Series: Spark House, #2
Traits & Tropes: wealthy hero; it's just business, we can't date
Publication Date: 05.10.22
Genre/Setting: Contemporary; Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Heat Level: 2
Rating: 4/5
London Spark has just broken up with her boyfriend when a handsome man hits on her while she’s at a bar with her sisters. Uninterested in a rebound and not ready for anything more, she turns him down and turns her focus to her family’s event hotel and her role as business administrator.
A few months later, a major company calls and asks to meet with London to discuss a partnership. Out of her comfort zone, London works to prove to herself that she can do this, and her meeting is going well, up until the company’s CEO crashes it and turns out to be none other than the guy she turned down at the bar.
Jackson Holt is known for keeping his relationships private but he’s struggling to keep things professional with London when his feelings are anything but. When their professional business is finally over, they take their relationship to official status, but with issues cropping up from Jackson’s past and from London’s job and her sisters, neither knows where they stand.
This story got off to a pretty slow start and it took me a while to get into it. We meet the hero in the first chapter, but then he and the heroine don’t meet again for several months and even then, the heroine narrates the majority of the chapters. We hardly get any of Jackson’s point of view and I found it a little odd that it took so long for him to even really appear on the page and then he only narrated one chapter out of the first ten. That may have been for the best, however, just because the male narrator didn’t differentiate much between dialogues and inner monologues so sometimes it was hard to tell what was something Jackson was saying to London and what was just his thoughts. Other than that, I loved the male narrator’s voice, the female narrator did great voices, especially helpful for telling the three sisters apart, and helped me stay invested in the story once it did grab me.
I have to say, the hot and cold dynamic between Jackson and London wasn’t the most romantic thing I’ve ever read, but it did make sense given the fear of attachment they both had. I also was not crazy about the unexpected other woman drama that cropped up (nothing Jackson did/no cheating), but it did highlight how clueless Jackson was. I think they both assumed a lot about what the other was thinking and were in desperate need of some communication, but this finally did come through in the end in a satisfying way and I loved the epilogue. I’m also really glad I read Avery’s book first because she was such a pill in this one that I’m not sure I’d want to go back and read her story if I hadn’t already. Overall, this story was definitely worth the read and I liked London and Jackson as a couple, but I would recommend reading the series in order.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book and its audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3418962741
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4488525919
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