When Sparks Fly – Helena Hunting

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 320
Release Date: September 21, 2021

Running the Spark House, a hotel/event space that has been in her family for years, has been Avery Spark’s lifelong dream. After years of working hard and making personal sacrifices, Avery and her two younger sisters have turned the Spark House into the premier destination in Colorado Springs. Avery is living her best life—she works with her sisters and loves every minute of it, she has a great group of friends, and she lives in a fantastic condo with her best friend Declan. She might not have any love in her life, but she’s happy.

But everything comes to a screeching halt when Avery is in a car accident, leaving her immobile for weeks. After nearly losing Avery, Declan insists that he will be the one to take care of her while she recovers. However, as Declan becomes Avery’s caretaker, lines begin to blur.

Avery and Declan have been best friends since college and always had an attraction to one another, but when she ended up dating his best friend, Sam, they successfully stamped down any feelings they may have ever had for one another. Now, as Declan and Avery spend more time together, they each begin to wonder what would’ve happened if she’d dated him instead of Sam. What starts as a friend helping out another friend turns into foreplay and, before they realize it, they recognize how deeply they care for one another. But when things get serious their past threatens to destroy everything they have built. 

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When Sparks Fly is Hunting’s latest contemporary romance that hits all the best aspects of a friends-to-lovers romance.

Avery and Declan are best friends and have been for years. So much so that they’ve been living together for the past two years. But when Avery gets into a car accident and needs someone to take care of her 24/7, Declan steps up the challenge.

Friends-to-lovers is my favourite romance trope, so I jumped on the opportunity to review When Sparks Fly. Hunting is a go-to author for me so I knew I’d enjoy her latest.

Avery and Declan’s friendship is platonic until it’s not. I loved watching their progression and the obstacles they needed to overcome. Shifting a purely platonic friendship to something more comes with a lot of challenges, especially when one of them is notorious for their hookups.

Avery and Declan have similar tastes, so they became friends quickly. They’re both athletic and career driven. However, their stances on relationships couldn’t be more different. Avery prefers more stable relationships while Declan prefers emotion-free hookups. This creates great tension and conflict between Avery and Declan.

I could see where the conflict was going to stem from from a mile away. Hunting makes it obvious throughout the novel. Though this obstacle is obvious, I’m happy that it was dealt with relatively quickly without any unnecessary drama.

Overall, When Sparks Fly is a fun and emotional friends-to-lovers contemporary romance that will have readers swooning in no time. I’ve never read a romance like this before, so I appreciated this unique spin.

*** I received an arc from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

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Will you be reading When Sparks Fly?