Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - The Culmination of Everything

A great enemies to lovers story! Kyle and Ben really didn’t like each other, but their back and forth was hilarious. Who says you have to like the person you have sex with lol? They both experienced a lot of trauma, but it took them a bit to communicate that to each other. I like that Kyle took time for herself to heal and to try and find herself.

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antonique_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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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readingwithtrey's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I never would have known or heard about this book if it weren’t for booksta. And y’all, I would have been missing out! I didn’t know what to expect going in since there wasn’t much of a description for it. But it was such a heartbreaking and beautiful story. I will say, Ben started out as a real piece of work😅. I can’t wait to check out the next book in this series!

Here are a few things to note:

MCs: Ben & Kyle
Second chance love
Double POVs (my favorite)
Sunny vs Grumpy (VERY heavy on the grumpy)
Enemies to lovers
Small town romance
SPICY spicy
PLEASE check content warnings for this one. There was one thing that I didn’t see coming and wished I had known beforehand to mentally prepare.

{ favorite quotes }

This moment right here, was everything the last several months had been leading up to you. Hurting, but still able to laugh through it. Exhausted, but ready to see what was next. Grieving… But finally able to see the possibility of something else on the horizon.

“It wasn’t stupid. It was… grief. It’s a complex thing.”

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risseandshine's review against another edition

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fast-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? Yes

4.0

CCJ is becoming my go-to author when I have no idea what to read next. And sure enough, this book did not disappoint.

This was an emotional story between two people battling grief thus deciding to put romance on the back burner. They agree to keep it casual only to find that they were actually finding comfort in each other and falling in love in the process.

I don't usually gravitate towards books with the "let's keep it casual/physical" trope but somehow, that worked for this particular story. I think it's because it was palpable that the hero and heroine had a connection that went beyond the physical even before they realized that themselves. I loved reading the banter from the enemies-to-lovers aspect of this book. I also loved that this book showed them having slip ups in the relationship and them learning how to admit their mistake and apologizing.

And of course, the steam. Top tier quality right here. I need not say more.

I'm definitely moving on to the next book in the series and most definitely looking at more of CCJ's backlist!

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