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Blog Tour and Giveaway: Up in Flames: Abbi Glines

by - Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Up in Flames (Rosemary Beach #13)
Abbi Glines
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Expected June 28,2016


#1 New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines returns to Rosemary Beach one last time in this highly-anticipated finale and much beloved series.

Spoiled. Selfish. Rich girl. Villan. Slut.

As the Prada-clad bad girl of Rosemary Beach, Nan Dillon has been called every vile name under the hot summer sun. Some of her reputation is deserved—she’s never had to worry about anything but maintaining her perfect figure and splitting Daddy’s private jet with her brother, Rush.  

But Nan is far from happy. Rush has another kid on the way and doesn’t have time to catch up with his sister. Grant, the last guy she truly cared about, chose to be with her half-sister, Harlow, instead of her. And Harlow, who has never gotten over the way Nan treated her when she first moved to town, remains distant.

So when Major asks her out, she jumps at the chance to date the gorgeous charmer. Though she doesn’t know much about the sweet-talking Texan, and though it’s clear he doesn’t want to be exclusive, dating him beats hanging out with vapid socialites or watching Netflix alone at home.

For a while, Nan deals with Major’s playboy ways, but after he burns her one too many times, she takes off for an impromptu wild weekend in Vegas. There, she meets Gannon, a darkly seductive and oh-so-dangerous businessman who knows exactly how to handle her. 

With Major asking for a second chance and Gannon haunting her dreams, Nan has to decide who to give her heart to. But what she doesn’t realize is that these players are involved in a much bigger game—and they’re already two moves ahead of her. 


Nan Dillon...we have loved to hate her. She has driven us nuts and pissed us off. She has terrorized our beloved Rosemary Beach characters. Now we get into her head. And under all that mean, selfish, spoiled exterior there is some vulnerability and some acknowledgment of her faults. She is the epitome of the poor, spoiled, rich girl who just needs to be loved, accepted, and perhaps handled.

She is now unknowingly in the middle of a mess. She apparently spent some time with a man who may or may not have shared some information with her. And that is giving her attention she is not even aware of and certainly has not asked for.

Major Colt has a job to do. But this assignment is getting a bit out of hand. He has only done a partial job of reeling her in and making her happy. He may be a charmer, but is not as talented at hiding his indiscretions and giving Nan the attention she seeks. He's never been one for attachments and usually plays the field. But he feels just enough for Nan to feel guilty and fearful of his own involvement. 

Nan takes off running to Vegas and meets Gannon. He's a sexy, mysterious man who seems to give her that attention, so  it is a powerful lure. He awakens parts of her she never knew existed and breaks her down like no other has.

But there is a larger situation going on that she is totally unaware of. There is danger, hidden agendas, and someone is going to get hurt. And in the history of Nan's life, she is usually the one that suffers the consequences.

These characters are definitely flawed. They have made mistakes. They make questionable choices. They are self absorbed and need attention. They have secrets and darker sides. But there is also some good in them, and a deep buried need to be accepted, understood, and loved flaws and all.

Can broken people really come together and make something whole or will they just shatter each other more?

I have to say, Nan did not really bother me in this one. Crazy! I could understand her issues and motivations. It was more obvious that some of her behavior had come from a place of hurt or fear. She was a girl who never really had anyone to love her but her brother, Rush. And if she did try to get close to people, it never ended well for her. But now she has two men interested in her. It took me a while to even begin to warm up to either guy and even longer to determine a favorite. Nan needs someone that can really see her, understand her, and most importantly deal with her. And it needs to be someone intense and interesting enough to keep her attention as well.

It is told in multiple points of view. Some of the pertinent Rosemary Beach characters are back. It is not the typical sweet, heartfelt Rosemary Beach love story though. There are twists and surprises. It is a bit dramatic and over-the-top in places. I did have some eye-rolling episodes. Some of it is not real in depth and it is not quite what I expected. But I did not hate Nan's story and I ended up no longer hating Nan. So I guess Abbi Glines managed to pull that off.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Nan is the character readers have loved to hate in Rosemary Beach. She is selfish, spoiled, and inconsiderate. But she has also started making small changes as she has watched the people in her life fall in love and start families. As Rush’s sister, Nan was jealous of Blaire when she thought Blaire had stolen her father. As Grant’s lover, she wasn’t pleased at all when he fell in love with her half-sister. Her actions were those of a villain and villains never get their own happily ever afters. Or do they? As Nan moved in the background of later Rosemary Beach books, it because clear that maybe she was having a change of heart. Maybe her actions stemmed from jealousy and loneliness rather than true mean heartedness.

I loved watching Nan come into her own and really go after what she wanted. She may not have done that in a traditional sense, but for not having a model for what a healthy relationship looked like until her siblings started falling in love, she did what she could with what she had. There were times this Nan felt like a different character than I had come to expect from previous books, but I also think had that super-selfish character that was established in the beginning continued to narrate this whole book I would have been unable to read the entirety. No, Nan has mellowed. She has done some growing up as she has watched her brother and her one-time-lover both fall in love with women who were sweet, caring, and gave them something she finally decided she wanted for herself.

There was a definite angle to this story that I hadn’t anticipated loving, but as those final chapters passed, I couldn’t help but love the way it was set up. That being said, some of the sex scenes made me majorly uncomfortable. The wording and things that were said, the situations, the edge that some of the scenes took on had me feeling like things weren’t on the up and up at all and I had a hard time rooting for the couple at times.

But I loved the end. Those last several chapters where the secrets come out and the deeper feelings really have a chance to develop were fantastic. I love where both the main characters end up and what it means for their futures. (And yes, I realize this was a fairly cryptic version of my feelings, as that aspect I wasn’t expecting almost has to remain a secret for the effect to be the same.) This was not the story I was expecting for Nan, but based on where all the unattached characters have been moving in the last several books, it is exactly the story she needed to have. 

While part of me is sad to see this series come to a close, I can’t imagine a better ending to such a long standing series. The heroes all have their happily ever afters, and the villains have found their hearts changed as well. 
I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Abbi Glines

Abbi Glines is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Field Party, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, and Existence series. A devoted book lover, Abbi lives with her family in Alabama.
She maintains a Twitter addiction at @AbbiGlines and can also be found at Facebook.com/AbbiGlinesAuthor and AbbiGlines.com.




 enter to win one of 3 signed copies of UP IN FLAMES + Abbi’s favorite Twizzlers.

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