Fireworks: A second chance romance in the True North series

"He has his own gravitational pull." There is no such thing as "hit or miss" with Sarina Bowen, you will always have a good time when you have one of her books in your hands! Benito is so dreamy! I can't with him! First of all, he is a cop, and that means he is HOT. He is cocky, funny, sweet and alpha. You need to see him around babies... Hot damn! Skye is a broken heroine that needed Ben when she was a teenager. She is an adult now and wants to fight her own battles. I love that she has the opportunity to grow and face her fears and that Benito is so protective of her. This is a story of love at first sight that gets a second chance. Like all the other True North Series books, Fireworks have the absolute best characters, all of them are amazing! You will see snippets of your favorites and meet new people.

Three and a half stars. Not my favourite Sarina Bowen novel. Skye Copeland is a TV weather presenter until an honest mistake puts her on forced holiday for two weeks. When her scatty step-sister claims she has a scoop and asks her to drive a rental car from New York to Vermont she reluctantly agrees to visit the small town she left 12 years ago. But when she arrives her step-sister gives her the slip and steals the rental car, saying she is mixed up with some dangerous men and Skye should talk to Benito Rossi. Benito is the man she left town to forget and now she's forced into close proximity. Then Benito lets slip that her sister might be involved in a group smuggling drugs that he is investigating and he seems to want to start up again exactly where they left off as if nothing has happened. Stepping back and looking at the reasons why I didn't enjoy this book as much as Sarina's other books, I have to say that I found Benito's attitude a bit odd. He hasn't seen or heard from Skye for 12 years and yet he is calling her "honey" right from the start. Also, we see more of Skye's POV so we feel as though Benito has behaved badly(view spoiler). It is only at the end that Benito turned it around for me. My favourite refrain, I liked it but I didn't love it.

4 stars — I enjoyed this one, as I enjoy all of Ms. Bowen’s works…but for some reason that I cannot define, I procrastinated a lot while reading this book. So I’m not sure if it was my mood, or if I just wasn’t as captured by Benito and Skylar’s story, you know? It’s so hard to tell. I think it’s a bit of both in the end. Characters are my bread and butter, and in the case of Skylar and Benito, I just didn’t fall in love with either of them. I fell in STRONG like, for sure, but not in love. All the elements were there for me to love both of them, but it just didn’t happen. Skylar was hella damaged from her past/childhood, and I felt for what she went through. The abuse from Gage was really insidious in all the little ways it dug in and stayed in her psyche. I thought that was explored really well, and I loved Benito’s description of the little sexual room in each person…what a great way to visualize it. Skylar was sweet, and a mix of sassy and meek that was intriguing. And can I just say that I LOVED that she was a tall girl? Represent! I also loved the way the story with her job/career worked out, even as at the beginning I wasn’t sure I would. But for some reason I had less patience with her romantic growth. I felt like while I got her trust issues, I was also mad at the two of them for not airing things out. I’m not a fan of miscommunication tropes, and this one spanned the entire book (though it remained in the background for most of it). I thought I would absolutely LOVE Benito from reading previous books in the series. And he was most certainly his own mix of intriguing characteristics — unbelievably sweet and considerate mixed with dirty talking. But I just…I liked him, but he didn’t make my book boyfriend list. And I honestly don’t know why. I think he just didn’t stand out for me. There were moments when I totally thought he was going to, because honestly some of the ways he treated Skylar were just STELLAR. He was perfect at watching her moods and not pressing her. He was a truly great guy in general (with the occasional misstep here and there). But again, the miscommunication happened on both sides. As for their romance, it was another area where I definitely enjoyed it, but just wasn’t blown away. I think I enjoyed the sweetness more than the steaminess with these two, which is not to say the steaminess wasn’t…well, steamy. 😛 I’m just so articulate today. I thought the sprinkles of the past were really well done, and it was an interesting decision to write from an almost omniscient 3rd person? I’m not good at figuring out all those different POVs. Anyways, it worked for me, it just took me a minute to adjust to it. While there were many heartbreaking moments, I think I loved these glimpses into the past, because it made me fall in love with Skylar and Benito together. Their present selves just needed a kick in the pants. I enjoyed the little bit of action/suspense side plot we got with Benito’s case, and how that tied in with Rayanne. Though I will admit that I almost wished there was more closure with Rayanne’s bit…maybe it’s been left open ended for a reason?? Things that make you go hmmmm…. So yeah. Ms. Bowen really can’t go wrong for me in this series…even presenting a miscommunication trope, which is low on my list, I still really enjoyed myself. And as always it was awesome to get glimpses of other True North characters, and even get some closure on a few little storylines (Zara). I have no idea if there’s going to be more, but I sincerely hope so.