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When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Title: When Sparks Fly
Author: Helena Hunting
Series: n/a
Pages: 320
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Date: September 21, 2021

Summary:

Running the Spark House, a hotel/event space that has been in her family for years, has been Avery Spark’s lifelong dream. After years of working hard and making personal sacrifices, Avery and her two younger sisters have turned the Spark House into the premier destination in Colorado Springs. Avery is living her best life—she works with her sisters and loves every minute of it, she has a great group of friends, and she lives in a fantastic condo with her best friend Declan. She might not have any love in her life, but she’s happy.

But everything comes to a screeching halt when Avery is in a car accident, leaving her immobile for weeks. After nearly losing Avery, Declan insists that he will be the one to take care of her while she recovers. However, as Declan becomes Avery’s caretaker, lines begin to blur.

Avery and Declan have been best friends since college and always had an attraction to one another, but when she ended up dating his best friend, Sam, they successfully stamped down any feelings they may have ever had for one another. Now, as Declan and Avery spend more time together, they each begin to wonder what would’ve happened if she’d dated him instead of Sam. What starts as a friend helping out another friend turns into foreplay and, before they realize it, they recognize how deeply they care for one another. But when things get serious their past threatens to destroy everything they have built.

Review:

I have mixed feelings about this book. I only gave it three stars, but I think it’s because I’m the wrong audience for this book. First of all, though, I want to say what I liked about it.

From the description, it’s obvious it’s a friends to lovers book. I like Avery, Declan – not so much, but I love Avery’s sisters. I’m looking forward to their books even though I was not thrilled with this one. That’s it. That’s what I liked – Avery’s sisters.

The book is written in first person, alternating between Avery and Declan. That way, the reader gets a lot of information that would be hidden if it used a third person narrator. And that brings me to one of the two things I really didn’t like about it. I don’t like first person and I really don’t like alternating viewpoints. As I implied earlier, it’s a personal taste issue.

However, my real issue with the book is Declan is an immature jerk. He’s thirty-years-old, but acts more like he’s still in college. He makes stupid decisions that hurt other people. He regrets them and accepts his responsibility, but still!!!

Finally, in parts of the book, the dialogue is overblown. Declan and Avery talk to each other like they are sitting in a counselor’s office. No one talks like that in real life.

So yes, three stars, but I will read the sequels. As I said, I want the sisters’ stories.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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The Wedding Affair by Leigh Michaels
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Leigh Michaels is a new author to me although she has published over eighty books. I don’t know how I have missed her all this time. After reading The Wedding Affair, I will certainly be looking into her backlist.This book actually focuses on three separate romances. I originally thought they would be treated as separate stories in an anthology. However, there is a single storyline with the three relationships interwoven together.

The first couple introduced, and to me the primary one, are Lady Olivia Reyne and Simon, the Duke of Somervale. Olivia is a widow with a young daughter. Her husband left her pretty much penniless and her landlord is trying to coerce her into becoming his mistress.

The wedding in the title refers to Simon’s younger sister’s marriage. Their mother has invited numerous eligible young ladies in hopes of finding a bride for Simon as well. Simon makes an arrangement with Olivia to act as his potential bride in order to ward off the debutantes. This arrangement also includes acting as his mistress.

Olivia’s friend and houseguest, Kate Blakely, is the daughter of the late village vicar. The duchess asks her to help with chaperoning and entertaining the young ladies at the manor house. To help distract the ladies, Simon has asked a number of his male friends to join the party. One of these friends, Andrew Carlisle, just happens to be the young man who Kate fell in love with at seventeen. Unfortunately, Andrew does not have a family income either and Kate knows she must support herself.

The final couple are Charles and Penelope, the Earl and Countess of Townsend. Although they have been married for three months, the marriage has never been consummated. Penelope’s father is a commoner who owns a series of breweries and ale houses. He is very wealthy and arranged a marriage with the Earl in order to buy a title for his daughter and future grandchildren. The Earl is determined to thwart his plans by never fathering any children.

Within the first chapter, this book had me hooked and I ended up reading it in just one day. The sex scenes are not numerous, but they are very will handled. While explicit, the scenes are very vanilla. Each couple is true to each other and there are no indications of any infidelity.

All in all, this is an excellent book. The author does a wonderful job of weaving the stories together while maintaining the separate romances. I felt like I was reading three books in one. It was an outstanding introduction to a wonderful author.

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