7,925 Words

Valentina Salvatore learned early that survival meant staying quiet, watching everything, and never letting anyone see where she hurt. Growing up in Toronto, control became the one thing she could hold onto. Her home was not safe, her father’s shadow reached into every room, and the girl she used to be had to learn how to disappear piece by piece. Thirteen years later, she is Valentina DeLuca. In London, she has built a new life, a new name, and a career as a crisis fixer trusted to stay calm when everyone else falls apart. She knows how to manage damage. She knows how to bury panic under sharp suits, clean exits, and a voice that never gives too much away. Then a film-set crisis pulls her into Dante Vance’s orbit. Dante is charming, observant, and far too good at noticing what Valentina works hard to hide. She does not have time for the way he looks at her, or the way he makes her feel less alone in rooms she has spent years preparing to survive. But the past she escaped is not finished with her. As old wounds push into her carefully built present, Valentina is forced to face what happened, what she carried, and what it may cost to stop running. Controlled Burn is a dark, sharp, slow-burn romance about survival, secrets, trauma, trust, and the power of reclaiming your own name.