Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Up in Flames

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Up in Flames by Eden Finley, Saxon James

38 reviews

apolen's review against another edition

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dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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a_manning11's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

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ashmc29's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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galleytrot's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

READ: Dec 2023

FORMAT: Audio

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3.75 / 5⭐

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.75 / 5⭐
FINAL – OVERALL: 3.75 / 5 ⭐

After being left at the altar, Remy can see no reason why he shouldn’t go along with Sanden’s suggestion of turning the wedding reception into a “petty party” on Eman’s dime, then going on the honeymoon anyway – with Sanden at his side instead of Eman. It’s not all sunshine and roses once they return home and to their respective lives, though, because Eman has left a much larger stain on Remy’s life than he was willing to notice, and Sanden is haunted by his own traumas that keep him stuck in an unhealthy loop of duty and guilt. The pair must figure out their own problems before they become dangerously co-dependent and bring each other down.

This book held a more serious tone and more sensitive subject matter than I’m used to seeing from either James or Finley, but it still managed to maintain a note of good humor and never felt angsty or cruel. My biggest gripe about it was the way hockey was shoehorned into it at just about any opportunity, as if this book exists as an advertisement for the author-duo’s Puckboy series. Yes, this book’s main characters were all introduced in Aleks and Gabe’s book, so it’s reasonable they show up in Sandon and Remy’s, but the focus could have leaned more strongly on relationship support over the game itself. I found it very out-of-place.

The narrators did a good enough job on this one, but I honestly had a hard time distinguishing between the two of them, on top of neither picking particularly distinct voices – this was occasionally a problem in that I wasn’t always clear who was speaking. As a side-note, I think I’ve heard Gabe through a total of six different narrators by now over two different series plus this standalone, so my brain has no clear voice for him at all.

This book has representation for gays. A single character’s name implies they aren’t white, but they are used as the villain of this book. There is otherwise little else in the way of diversity.

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.

This book contains:

alcohol use; implications and accusations of infidelity; emergency response situations resulting in deaths and injuries ranging from mild to severe, including vehicular pileup and fire; injury descriptions including mention of shock, impalement, lacerations, head injuries, etc.; discussions of handling death and grief as first responders; past death of a young family member (house fire); grief, survivor’s guilt; gaslighting, toxic relationship and friendship, emotionally manipulative and abusive relationship; domestic incident, threat of violence, intimidation; and, off-page death of parent (for a minor character).

Content Warnings