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Review

“The fire you have within you is impossible to kill. The first breath you take when you’re free of all this, it will come roaring back. That’s what is so impossibly beautiful about you.”

3.5 stars

Rebecca Yarros’ debut gives us a heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting story about a young woman dealing with loss and love, and learning to grab hold of the important things in life. And, of course, it’s tied in with a sweet, sexy and swoony love story with a bit of angst and an instantly loveable hero.

20 year old Ember’s life is thrown into turmoil upon the tragic death of her father. Her mother falls apart, her teenage sister starts acting out, and she has a young brother who needs somebody to lean on. The burden falls to Ember to pick up the pieces as each of them struggle with their grief. Her heart is further broken by her douchey boyfriend, and she is left alone to cope with her loss and keep her family going.

And then Josh, hockey star, local hottie and the object of all of her high school romantic fantasies comes back into her life. His presence soothes her, and he always seems to be there for her when she needs him. And he is absolutely beautiful about it.

“You’re so busy taking care of everyone else, you can’t see that someone needs to take care of you. So tell me what you need, and I’ll be that for you.”

Josh is there not only for Ember, but for her whole family. He makes it clear that he wants her, but he is gentle and patient, never rushing her, and letting her know that he is willing to wait until she is ready for more.

“I’m your whatever.”
“My whatever?”
The soft kiss he’d placed on my lips had me leaning in for more. “Whatever you need me to be,” he whispered against my mouth.

I love Josh! He’s sweet, he’s funny, he’s sexy, and he has a huge heart! He shows huge strength throughout the story, and I really admire his determination to be there for Ember, while also living his life on his own terms.

They are both clearly attracted to each other, and things are so easy between them, but Ember wants to deal with her grief and learn to stand on her own before she starts anything romantic with Josh. And with all of the changes that she was going through, I can understand her feelings to some extent, but I think she took it a bit too far. She clearly wanted him, she got annoyed when other girls fawned all over him, yet she still kept him at arm’s length. But it gives him plenty of opportunity to prove his determination to have her, and that is so freaking hot!

“We’re taking it slow until you say so, because I can’t bear to hear a ‘no’ from you. But here’s your only warning: I’m going to chase the fuck out of you.”

There’s a bit of angst with the back and forth of their relationship, and Ember almost loses her chance, but once they finally get it together they are hot, they are open about their feelings, and they are absolutely amazing together.

“There’s no one on this earth who can love you as well as I can.”

But there is more heartache to come when Ember discovers that Josh has been keeping a secret (that really isn’t that much of a secret) that changes everything. And she is forced to question everything as she figures out exactly what she is prepared to sacrifice for love.

Rebecca Yarros does a great job at telling her story, but I found this book to be predictable and a bit clichéd – not that that is always a bad thing, but I just couldn’t get into it as much as I wanted to. Although it did bring the feels, and I had a bit of a swoon and parts of it broke my heart and I’m not ashamed to admit that that ending had tears streaming down my face (that letter! *sniff*). I also wish that we got to see more of Ember and Josh together. I’m also not a fan of unnecessary angst, and after all of the back and forth, I wanted a little bit more happy time.

“You still love me.”
“Every fucking second I breathe. I will love you the rest of my life, December Howard, whether or not you’re around to witness it.

I’ll definitely be continuing on with this series, and look forward to reading Jagger’s book up next.

3.5 stars.

 

The Flight & Glory series

 

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