A review by kj468
Up in Flames by Eden Finley, Saxon James

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
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