Title: Games of Fire
Author: Airicka Phoenix
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Source: Kindle
Pages: 475 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Blurb: (via Goodreads)
Sophie has enough problems in her life without Spencer turning her blood to fire, without his eyes freezing and burning her, without his hatred of her. Since his migration into the house
next to hers, Sophia Valdez isn’t sure whether she wants to toss him under a bus or kiss that smirking mouth of his. But even as the temperature rises around them, leaping flames of passion, want and desire,everything either has ever known will be shattered by the lurking shadow hounding their every step, wanting revenge.
Spencer Rowth moves to the sleepy town of River Port with his mother and twelve year old sister, Suzy, to escape a deceitful father, an unfaithful girlfriend and a life crumbling much too fast for him to grapple onto only to be smacked upside the head by the last thing he wanted again. Sophie was everything he refused to want. Her temper, her wit, her laugh, her smile, the way her entire body goes up in flames under his hands are things he would rather slam a lid on and forget. Instead, he finds himself falling for the smart-mouth next door. But how long will he have before the evil chasing them catches up? How long before the very thing he never wanted becomes his only thread to sanity? And who is after them? What do they want and why do they want Spencer and Sophie dead?
next to hers, Sophia Valdez isn’t sure whether she wants to toss him under a bus or kiss that smirking mouth of his. But even as the temperature rises around them, leaping flames of passion, want and desire,everything either has ever known will be shattered by the lurking shadow hounding their every step, wanting revenge.
Spencer Rowth moves to the sleepy town of River Port with his mother and twelve year old sister, Suzy, to escape a deceitful father, an unfaithful girlfriend and a life crumbling much too fast for him to grapple onto only to be smacked upside the head by the last thing he wanted again. Sophie was everything he refused to want. Her temper, her wit, her laugh, her smile, the way her entire body goes up in flames under his hands are things he would rather slam a lid on and forget. Instead, he finds himself falling for the smart-mouth next door. But how long will he have before the evil chasing them catches up? How long before the very thing he never wanted becomes his only thread to sanity? And who is after them? What do they want and why do they want Spencer and Sophie dead?
My Review:
So, for a brief summary of the book, it was ok. It was a little obvious in places and a little over done for my taste, but it held my attention, and that is the important thing. Especially because it wasn't a fantasy novel as I had originally assumed. This happens occasionally... so I when I realized, I decided to wait it out and ended up reading the whole thing.
Let's get a little more in depth now, shall we? Plot wise, I wasn't very impressed. It wasn't very original, but it had its moments, and thats what I lived for. The beginning was very similar to Obsidian (the first book of the Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout) with the obsessive type relationship of Twilight and had a stalker/ thriller aspect and ending very similar to Deadly Little Secret (first book of the Touch Series by Laurie Stolarz) all without the fantasy aspects of course. There you go. If you know those three books, you basically have the entire story without ever having to read it.
However, I am a sucker for a good romance story. And if it has to be a non fantasy book, you have to give me a little suspense... and this book gave it to me in spades. Although I found that who the stalker was was a little obvious, I still waited in anticipation to see if I was correct. Meanwhile, what was happening between Spencer and Sophie kept my eyes very busy reading over each steamy line. I WISH my love life were like that!... well, without the whole stalker aspect... I can live without that.
The character development, my biggest book pet peeve, was decent. It could have been deeper in certain places and I found that certain choices in the book were very unrealistic, but hey, I've never feared for my life due to a deranged stalker before. Who am I to judge?
All of these things I could have overlooked though. Reading as much as I do I understand that I will probably find that very few books will be original, and unpredictable to the experienced eye. I know that some authors will make writing choices that I don't agree with and are unrealistic based on their style and THEIR choices. I could have read this book, with all the things that I found lacking, and still given it aa high rating if it hadn't been for the ending. I hated the ending with a passion.
Without giving too much away, a time frame of 3 months is put inside maybe 20-30 pages tops. There was SO much that the author could have done with that time, but she basically just skipped over it. I would have thought it was days if the dialogue hadn't told me differently. Especially because the author DRAGGED over certain parts of the story that COULD have been cut to a couple of pages, I was extremely disappointed with everything that happened in that time frame and on. And the actual ending was very abrupt. I turned the page and discovered that was it and I was so confused. No epilogue, no what happens afterword. Everything becomes okay again and BAM, book over.
If you like stalker thrillers, and you like a good, intense love story, this is the book for you. If you are like me and love you fantasy novels, stick to those people, there are better books out there that are a better use of our time.
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