DNF
I went into WHEN SPARKS FLY by Helena Hunting with tempered expectations. I’ve read one of her previous books and didn’t love it. Sadly, this book wasn’t my cup of tea either. I decided not to finish this book around the 50% mark. Overall, the writing was decent, and the secondary characters were great, but I couldn’t get on the hero’s side after he was such a jerk at the beginning of the book. He didn’t cheat on the heroine or anything, but he was a lousy friend, a bad one-night-stand, and it pretty much ruined him in my eyes. I think I am just over the irresponsible playboy heroes. We all mess up, but this was a big mistake that the hero handled poorly.
I was willing to keep going after the hero’s big mistake because there was sufficient groveling, but around the halfway mark, the book was still just okay. I wasn’t feeling the romantic chemistry between the hero and heroine. They have been friends for years? Sure, but he wasn’t a good friend to her on the page when it counted, and the guilt-caretaking wasn’t doing it for me. The trauma, both on the page and off the page, was both weird and heavy, yet not heavy enough? The whole tone of the book felt off. I, personally, was more invested in the heroine’s sisters and the hero’s friends. I hope they get books that have better plots. As a side note, I thought it was weird that two platonic adult friends of the opposite sex would purchase a condo together.
I listened to an audiobook copy of this book. I liked the heroine’s narrator but the hero’s narrator sounded like a television announcer and kept over-enunciating the heroine’s name, “Aye-ver-ree,” and it was pulling me out of the book.
Overall, I would be willing to read the next book in the series, but I am going to consider this book a wash and move on. It’s not a terrible book, but it’s just not for me.
**I received a free copy of this audiobook in order to provide an honest review**
Romance Reader 