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A review by jess_78
Hope Flames by Jaci Burton
3.0
Review posted: Happily Ever After - Reads
Blog rating: C
Emma has moved back home to Hope and has taken over the local animal clinic after the town’s long time vet retired. She’s put everything she has into her new business and is ready to get her life back on track. She’s been rebuilding since leaving an abusive relationship and she’s finally happy and content.
Luke is a cop who works with his dog Boomer and is known for his love em and leave em attitude when it comes to women. He’s a one night stand kind of guy and doesn’t want to think about having a relationship. He went down that road with his now ex-wife and doesn’t want a repeat performance. But when Boomer is injured and he takes him to see Emma for treatment, he can’t stop thinking about the pretty vet days later.
Luke and Emma start out just being friends since neither one wants a relationship, but they’re both single and in Emma’s case maybe a bit lonely and gun-shy. They have quite a bit in common from their love of dogs (who are really sweet throughout the story) and the outdoors, so a few “friendly” dates end up leading to much more and before they know it, they’re in that relationship that neither one wanted.
I have no complaints about these characters, both Emma and Luke are so darn likable there’s really nothing to frown at. If I had any issue with them it was their need to make their relationship harder than it was. They’re good people, they complement each other and I loved how they included their dogs as part of the family. But that said, their romance felt a bit bland. Don’t get me wrong, Jaci Burton writes some sexy love scenes and Emma and Luke certainly benefit from that, but there really wasn’t anything that made their romance stand out.
The small town setting of Hope is charming and we meet a few supporting characters who I’m interested to see lead their own books soon, including Luke’s older brother Logan, Emma’s wandering sister Molly and Luke’s close friend Carter.
In addition to the romance between Luke and Emma which is the main focus of the book, there are a couple smaller suspense storylines, one related to a case Luke’s working on and the other related to Emma’s ex. Not much time is given to the ex storyline and it almost felt tossed in at the end with how it all played out, but it served more of a purpose with regards to Emma and Luke’s relationship and giving us a little bit of angst for Emma to deal with.
I will always go along for the ride with a Burton romance, especially one set in a small town setting. I like the set up for this new series and I am interested to see who’s up next but for Luke and Emma, I felt a bit underwhelmed with their romance. They are the perfect couple, but there wasn’t anything about them that made me stand up and say wow. A good read, but I was left wanting something more.
Blog rating: C
Emma has moved back home to Hope and has taken over the local animal clinic after the town’s long time vet retired. She’s put everything she has into her new business and is ready to get her life back on track. She’s been rebuilding since leaving an abusive relationship and she’s finally happy and content.
Luke is a cop who works with his dog Boomer and is known for his love em and leave em attitude when it comes to women. He’s a one night stand kind of guy and doesn’t want to think about having a relationship. He went down that road with his now ex-wife and doesn’t want a repeat performance. But when Boomer is injured and he takes him to see Emma for treatment, he can’t stop thinking about the pretty vet days later.
Luke and Emma start out just being friends since neither one wants a relationship, but they’re both single and in Emma’s case maybe a bit lonely and gun-shy. They have quite a bit in common from their love of dogs (who are really sweet throughout the story) and the outdoors, so a few “friendly” dates end up leading to much more and before they know it, they’re in that relationship that neither one wanted.
I have no complaints about these characters, both Emma and Luke are so darn likable there’s really nothing to frown at. If I had any issue with them it was their need to make their relationship harder than it was. They’re good people, they complement each other and I loved how they included their dogs as part of the family. But that said, their romance felt a bit bland. Don’t get me wrong, Jaci Burton writes some sexy love scenes and Emma and Luke certainly benefit from that, but there really wasn’t anything that made their romance stand out.
The small town setting of Hope is charming and we meet a few supporting characters who I’m interested to see lead their own books soon, including Luke’s older brother Logan, Emma’s wandering sister Molly and Luke’s close friend Carter.
In addition to the romance between Luke and Emma which is the main focus of the book, there are a couple smaller suspense storylines, one related to a case Luke’s working on and the other related to Emma’s ex. Not much time is given to the ex storyline and it almost felt tossed in at the end with how it all played out, but it served more of a purpose with regards to Emma and Luke’s relationship and giving us a little bit of angst for Emma to deal with.
I will always go along for the ride with a Burton romance, especially one set in a small town setting. I like the set up for this new series and I am interested to see who’s up next but for Luke and Emma, I felt a bit underwhelmed with their romance. They are the perfect couple, but there wasn’t anything about them that made me stand up and say wow. A good read, but I was left wanting something more.