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___tamara___'s review against another edition
4.0
I hated Tim in Something Like Summer, but I fell in love with him in Something Like Winter. I disliked Kelly in Something Like Spring, and now I'm a fan of him too. Funny what putting yourself in other people's shoes does to your perception of them, and Jay Bell is oh so good in making us see that and think about a person's circumstances before judging their actions.
I loved this book. I'm gonna go and re-read the whole series now and then continue with Thunder and Nathaniel's story :D
linda_1410's review
3.0
I wanted to like this more and up until the end, it was close to 4 stars.
We met Kelly and William in Something Like Spring, and even Tim and Ben get cameo appearances, and a lot of other familiar faces pop up. It's as well-written as anything else Bell's done, but I was hoping for something completely new. We get a lot of time spent on Kelly's side of his and William's relationship and breakup, which fills in some blanks but isn't really necessary to understand anything we were told in the previous book. Then the second half of Part 2, after the breakup, feels more like a highlights reel as Bell zips past months and years as Kelly moves on and falls in love with Nathaniel. As a result, there wasn't nearly as much time spent on Kelly and Nathaniel's relationship and I couldn't really buy that he was the great love of Kelly's life or vice versa. Then Part 2 ends with the stupidest breakup I've read in a long time. The epilogue is four years later when they see each other again for the first time since breaking up and ends on a "cliffhanger" as we wait for Nathaniel to tell his side of the story, which is what Something Like Thunder will be about. Since I never really warmed up to Nathaniel, I can't really say I care that much to read about it.
We met Kelly and William in Something Like Spring, and even Tim and Ben get cameo appearances, and a lot of other familiar faces pop up. It's as well-written as anything else Bell's done, but I was hoping for something completely new. We get a lot of time spent on Kelly's side of his and William's relationship and breakup, which fills in some blanks but isn't really necessary to understand anything we were told in the previous book. Then the second half of Part 2, after the breakup, feels more like a highlights reel as Bell zips past months and years as Kelly moves on and falls in love with Nathaniel. As a result, there wasn't nearly as much time spent on Kelly and Nathaniel's relationship and I couldn't really buy that he was the great love of Kelly's life or vice versa. Then Part 2 ends with the stupidest breakup I've read in a long time. The epilogue is four years later when they see each other again for the first time since breaking up and ends on a "cliffhanger" as we wait for Nathaniel to tell his side of the story, which is what Something Like Thunder will be about. Since I never really warmed up to Nathaniel, I can't really say I care that much to read about it.
murph_the_serf's review
2.0
Regardless of an author's skill, if you actively dislike the main character it's hard to enjoy a book. It isn't that the protagonist is a villain I just find him annoying and decidedly not fun to read.
tobyryan's review
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
sethmedranolangdon's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
jsncnrd's review against another edition
4.0
Jay Bell, I will never get tired of reading your books.
I put off reading Something Like Lightning for quite some time because I was not excited about it being from Kelly's point of view. He was nothing but unlikeable in Something Like Spring, which I absolutely adored.
I'm glad I gave this a chance, because I had so much compassion and empathy for Kelly when all was said and done. He still had moments that made liking him difficult (***) and by the end, I still had not connected with him as much as I have with characters like Ben or Jace. But, he is a solid character who I truly enjoyed getting to know and understand. Jay Bell's talent lies within his ability to make readers like even the most challenging of characters.
(***) What William did was chaotic and irresponsible, that goes without saying -- but Kelly treated William like dirt, taking every opportunity he could to talk down to William about his dreams. He even talked down to William for being too nice and too virtuous. That made me so mad.
Kelly had a very powerful story, and I loved watching his personal journey. His character trajectory from the accident to the epilogue was beautiful, and watching someone remain so strong in the face of such trauma is the reason I read books.
Spoiler Alert.My only qualm with the book, and its epilogue / ending, was that I wasn't fully sold on Kelly and Nathaniel's relationship. And maybe that will change when I've read Something Like Thunder and we get more perspective from Nathaniel's end. It just felt a bit strange me that months into their relationship, after professing such a meaningful love ... it ended because someone kissed Kelly without his consent. Which in turn made Nathaniel question their entire relationship -- which estranged them for nearly 4 years -- and then still had them together at the end.
Overall, this book was a solid 4 (if not 4.5 stars) to me, and I have no doubt in my mind that I will continue to love anything I pick up by Jay Bell. Thank goodness I still have 7 books left in the Something Like... series!
I put off reading Something Like Lightning for quite some time because I was not excited about it being from Kelly's point of view. He was nothing but unlikeable in Something Like Spring, which I absolutely adored.
I'm glad I gave this a chance, because I had so much compassion and empathy for Kelly when all was said and done. He still had moments that made liking him difficult (***) and by the end, I still had not connected with him as much as I have with characters like Ben or Jace. But, he is a solid character who I truly enjoyed getting to know and understand. Jay Bell's talent lies within his ability to make readers like even the most challenging of characters.
(***) What William did was chaotic and irresponsible, that goes without saying -- but Kelly treated William like dirt, taking every opportunity he could to talk down to William about his dreams. He even talked down to William for being too nice and too virtuous. That made me so mad.
Kelly had a very powerful story, and I loved watching his personal journey. His character trajectory from the accident to the epilogue was beautiful, and watching someone remain so strong in the face of such trauma is the reason I read books.
Spoiler Alert.My only qualm with the book, and its epilogue / ending, was that I wasn't fully sold on Kelly and Nathaniel's relationship. And maybe that will change when I've read Something Like Thunder and we get more perspective from Nathaniel's end. It just felt a bit strange me that months into their relationship, after professing such a meaningful love ... it ended because someone kissed Kelly without his consent. Which in turn made Nathaniel question their entire relationship -- which estranged them for nearly 4 years -- and then still had them together at the end.
Overall, this book was a solid 4 (if not 4.5 stars) to me, and I have no doubt in my mind that I will continue to love anything I pick up by Jay Bell. Thank goodness I still have 7 books left in the Something Like... series!
netslummer's review
4.0
So I hated Kelly in Spring because William is such a nice guy (and yeah, he did a shit thing that lead to Kelly losing his leg, so I get it) and yet he treats him like garbage. Which he does well before the leg incident. So I wasn't nearly as excited to read this as I was with all of the other books in the series so far. After about the 60% point where it diverted from the stuff you already know from Spring the book really ticked up for me.
Kelly meeting Nathaniel and stuff was adorable and watching Kelly turn into less of a shit dick and into more of a snarky jerk (but being able to actually control his lashing out and stuff) was nice to witness.
I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would. Jay Bell is really good at making you somehow care for characters who aren't initially very likeable (Hello! TIM in Summer. I half-heartedly hated him until I read Winter!)
I'm excited to read the next book and get more of the story of Nathaniel.
Kelly meeting Nathaniel and stuff was adorable and watching Kelly turn into less of a shit dick and into more of a snarky jerk (but being able to actually control his lashing out and stuff) was nice to witness.
I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would. Jay Bell is really good at making you somehow care for characters who aren't initially very likeable (Hello! TIM in Summer. I half-heartedly hated him until I read Winter!)
I'm excited to read the next book and get more of the story of Nathaniel.
ryanpfw's review
4.0
This is a first for me. I’ve started doing more and more rereads in the last couple of years, and books that were 5 star reviews for me the first time around have just not held up or aged well. This is the first book I’ve increased the rating on, from 3 to 4 stars. I’m not entirely sure it’s justified based on the book itself. Let’s talk about it.
As I’ve said in the reviews of the prior books, I’m outside of the demographic of Jay Bell, got his first Audible on sale, enjoyed Something Like Summer, hated the character of Tim, and somehow gave Something Like Winter a higher rating. Summer, Autumn and Winter tell effectively the same story from three different source points, Spring advances the story, and starting off the next quartet of books we have Kelly’s story.
I didn’t enjoy Kelly in Spring. Nobody did. He was an aggravating character, a roadblock to happiness. You name it. We get his full story here, more on him in Lightening, and a third crack at it in Rain. The common consensus is his Kelly and William are no Ben and Tim and can’t hold up even longer stories on their own, and I overwhelmingly agree with that.
So why the increased rating?
The first 60% of this book is the Kelly and William story. They’re a bad match, parts are painful, and even difficult. Kelly’s parents’ treatment of William bothered me a lot during my first read. This time around Allison actually redeems them, and I read a deleted scene from Thunder that applies here and forgives a lot of the anger I felt at their plot. Kelly has sincere character growth in this one, Nathaniel’s compatibility with him worked for me more this time, and while I find Nathaniel’s plot line at the end of this book infuriating and frustrating and ridiculous from a plot perspective, I do feel like I enjoyed the book more the second time around.
Perhaps I was expecting it to be god awful and that I just had to solider through, and it was fairly good from that expectation?
Let’s call it 3.5 stars rounded up.
As I’ve said in the reviews of the prior books, I’m outside of the demographic of Jay Bell, got his first Audible on sale, enjoyed Something Like Summer, hated the character of Tim, and somehow gave Something Like Winter a higher rating. Summer, Autumn and Winter tell effectively the same story from three different source points, Spring advances the story, and starting off the next quartet of books we have Kelly’s story.
I didn’t enjoy Kelly in Spring. Nobody did. He was an aggravating character, a roadblock to happiness. You name it. We get his full story here, more on him in Lightening, and a third crack at it in Rain. The common consensus is his Kelly and William are no Ben and Tim and can’t hold up even longer stories on their own, and I overwhelmingly agree with that.
So why the increased rating?
The first 60% of this book is the Kelly and William story. They’re a bad match, parts are painful, and even difficult. Kelly’s parents’ treatment of William bothered me a lot during my first read. This time around Allison actually redeems them, and I read a deleted scene from Thunder that applies here and forgives a lot of the anger I felt at their plot. Kelly has sincere character growth in this one, Nathaniel’s compatibility with him worked for me more this time, and while I find Nathaniel’s plot line at the end of this book infuriating and frustrating and ridiculous from a plot perspective, I do feel like I enjoyed the book more the second time around.
Perhaps I was expecting it to be god awful and that I just had to solider through, and it was fairly good from that expectation?
Let’s call it 3.5 stars rounded up.