of them is ready to give.
Sometimes love doesn’t arrive loudly. Sometimes it just rolls in like the morning fog and stays.

Sidney
I’ve seen what it costs to care too much.
Paramedics don’t get fairy tale endings—we get trauma rotations, empty apartments, and hearts we learn to live without.
I’ve kept my life small on purpose. No risks. No roots.
Then there’s Beth. Ten years old, already world-weary, and suddenly in my care after a call that wasn’t supposed to mean anything.
And Logan Halvorsen—her unlikely firefighter hero, all loud charm and reckless bravery—is suddenly everywhere.
I don’t trust men like him.
But he keeps showing up. For her. For me.
And the hardest part? I keep wanting him to.

Logan
I run into fire without thinking. That’s the easy part.
What’s harder is staying—being the kind of person someone could count on, day after day.
I’ve made peace with being the guy who helps and leaves.
Then I met Beth. And Sidney.
She’s sharp-edged, hard to read, and the only person who doesn’t flinch when I fall apart.
We’re nothing alike.
But when she looks at Beth like she’s worth keeping, I start to wonder—
What if I am too?

Hard to Burn is a slow-burn, emotionally layered small-town romance about found family, trauma recovery, and the kind of love that doesn’t fix you—just holds you steady while you do the work.

Perfect for readers who

Co-parenting with aching tenderness

First responders with wounded hearts

Found family and fierce devotion

Broken people learning how to stay

Love stories where the fire’s on the inside

They weren’t looking for love.
But Beth? She found it for them.
And this time, they might finally stay.

Each Halvorsen Brothers novel can be read as a standalone, but reading in order brings deeper emotional payoff.