When Sparks Fly

In When Sparks Fly, we meet Avery and Declan, friends since college, and housemates now. When tragedy strikes, they will find a new balance in their lives and their relationship.
Overall rating: 3.5

If you enjoy friends-to-lovers, forced proximity and caretaker tropes, strong female MCs, and you don't mind flawed love interests, then this is the book for you.

I love Helena Hunting's books. Meet Cute, and Kiss My Cupcake were two of my favorite romances of last year. But sadly this one didn't meet the same mark for me.

First of all, it's not easy for me to buy into a friends-to-lovers. Either, the attraction has to be there from the get go with a solid reason why they stayed friends instead, or we need to see the relationship grow on the page as they realize they could be more. I don't think When Sparks Fly delivered on either. We can see that they're mildly attracted to each other and are in denial about it. But when they take that step into a sexual relationship, it still came out of nowhere for me.

The main issue for me was that when the big conflict hit Declan was so out of order and I was so offended on Avery's behalf that I just wanted her to move on. To make matters worse, the author clearly didn't feel the same because Avery actually finds a lot of fault in herself instead of calling out Declan's bs for what it is. Which offended me even further. The resolution to the conflict felt awkward to me as well. How they tackled their reconciliation while cute, just did not make sense to me, it felt forced.

Putting those two issues aside, there was also a lot that I enjoyed. I really liked Avery as a character. She was smart, strong-willed, knew what she wanted and was a badass at her job. Such a great MC.

Also, while one of the sisters really grated me, I loved the relationship Avery and her two sisters had and how supportive they were of each other. This is the kind of sisters I always wanna see in books (and in real life).

Most of Declan and Avery's scenes were quite cute, I loved their tradition of doing crosswords together. Also, Declan is just AMAZING at taking care of Avery. He might not be a good significant other, but he's an incredibly loyal and giving friend. If you like the caretaker trope, you're in for a massive treat! I can easily say that despite the fact that I thought their relationship didn't have a good evolution, they gave me smiles all the way. Until the main conflict this book was 4 stars or more for me.