Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Up in Flames

Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Up in Flames by Eden Finley, Saxon James

10 reviews

niamhstorme's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

4.0

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laura_katie_j's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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hexagonal_flowers's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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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).

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kj468's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

3.0

When I was working on my book journal, I was trying to figure out why this book wasn't as big of a hit as past SJ/EF books for me, and I think what it boils down to is simply: it's more serious than I prefer my KU romances to be. It's not inherently a fault of the book, and the authors made it clear that this book is different from their others. It just isn't the kind of romance book I want to escape into. So that being said, let's get into what I did and didn't love.

LIKES:

It's a good representation of a (past) toxic relationship and friendship. I like that we get to see how both Remy and Sanden were affected by their closeness with Eman (the toxic ex bf/bff respectively). There's some on-page continued (attempted) manipulation and threats of physical abuse, so watch out for that if it's triggering for you, but it's well done and I appreciated seeing how both characters grew in how they reacted to it.
I really like that both MCs go to therapy and work on themselves instead of falling into a codependent relationship with each other that's doomed to crash and burn.

DISLIKES:

CW: There's a graphic car accident (pile-up on the highway) that the characters respond to as firefighters. The CW at the front of the book doesn't really warn for this clearly, and it doesn't spoil anything plot-wise to know it's coming. From the front of the book, it says "Content warnings include emotional manipulation, domestic abuse recovery, death of a child (referenced off page), and any situation the fire department might respond to (car crashes, fires, dead bodies etc)" -- so "car accident" is really thrown in there as a parenthetical possibility, rather than communicating that it's a pretty graphic, deadly scene (no character injury, though).
It's a little odd to me how quickly Remy and Sanden jumped to awesome friends after Eman leaves Remy at the altar, especially since Sanden has kept Remy at arm's length for so many years (and I get why, I get he was pining). It just felt like a sudden and slightly unnatural jump from "at-arm's-length" to "I'm going to be the person supporting you through being left at the altar by the ex-toxic person from both our lives".
The amount of sex clashes with the "take it slow and healthy" thing that's attempted here. Especially since it felt like every time the characters needed/were going to have a serious conversation, they fell into bed instead. I'm all here for smut (hence why I've read all of the SJ/EF books...), and even here for smut in the context of more serious topics, but it felt like the smut was at the expense of the serious themes, ya know?

Ratings: Plot: 3 // Characters: 4 // Spice: 4 // Humor: 3.5 // Representation: 5 // Romance: 2
Pov: Dual 1st person
Tags: left at the altar; ex BFF's ex/ex's BFF; past toxic relationship/friendship; firefighters; pining; MLM; gay MCs

Content Warnings

zabeishumanish's review against another edition

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dark emotional

2.5

***Trigger Warnings*** God this book has so many, and god damn do you need to take them seriously. Everyone of the trigger warnings listed for this book has graphic effects on the mental health of our two main characters. In fact, the trigger warnings and mental health of the love interests is the only major plot of the book, so the focus on these issues is intense.

This is a fine book, but not what I was expecting. Based on books Saxon and Eden have written both together and separately, I never would have excepted a book this emotionally brutal. I’ve read both authors back catalogues and I’m not wrong to have anticipated some romcom elements in this book. There isn’t so much as a hint of comedy in the book. Nothing but emotional brutality.

This book isn’t what I was expecting. And it isn’t what I wanted. Had I been expecting the intensity I might have read it on a different day and enjoyed the story. But as is I did not have a good time. This was so emotionally brutal, I couldn’t even enjoy the sex.

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fuzzywilson's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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jennp28's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

This is a sweet and spicy romance wrapped in a lot of trauma. Tread lightly if abusive relationships or grief are triggers for you.

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so_many_books's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

Saxon James and Eden Finley is an author duo we romance readers know well already. However, with Up in Flames, they stepped out of their usual lighthearted and rom-com storytelling.

Up in Flames is a book that deals with very much more difficult and painful topics than what we are used to from this iconic duo. In this book, there is a big focus on dealing with and healing from past trauma. Do I think it was done perfectly? No. But it did deal with the topics with the required care and honesty.

TW: past death of a sister (child), domestic and emotional abuse, car accidents, house fire

Remy and Sanden are not new characters if you've read Gabe and Aleks's story in Foolish Puckboy.

Remy is Eman's finance in that book, and Sanden watches from afar with concern in his eyes as his best friend, Eman, treats Remy poorly. This conflict is explained and depicted in this book.
Remy is left at the altar, and Sanden is the one who has to break the news. They throw a petty party and try to forget about Eman and what a not nice person he is. They even go to the honeymoon together. Of course, platonically at first. But then things change.

Let's first talk about Sanden. His long-time crush on Remy did a number on him when he needed to watch him cosy up with his friend. He sees the hurt in Remy, so he does not want to take advantage of the situation. However, they soon fall into lust and become each other's escape from problems. Which is not healthy. Sanden's own problems with his mental state chase him into Remy's arms for comfort.

And Remy is a victim of emotional abuse. Even if he needs a long time to realise the manipulation he was subjected to, he is too fast to fall into a relationship again.

While their care is genuine for each other, their early days seemed very unhealthy, and I was glad this was addressed in the book. Mental health is a very important topic, and I am always happy to see it explained in a book, especially in a romance book. I think we often overlook toxic behaviour when it comes to romance, and it was a very good point in my book that here it was addressed and dealt with.
A very important message of the story was that you can not care for someone and love them if you haven't cared for your own problems first.

While I think the book was a way more serious one than what I'm used to, the usual humour and spiciness was still present in the book. The characters were loveable as always, and I hope to see more of them and some of the side characters as well.
I think the spice was way too much for a story of this caliber, but that's probably just my taste. I can't imagine falling into bed as a coping mechanism, but here it was pretty much that. It kinda rubbed me the wrong way that the most important link between the MCs was this chemistry and little else.

Overall, it was a good thing to see this duo venture out into more serious waters with their storytelling, and I hope to see them develop as authors in this department!

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