Phoenix Rise - FV

Some friendships are destined to become something dangerously irresistible. In Phoenix Rise by Aurore Payelle, lifelong friends Emma and Jake discover that the line between friendship and desire can be as unpredictable as fire. At just 23, Jake is a successful professional hockey player whose promising career comes to an unexpected halt following an injury. Forced to put his ambitions on hold, he returns to the University of Washington, where the one person capable of challenging his carefully controlled world is waiting for him. What begins as a familiar friendship soon threatens to ignite feelings neither of them can ignore.

Emma has just started her first year at university when a night that takes a terrifying turn leaves her hospitalized. Concerned for her well-being, their friends entrust Jake with keeping an eye on her. But Emma has no intention of becoming anyone's damsel in distress, especially not Jake's. Fiercely independent and determined to prove she can take care of herself, she challenges him at every opportunity, testing his patience and pushing boundaries. As their confrontations grow increasingly intense, Jake takes an unexpected approach to keeping unwanted attention away: pretending to be her boyfriend. Yet beneath their constant disagreements, a powerful attraction begins to emerge, threatening to transform their friendship into something neither is prepared to confront.

Passionate, emotionally charged and filled with irresistible tension, Phoenix Rise explores the intoxicating moment when friendship gives way to forbidden feelings. Between Jake's protective instincts and Emma's fierce determination to live life on her own terms, every confrontation brings them closer to a desire that becomes increasingly difficult to resist. With its university setting, professional hockey backdrop and captivating friends-to-lovers dynamic, this contemporary romance invites readers into a story where emotions burn fiercely and love refuses to follow the rules. When attraction becomes an uncontrollable blaze, only one question remains: who will get burned first?