Release Reviews: When Sparks Fly: Helena Hunting
When Sparks Fly
Helena Hunting
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Release Date September 21, 2021
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
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Avery and Declan have been friends since college and roommates and soccer teammates as well. They have always just been in the friend zone.
Avery loves running Spark House event hotel with her sisters. She is sassy, outgoing, and a bit of a tomboy. Declan is a responsible businessman and a good friend to her. He does not do relationships and is a sex-only kind of guy. He has always been there for her, but when he lets her down one time, something terrible happens. He feels so much guilt and remorse that he is determined to do whatever he has to in order to help her recover.
Now they are in close quarters, completing activities that are more up close and personal, and for some reason, there are little sparks that have not been noticed before. Now they find themselves in unfamiliar territory that has the potential to derail their friendship and home life.
When things heat up even further there is danger of feelings getting in the way. But Deck is afraid of relationships and neither wants to ruin their friendship.
This is a slow burn, gradual building of friends-to-lovers-to-more romance with humor and heart. Some of the events at the hotel made me giggle. I liked both Avery and Deck and they had a great bond and relationship before things started to change. But there are some errors in judgment, as well as underlying issues, history, and triggers lurking under the surface. Even when I totally wanted to shake sense into one of them, I was still rooting for them to make it work.
Now they are in close quarters, completing activities that are more up close and personal, and for some reason, there are little sparks that have not been noticed before. Now they find themselves in unfamiliar territory that has the potential to derail their friendship and home life.
When things heat up even further there is danger of feelings getting in the way. But Deck is afraid of relationships and neither wants to ruin their friendship.
This is a slow burn, gradual building of friends-to-lovers-to-more romance with humor and heart. Some of the events at the hotel made me giggle. I liked both Avery and Deck and they had a great bond and relationship before things started to change. But there are some errors in judgment, as well as underlying issues, history, and triggers lurking under the surface. Even when I totally wanted to shake sense into one of them, I was still rooting for them to make it work.
They have a fun shared friend group with Jerome, Mark, and her sisters Harley and London. I liked how they looked out for each other. I would be interested in more of their stories.
Declan and Avery are roommates and best friends who have known each other since college. Avery dated Declan’s friend and when it came out that the friend was cheating, Declan sided with Avery. He is commitment-averse, sticking to strings of one night stands. She is focused on the hotel and event center she runs with her sisters with big goals to expand their services.
When a misjudgement on Declan’s part leads to Avery being alone and involved in a car accident, Dec dives in headfirst to take care of Avery while she is healing, trying to prove his loyalty and dependability. During the course of her recovery, they decide to test the chemistry between them.
The chemistry between them is high. Though they had each ignored the spark of attraction before, for a variety of reasons, their friends had noticed and were surprised things hadn’t crossed lines before they did. Even before there was a physical aspect to their relationship, it was clear that they both truly cared for the other.
There was a lot to like with this friends to lovers, but I also felt like there was something that kept me from loving the characters fully. I think for as long as they had known each other, I wanted their communication when they started to blur lines to be more open, or at least for there to be some kind of gradually change to the level of intimacy between them. I did love how they worked to fix things when things started imploding between them, and the lengths each character went to in order to fix what was broken. I loved the end, but at times it felt like it took too long to make it to that point.
I really enjoyed the group of characters around the MCs - their mutual guy friends and her sisters and wouldn’t mind more stories from this group.
When it comes to her sisters and their family’s event hotel, London Spark is willing to sacrifice almost everything, including her love for all things creative in exchange for the role of business administrator at the Spark House. So when a multi-million-dollar company asks for a meeting to discuss a potential partnership, London is determined to prove to herself and her sisters that she can win them over. She thinks she has the partnership in the bag until the company’s arrogant CEO hijacks her presentation.
Jackson Holt has lived his adult life avoiding relationships and focusing instead on his company and charity work. But when he met London months ago, he decided to take a chance, only for the timing to be wrong. So imagine his surprise when he walks past a conference room to see London again. Determined not to waste a second chance to get to know her, he inadvertently inserts himself into planning an event at the Spark House. While he may get to spend time with London, he realizes he needs to keep it within professional boundaries. But as soon as their event is over, all bets are off.
After spending months dating, but not really dating, and with their work entanglements over, London and Jackson are finally ready to take the next step in their relationship. But between Jackson’s secretive past and London’s struggle with her sisters, London must question where she really stands—not just with Jackson, but with the Spark House, too.
Helena Hunting
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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of PUCKED, Helena Hunting lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her incredibly tolerant family and two moderately intolerant cats. She writes contemporary romance ranging from new adult angst to romantic sports comedy.
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