eARC Review – When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting

Title: When Sparks Fly

Author: Helena Hunting

Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin

Publication date: September 21st, 2021

320 pages

4/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

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

Helena Hunting is one of my sneaky favorite romance authors, I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read of hers so far, but When Sparks Fly may be my favorite now. I’m obsessed with the trope where one has to take care of the other so this was right up my alley. Friends to lovers isn’t normally a trope that speaks to me, but that should tell you how great the book was that I enjoyed it so much.

Told in alternating POV’s, we meet roommates and best friends since college, Avery and Declan. Avery is a guy’s girl – plays sports, dresses in athleisure, doesn’t date, is friends with all men, etc. Declan is a player, always bringing home random women but is a complete commitment phobe and doesn’t believe in relationships after watching his parents mess theirs up for years. But, when Declan inadvertently helps cause a huge car accident that leave Avery with two working limbs, his guilt insists he take care of her and in doing so, become so close to her. But can the commitment phobe make a relationship work?

This book hit all the right spots for me. I will say the end dragged a bit and could have wrapped up sooner, but that’s a small piece of the larger story of seeing your friend in a romantic light and bonds changing. There is a decent level of spice to this book, but I would label it as medium spicy by my definition. I hope we can get companion stories for the other two Spark sisters but we’ll see!

Thank you to St Martin’s Griffin and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Happy reading, folks!