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Verdict: A hot, funny, witchy small-town romance with a family of sisters worth the price on their own, held back by a love story that runs more on sparks than on time together and a series mystery it deliberately leaves open.
Best for: Readers who want explicit heat, found family and a gossip-column mystery on an island full of witches, and who are happy to keep reading the series for the answers.
Heat level: ★★★★★ (5/5 — explicit and plentiful)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.2/5 — a 4.44 Goodreads average across 600 ratings, with one complaint about where the romance puts its weight)
Tropes: Fake dating, witches, age gap, celebrity chef, political campaign, small town, sisters and found family, fated-mate visions, returning home, opposites attract.
Firewild by Milena McKay is the second book in her self-published Crow’s Coven series, a paranormal sapphic romance and loose age gap romance set on Dragons Island off Massachusetts — the same island as The Headmistress — where fire witch and celebrity pastry chef Deryn Crowhart comes home meaning to leave again and ends up fake dating Paloma Allende, a businesswoman running for office in a town that doesn’t want her.
It holds a 4.44 average across roughly 600 Goodreads ratings — well above the 4.02 of book one, Windburn — plus 4.3 on StoryGraph with a 1% did-not-finish rate and a positive review from The Lesbian Review. Only eleven Goodreads ratings are one or two stars. The criticism, where it exists, is consistent, and it is about the romance rather than the book around it.
What Is Firewild About?
This is witchy small-town romance with a political subplot and an ongoing mystery, which means the romance shares the page with a lot. The Crowhart women have been witches since Salem, and the series follows the sisters one book at a time while a thread about the island’s anonymous gossip column, the Crow’s Caw, and something darker runs underneath all four. It is also a book about public image: a celebrity chef, a candidate, and a town that watches both.
Deryn is the famous one — fire magic, a baking career and a firm plan not to stay. Paloma is the outsider trying to win an election, and a relationship with a Crowhart looks like a way in. The Lesbian Review files one lead as over forty and one as under; readers disagree on the exact gap, with one putting the women at 30 and 35 and another at ten years apart. Readers report dual third-person POV, and it is the family around Deryn, as much as Paloma, that they come away talking about.
What Makes This Witchy Sapphic Romance Work
- The heat: romance.io bands it “explicit and plentiful,” and around ten Goodreads reviewers name the spice first — one calls it McKay’s best yet.
- The Crowhart family: Nine reviewers single out the sisters and their aunt, and The Lesbian Review praises the richly drawn sisterhood.
- The mystery: Seven reviewers enjoy the Crow’s Caw gossip column and the darker series thread, which several compare to Lady Whistledown.
- The humor: Four reviewers call out the humor, and the family scenes do most of that work.
- An improvement: 4.44 against Windburn‘s 4.02, and a 1% did-not-finish rate on StoryGraph.
Book Synopsis
Deryn Crowhart left Dragons Island to become somebody else, and she managed it. She is a celebrity pastry chef now, with a public profile and a talent for fire that she keeps mostly under control. Coming home is supposed to be brief. The island has other plans, starting with a fire that puts her directly in the path of Paloma Allende.
Paloma is a businesswoman running for office in a town that does not take kindly to newcomers, and she is losing. A romance with a Crowhart — a local family, a local celebrity — would change the story people tell about her. For Deryn, being seen with a candidate has its own uses and its own risks. So they come to an arrangement: they will pretend, for as long as the campaign needs them to.
The trouble is that the pretending doesn’t stay pretend, and neither does the island. Deryn keeps seeing things she can’t explain, the anonymous Crow’s Caw column knows more than it should, and something that has followed the Crowhart women for centuries is stirring again. The question is whether two women who both have a public image to protect can afford to want something real — and what the island will do if they try.
My Review
The Crowharts are the best thing here, and I mean that as praise for the book rather than a slight on the romance. McKay writes a family of witches who bicker, protect each other and keep secrets with the ease of people who have done all three for centuries, and the scenes with the sisters and their aunt are where the book is most alive. It is warm, it is funny, and it gives the island a lived-in feel that makes the series worth following.
The heat is the other thing McKay delivers without hedging. The attraction between Deryn and Paloma is immediate, the scenes are explicit and frequent — readers count five or six — and the celebrity-and-candidate setup gives every public moment an edge. The campaign subplot and the gossip column add a pleasurable layer of small-town politics, and readers who enjoy a mystery running under the romance are the book’s happiest audience.
Where it struggles is the emotional middle of the romance, and this is the one complaint that comes up repeatedly. Six Goodreads reviewers say the relationship is carried by attraction rather than time together — that the book tells you these two are falling for each other more than it shows them doing it. Three are thrown by the leads calling each other “Ms.” well into the book. Three find the ending rushed, with the declarations arriving late and no epilogue to let them land. And one reader points out that the fake dating, which the blurb sells as the engine, barely affects the campaign. None of this sinks the book, but it is why a 4.44 average lands a notch lower here.
One expectation to reset: this is marketed as a fake-dating romance, and it reads more like a family saga with a romance and a mystery inside it. The couple gets a happy ending; the series question does not get an answer. If a self-contained romance is what drew you, calibrate; if you like a series that keeps you coming back for the family, this is exactly that.
My honest note: A four-and-a-half-star family and five-star heat wrapped around a three-and-a-half-star courtship. If you need the relationship built scene by scene, you may feel shortchanged. If you want witches, sisters and spice, this is one of the more satisfying series entries of the year.
| Element | In Firewild |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Deryn Crowhart & Paloma Allende — fire witch and celebrity pastry chef, and a candidate for office, fake dating |
| Core tropes | Fake dating, witches, age gap, political campaign, small town, found family, fated-mate visions |
| Setting | Dragons Island, an island town off Massachusetts shared with McKay’s The Headmistress |
| Heat level | 5/5 — explicit and plentiful |
| Series | Crow’s Coven book 2 of 4 — HEA for the couple, series mystery left open, no epilogue |
| Content notes | Explicit sexual content including toys, domestic abuse themes and violence against women, book bans, past infidelity, a claustrophobic scene |
How Spicy Is Firewild?
A full 5/5. romance.io rates it “explicit and plentiful,” its top band — the same rating as book one — and readers treat the heat as a headline feature. McKay reportedly advertises six and a half scenes; one reader counted five, another said the book delivered every one it promised. The Lesbian Review files it as hot and spicy and notes adult toys.
The element worth knowing in advance is not in the bedroom: The Lesbian Review’s only warning is mentions of domestic violence, and several readers note the book deals with abuse and violence against women as part of the plot. No reviewer I found flags any kink beyond toys. For this heat level with magic attached, Her Spell That Binds Me and The Girl Who Bit Me sit in the same band.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want explicit heat with a witchy small-town setting, family and sisterhood matter as much to you as the couple, you enjoy a mystery that runs across a series, and you have read or plan to read Windburn.
You may want to skip it if: you need a slow, scene-by-scene emotional build, you want fake dating to drive the plot, unresolved series threads frustrate you, or you want a romance that stands entirely alone.
In short: a warm, hot, family-first series entry whose courtship is the least developed thing in it.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
There is no viral moment and no trade coverage, which is normal for a self-published series. I found no Reddit threads and no measurable BookTok activity. What there is instead is a loyal readership doing exactly what a loyal readership does: McKay’s backlist includes The Headmistress at 4.39 across more than 5,000 Goodreads ratings, and her readers arrived for book two in numbers — roughly 600 Goodreads ratings in five months, 4.7 across more than 530 Amazon ratings, and a number-one spot in the lesbian fiction and lesbian romance charts that McKay celebrated on Facebook. The Lesbian Review’s verdict is warm, calling it hard to put down. The audiobook is coming from Tantor Media on September 29, narrated by Natalie Naudus and running 10 hours 7 minutes; it is available to preorder now.
Prefer audio? Preorder Firewild on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The spice, first — about ten reviewers name it, and several say it is McKay at her hottest. Then the Crowhart family, which nine reviewers praise and which The Lesbian Review calls richly drawn. The Crow’s Caw mystery pulls in seven readers, with comparisons to Lady Whistledown and Gossip Girl. The worldbuilding and prose get five mentions, the humor four, and the mayoral campaign three. A few readers credit the book with taking on domestic violence and book bans without losing its warmth.
What readers argue about and complain about: The romance’s emotional side, above everything. Six reviewers say it leans on physical attraction, with too little time spent together building the relationship, and one says she was less invested than in book one. Second: three readers find the leads addressing each other as “Ms.” cold or confusing. Third: three find the ending rushed, with no epilogue. Beyond that, single readers flag slow pacing, confusing dialogue attribution, messy vision sequences, and fake dating that barely matters to the plot. None of those is a theme on its own, but together they describe a book with more going on than its romance has room for.
The series question everyone should ask first: Deryn and Paloma get their happy ending, and nobody reports a cliffhanger for the couple. But the series mystery stays open by design, and Crow’s Coven is planned as four books, with book three, Wateredge, following another sister. You can read Firewild without Windburn, but readers who did the first book get more out of the returning family. If unresolved threads bother you, know that the answers are two books away.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to read Windburn first?
Not strictly. Deryn and Paloma’s romance is complete, but returning characters from book one and the ongoing series mystery reward readers who start with Windburn.
How spicy is Firewild?
A 5/5. romance.io rates it “explicit and plentiful,” and readers count five or six explicit scenes. The Lesbian Review files it as hot and spicy.
Does Firewild end on a cliffhanger?
Not for the couple, who get a happy ending. The series mystery and the identity of the Crow’s Caw columnist carry into book three.
How big is the age gap?
Readers disagree. One puts the women at 30 and 35, another says ten years, and The Lesbian Review files one lead as over forty. It is one of the smaller gaps in McKay’s work either way.
Is Firewild connected to The Headmistress?
Yes, by setting. Both are set on Dragons Island, and Headmistress Magdalene Nox makes a cameo, but Crow’s Coven is its own series and not a sequel.
If You Loved Firewild, Read These Next
The obvious next step is McKay’s own The Headmistress, set on the same island with a very different, icier heroine. If witches and heat are the draw, Her Spell That Binds Me runs a rivalry through a magical college at the same spice level. And for a gentler small-town witch story, A Witch for Solstice trades the campaign for a holiday.
For more in this register, browse our paranormal and fantasy lesbian romance reviews or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Firewild is a bigger, warmer, better-rated book than the one that started its series. The Crowhart family is a genuine pleasure, the heat is exactly as advertised, and the island mystery gives readers a reason to keep going. It also shortchanges the emotional build of its own romance, uses its fake-dating hook more lightly than the blurb suggests, and ends before anyone has time to breathe. Whether that trade works depends on whether you read romance for the couple or for the world around them — but if witches, sisters and spice are your thing, it is an easy yes. Check Firewild on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Firewild ranks as a strong indie paranormal series romance — hot, funny and family-rich, held back by a courtship that runs on sparks, and best approached for the Crowhart women and the island mystery rather than as a standalone fake-dating story.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 4.2/5
- ✓ 4.44 average across 604 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ Up from Windburn’s 4.02
- ✓ 1% did-not-finish on StoryGraph
- ✓ Romance runs on attraction, per six readers
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Chemistry immediate and charged
- ✓ Candidate and celebrity add public stakes
- ✓ Fated-mate visions add pull
- ✓ Too little time together for many
Characters ★★★★☆ 4.3/5
- ✓ Crowhart sisters praised by nine readers
- ✓ Aunt and family steal scenes
- ✓ Paloma a sympathetic outsider
- ✓ “Ms.” formality feels cold to three
Writing ★★★★☆ 4.1/5
- ✓ Worldbuilding and prose praised
- ✓ Humor lands in family scenes
- ✓ Mystery threaded cleanly
- ✓ Dialogue attribution confuses one reader
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Sisterhood gives it heart
- ✓ Domestic violence handled with care
- ✓ Salem history adds weight
- ✓ Courtship lacks slow emotional build
Heat Level ★★★★★ 5/5
- ✓ Explicit and plentiful per romance.io
- ✓ Five to six scenes on the page
- ✓ Readers call it McKay’s hottest
- ✓ Toys, no other kink flagged
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ HEA for Deryn and Paloma
- ✓ No cliffhanger for the couple
- ✓ Series thread deliberately open
- ✓ Rushed, with no epilogue
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 4.2/5
- ✓ Natalie Naudus audio arriving September 29
- ✓ Family scenes reward a return
- ✓ Book three sends readers back
- ✓ Mystery loses pull once solved
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