When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting Pages: 288
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Also by this author: PUCKED Up, Pucked Over, Forever Pucked, The Good Luck Charm, Handle With Care, A Lie for a Lie, A Favor for a Favor, A Secret for a Secret, A Love Catastrophe
Goodreads
Charming, hilarious, and emotional...When Sparks Fly is Helena Hunting at her very best!
Avery Spark is living her best life. Between her friends, her sisters, and Spark House, the event hotel her family owns, she doesn’t have much time for anything else, especially relationships. She’d rather hang out with her best friend and roommate, Declan McCormick, than deal with the dating scene. But everything changes when she is in a car accident and needs someone to care for her as she heals.
Declan avoids relationships, giving him a playboy reputation that he lives up to when he puts a one-night stand ahead of a promise he made to Avery. While he may not have been the one driving the car, he feels responsible for Avery’s injuries and is determined to make it up to her by stepping into the role of caretaker.
Little did they know that the more time they spend in compromising positions, the attraction they’ve been refusing to acknowledge becomes impossible to ignore. When they finally give in to the spark between them, neither is prepared for the consequences. Their love is fragile and all it will take is a blow from the past to shatter it all.
When Sparks Fly is a friends to lovers story by Helena Hunting. Avery and Declan have been friends for year, but an accident forces a change in their relationship.
I enjoy the friends to lovers trope. I love seeing characters realize what has been in front of them the whole time. You get that in When Sparks Fly for sure! I was loving this part of the story. Avery is healing, Declan is catching feelings, things were building and there was delicious tension.
But, the book sort of fell flat for me after that. Once Avery is mostly recovered and Declan has accepted his feelings, things got boring. The drama felt super forced to create some angst and it made me like the characters less. The story just sort of morphed into something that didn’t work for me at all. There isn’t really any humor to help the story either, which I expect from Hunting based on pervious books.
Looking back on When Sparks Fly, it is almost like reading 2 different books. I loved book 1, and disliked book 2. But, it’s the same book. I’m really torn on this, because I just can’t understand how it was all the same book, you know? Maybe it was just me that got that feeling?
- POV: dual 1st
- Tears: no
- Trope: friends to lovers
- Triggers: none
- Series/Standalone: standalone
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams, You’re the One by Layla Hagen, Call Her Mine by Melissa Foster…then you will probably like When Sparks Fly!
When Sparks Fly
lovely review Samantha. I am sorry to hear that this one didn’t live up to your expectations of this one. Its always the worst when it falls flat for you.
As much as I was frustrated with what happened post recovery, I thought it was necessary for Declan. Sorry it didn’t work out for you
This one kind of caught my eye when I first heard about it but I’ve been seeing several mixed reviews like yours. I’ll probably give this one a pass. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Samantha!
I’m hunting out reviews for this as I saw someone else read and review it and it sounded good but I do find friends to lovers to be a really hit or miss trope for me. Now I’m beginning to think I won’t love it as it sounds like a book of two halves and I almost always got lost in the second half when that happens. It’s always good to see different thoughts to help me make up my mind about a book.