Back when i first discovered les books and my world changed -Zimmers first book was among the first ones i read so it has a special place in my hear.
So ofcourse this was a must read for me as soon as i saw Zimmer was releasing a new book.
It was a really sweet YA book that made me smile and feel cozy inside.

A terrific book. Balanced. Not overstated or over-angst.

Britton's character is perfect. Her blend of awareness and fragility was exquisite and her ability to cut through the noise to understand situations and emotions was inspiring. Avery's character was similarly enjoyable for different reasons. Her honesty and commitment with her own broken heart reasonated.

Definitely one to read. If only Kristen Zimmer would write more books for us!

I’ve never read the famous “The Gravity Between Us” but this second novel by Zimmer was so freaking sweet! I loved the journey both characters went through together, overcoming different kinds of grief and heartache and learning to let themselves love. P.S. The world needs more Cates and Toms.

Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review. Sorry I was so late, I let my backlog get ridiculous but I’m so glad I finally got to this one. 4.5 stars!

2.5/5 stars

This was an enjoyable and sweet YA romance. I’ll start this by saying that I haven’t read a YA book for a while, and it is not a genre that I reach for often. As someone who did not have a great time in high school, it just really isn’t a time in a character’s life that I like to explore. Despite that, I really didn’t have any problem with the so-called ‘YA aspects’ of the book. While the relationship definitely had a distinct teen quality, it wasn’t ridiculously angst-driven which I’ve come to expect from some Ya books. Something that I also cherish about this book is that it doesn’t go into depth about homophobia and isn’t focused on the coming out story of our characters. While both these things are important to talk about, I also think that Queer readers (especially teenagers) deserve to delve into a fun, light-hearted romance without a trauma dump.

I will start by discussing the things I enjoyed about this book. Overall, I do think it was a sweet and enjoyable book. I finished the book with a smile on my face, feeling happy, which means I must have connected to the story in some sense. I also really enjoyed Britton’s voice in the novel, I think she was a great choice of main character and narrator. The book was told in first person, so I really felt like we got to know Britton as a character. I was really rooting for her for the entire book and felt a definite warmness for her. Some of our side characters were also great. The family dynamic of Tom and Cate was very fun, and was really one of the drivers of the warmness that this book has. I also liked Spence and her friendship with Britton. I love a good close friendship in love stories, and this was no exception.

While I really liked Britton, I didn’t feel any such connection for Avery. I don’t know why Avery felt so distant as a character, but I really never had a grasp of her. Because of this, I didn’t really understand or empathise with her. Subsequently, I found it very difficult to love the romance between Britton and Avery. While I got behind it to some extent with the flirtation and chemistry, I lacked any real emotional engagement with the romance, which is really important for me in a good romance book. Because of this, despite finding the book enjoyable in general, the major feature of a good romance was lacking for me.

3.5 sapphic stars (out now!)

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
#WhenSparksFly #NetGalley

Pros
+ lots of queer content (f/f relationships, lesbian rep, bi rep)
+ found family (foster family)
+ positive coming out experience (to friends, to family, to school, and to strangers)
+ New England setting really made me miss living in New England (especially fall activities like dressing up for Halloween and the chilly scarf weather)
+ handles some heavier topics (death of a family member, misplaced guilt, repairing friendships, coming out) really well

Neutral
/ at times too sappy or high-school dramatic for my tastes (but realistic to actual intensity of feelings and drama high schoolers feel... I'm just an old 30yo now)
/ so many events I don't care about like school pride days, sports events, dances, etc. (again, for a teenager or young adult these events would probably be way more interesting/relevant to them)

TW: abusive foster parents, death of a family member, car accident (off-page), drinking, feelings of abandonment, coming out (positive), serious illness as a child (off-page)

A lot of these reviews focus on predictability of the read, but while this story is certainly playing into a troupe it is well written and captivating. Author Kirsten Zimmer is able to paint great tension between the two that builds a slow burn.

These two characters have a realistic pairing, in that so many books try to avoid in favor of the "opposites attract".

I greatly recommend this book for everything that it is. A good summer read.

Coming of age story for two young women with very different backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses.

The story uses stereotypes a bit too much for me but it is a sweet story most people can identify with.

Britton Walsh has never had a real family having grown up in care her whole life. Avery Cahill has lived a comfortable life with loving parents and lots of close friends. The two girls should have nothing in common but their lives collide when Britton is placed with the Cahills for her senior year of high school.
Britton begins to see who Avery is behind the popular facade she uses at school and in return Avery starts to chip away at the shield Britton has built up after a life of disappointments. Britton knows that Avery is different from every girl she has met before but refuses to jeopardize the first real home she has ever had. Avery on the other hand can’t help but reveal all of her secrets and feelings towards Britton.
I know that this story may be a little predictable in terms of its ending but I loved the way each layer of the characters were peeled away throughout the novel. And in all fairness I don’t read all that much romance but when I do and the characters are so well developed you cannot help but root for them.
This is my second read by Kristen Zimmer and I cannot wait for her next release; a fantastic LGBT YA read that will hook you in until the very last page.

I wanted to like this book, but it was just too predictable. I wish it wasn’t, it seemed to have potential.

A really cute young adult-baby gay love story, When Sparks Fly delves deeply into coming of age and processing deep pain. Britton and Avery’s pasts are slowly revealed and as well as why they need each other to process their pain to find their way to peace, and ultimately to love. I guarantee you’re going to like this story. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I normally tend to stay away from YA stories as I have a hard time connecting with the characters. After reading When Sparks Fly, I am happy that I choose to read this story. This romance is between two teens in their senior year of high school. Britton is a foster kid who just moves into her foster home. Her foster parents are kind and very giving. They have a daughter Avery who is the same age as Britton. While Britton walks to the beat of her own drum, Avery is the popular girl who has tons of friends. Britton and Avery do get along and Britton is able to navigate having her own set of friends and also spending time with Avery in her friends. Both teens have complicated pasts.

What I loved most about this book is both Britton and Avery are very mature for their age. It seemed that they were really older than their 18 years. Normally that is my issue with YA romances. The mains are normally not very mature. Zimmer does a fabulous job with character development on this one. Since the teens both have past that have some complications they are able to navigate life better than some adults I know. On the romance side, you can feel the tension between the two mains. You know it's a matter of time before something happens, but I liked that it wasn't rushed. We know Britton is a Lesbian, but don't know what's going on with Avery in the beginning. Again great character building in this one. There really isn't much to dislike about this romance. I recommend it. I must say that I did enjoy this one more than The Gravity Between US.

4.25 stars.

This arc was provided by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

I love discovering new FF romance books.

This book was very interesting and not like other FF romances I've read. It was very day to day and focused on the main characters lives going through their senior year of high school. It was interesting to witness. Every chapter was like a new day and each day would have a significant level of importance to the story. The characters ere very cute, Britton and Abby had a connection from the beginning of the book until they decided to tell one another about their feelings. And a huge shoutout to Abby's parents because they are the most chill parents I've read in a book. Kudos to you, Abby's Parents.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the earc in return for an honest review.

So, in all honestly, I’m not sure how to rate this or what to say. I’m going to go with 3.5 stars. I didn’t hate this by any means, I liked it. However, I didn’t love it and the romance wasn’t my favorite thing about the book. And that’s disappointing for this to be a romance novel.

This is my first book by Zimmer and her other novel “The Gravity Between Us” has amazing reviews. I think that led me to have higher expectations than what was delivered. I think I’m somewhat of an outlier here as the other reviews I’ve seen have been glowing 4.5 or 5 stars.

“When Sparks Fly” is the story of Britton Walsh. She’s a foster kid who has recently turned 18 and just moved into her hopefully last foster home before she graduates high school. She moves in with Tom and Cate Cahill and their daughter, Avery. Avery is a popular and gorgeous cheerleader who seems to be the one all the other girls look up to. Britton, on the other hand, is her total opposite. She’s a soft butch who prefers vans and band t-shirts. Britton is smitten with Avery but knows that the daughter of her foster parents is off limits.

Let me start with the good. I really liked Tom and Cate and the whole family aspect of the story. This story is told from Britton’s first-person point of view and so you get to know a bit of her past and her feelings about things. I felt badly for her story and loved seeing her be accepted as she was in a nice family. I also loved Britton’s relationship with Spence. It’s a little unusual to see a character start a friendship and continue that friendship when they know their potential love interest doesn’t approve of that friendship. I thought Spence was a great character and would love to see a story written for her. Her story touched me too and I’d like to see how she ends up.

What I didn’t like isn’t as easy to answer. For one, there is a ton of slang in this and maybe because I’m so removed from being 18 that there was some I just didn’t understand. Also, do teenagers really speak and think like that? I have a couple of teens in my life and neither one speaks with that much slang, nor do they tend to shorten even the most basic of words.

I also had issues with Avery and the romance in general. I think I could’ve gotten to like her had we had her point of view but without it she doesn’t always come off that great. I found her to be controlling and moody, though being a teenager, maybe that’s expected a little. In terms of their romance, I just didn’t feel a real emotional connection there. Others have said they felt one so maybe it’s just me. To me their relationship was more physical and shallower than what I wanted to expected.

While this book didn’t wow me with the deeper emotional feelings that I prefer, I did think this was a good read and enjoyed it overall. It covers quite a few emotional topics but still ends on a happy, positive note.

I’m looking to forward to reading Zimmer’s debut and also hope she writes more in the future.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.

Britton Walsh has grown up in the foster care system. She has unfortunately had a number of homes where she was abused and molested. For her Senior year in high school, she was placed with new foster parents in a new city. Tom and Cate are great parents and treat her like a member of the family. They have a daughter that is in the same class as Britton. Their daughter is beautiful, popular, fashionable and had been the head cheerleader. Britton feels an attraction to her even though she is the exact opposite of Britton. Britton is unaware that the daughter is bisexual as she has a boyfriend. Britton becomes friends with another girl at school that is also a lesbian. This girl is not in the same social circle as the popular daughter so Britton hangs out with 2 different groups of friends. Britton is having the best year of her life with a great home life and friends at school. Eventually Britton finds out that the daughter of the foster family is also attracted to her and they begin a secret relationship. The book continues with activities snd events of their senior year. I recommend this book.

The story follows Britton as she stays in what could be her last foster home, but slowly falls for her foster sister. I'll leave out any spoilers.

I wanted to love this because I loved The Gravity Between Us. There were just so many things about this story that made it hard to read and harder to finish reading.

But I'll start with positives. The writing is great and vivid. There were times I really felt like I was there. I loved Britton, and her thought patterns felt so real. Almost like my own internal monologue. I loved the family dynamic. The parents were cool but caring, and it really seemed like they were well thought out. I loved certain concepts of the story, but I won't mention more details to avoid spoilers.

However, the speech was very odd for a book coming out in 2021. Kids today don't talk like this. This is how I talked when I was a teenager mixed in with some improperly used modern slang, and some outdated gestures thrown in. There are tons of jokes I could tell were supposed to be jokes that were not funny.

Avery's character felt very flat. She didn't seem exceptionally dynamic, almost as if she wasn't fully fleshed out. And that made it hard for me to really ship her with anyone in my head. Because she felt paper thin.

While I loved Britton's character, since everything came from her point of view, I didn't feel any connection to the people around her. Which made it hard to imagine she had these feelings she said she had. There was tons of telling. Which is okay in some instances, but not to this extent. Not in some of the moments when the reader needed to be shown these emotions.

The section breaks were distracting. Some parts of the story could have been kept together with no break needed. At times, these breaks caused a disturbance in the flow of reading and became annoying.

In all, I think the book is okay. For an adult who wants to reminisce about their teen years. I don't think anyone currently a teenager or young adult would enjoy it. Which is probably why it was put in the New Adult category. This is a coming of age story written for people in college or older, past the coming of age period. Which is sad to me because with a bit more research or a few less attempts to be hip and cool, this might have been an influential story for those the age of the characters currently falling for someone they shouldn't. I still think fondly of the stories I read when coming out my senior year in high school. I'm sad this couldn't be one of those stories for teens today.

This was a super sweet YA read. It’s really interesting but most WLW books fans know the name Kristen Zimmer, including myself. While I have been reading “lesbian” fiction for a long time, it’s only in the past decade or so that it has become so abundant and easy to find. You used to have to go to a bookstore -and only certain ones had them- or even use a mail-in system to get a sapphic book. In 2010, I got my first Kindle –but if you remember the old school Kindles they were not so great-. I didn’t get the point and was still mostly buying paperbacks. It wasn’t until late 2012 and 2013 that I really got what a Kindle meant. All of a sudden I could buy these ebooks that could be half or even a third of the price of what I normally paid. I also finally realized that if I could get some good mainstream books for such a great price, maybe I could get some quality WLW books too. While of course I got some real stinkers, and even porn pretending to be actual stories, but when I bought The Gravity Between Us by Kristen Zimmer -for either free or at the most 99 cents at the time- things really changed. That purchase meant I could find WLW books that were quality, easy to find/purchase, but still affordable, and there now was a whole new world available to me. Kristen Zimmer changed my reading habits and I will forever remember her name.

While many of us know her name, Zimmer has not written any other books since then. I have to admit I didn’t think we would see anything new from her but now eight years later, we finally have her new book, When Sparks Fly. I’ve been big into YA the past few years so I was really excited about reading this. While I am calling this YA, this might be more NA (New Adult) worthy. While both characters are in high school -they are 18- there is an explicit sex scene. This is a YA book that seems more geared to older teens and adults. I was happy with this read but it didn’t quite live up to my super high expectations. It’s a very good and a solid book, but I’ll explain why I personally could not give it 5 stars.

The biggest reason was that this book was a little too sweet for me. I love some good feels but when it comes to YA, I love teenage angst. I like YA that really makes you feel and can turn a reader into a mess. There was some baby angst here at times, but nothing that really got me. The only few emotional connections I had to the book was when something was super sweet. I had lots of smiles and a few awwws, but I never was knocked over with emotion.

I also found the book to be a little long. I was completely into the book in the first third, and the last, but the middle third started to drag for me. I felt like most things were done and I kept looking at the book and wondering how was there going to be another 100 pages? If there had been more angst or bigger emotional moments, I think it would have kept the book going better. I do want to be clear that the last third was ridiculously adorable and I loved it, I just wish the draggy part before was better.

While I did complain a little bit, I have to talk about something good. I absolutely adored the character of Britton. Well not just Britton but the entire main and bigger secondary characters were wonderful too. I did find the two friend groups to be hard to tell apart, the characters were not very defined, but Spence, the parents, and the two mains were all really well done. Britton was easy to connect with and parts of her personality actually reminded me of myself, -which is always weird when you read about a character who at times thinks and acts like you might- but anyway I really enjoyed being in her headspace and if Zimmer wanted to write about these characters in college, I’d read that book in a heartbeat.

In the end this is a book that I would easily recommend. Because the characters are 18, I think this book would appeal even to people who might not be crazy about YA. If you like cute, feel-good romances books, then this book if for you. While this didn’t quite meet up to my super high expectations –because of who Zimmer is and means to me- I still really enjoyed this and I expect most sapphic fans will too.

"anytime you have to say, "it's not incest, technically" that's not good, ryan."

To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. This book is by the same author who wrote "The Gravity Between Us" so I had high expectations. But alas, I was met with this.

Let me start out with the positives. This was enjoyable, I wasn't bored, no matter how dumb this story got. The family dynamic was really nice to read about and honestly was the only reason I didn't DNF this book.

Now said family dynamic is good... but then... oh dear.

Britton (our main character) is placed in a new foster home and guess what--- falls for her foster sister. Yes, very much The Fosters 2.0. All the while, Britton is convincing herself that it isn't incest. The whole thing was just... really uncomfortable. Not to mention Britton is sleeping in her foster sister's dead sister's bedroom. And guess what! They get caught having sex...by the parents.

Now, now, if you're a Cassandra Clare fan, you may not think that's a deal-breaker but oh my lord were these characters bland. Just so utterly flat. Britton had no personality besides being the stereotypical lesbian archetype. I actually did find Avery quite interesting and it's a shame that we didn't get to see her point of view in this story.

My favorite part of this book was the author's complete lack of knowledge on how teenagers talk. It was hilarious and definitely the most entertaining part of this book-

Anyways. This was a rant review, so if you want something dumb and short, I guess pick this up?? I don't know, whatever floats your boat.

This is a new genre and a new author for me. This is my first time reading a girlxgirl novel.

The cover of this novel is very eye-catching.

The characters are relatable and interesting to read about.

The story kept a steady pace all throughout and kept me intrigued to keep reading.

This is a new author for me. I really loved When Sparks Fly and will check out other books by the author. I don’t often read LGBT fiction or love stories which may seem strange as I’m gay myself but I have read this genre in the past and found books to be very poorly written and cheesy. I should read some recent LGBT fiction. This is more of a YA / New Adult book as Britton and Avery are senior’s in high school but the book is very accessible for older readers. I loved it. I wanted Britton to finally find a place to settle down and be happy before she went off to college. I wanted Britton and Avery to have a brilliant love story. This book gave me all the feels. I laughed, cried and loved every word. This is a great book.

So cute!

Britton has finally found the home she has been dreaming of after years in the system, but when Britton develops feelings for her foster family’s daughter, Avery, she can’t believe the hand fate has dealt her. Conflicted by her feelings for Avery, Britton tries to navigate her new life and home, unaware that Avery has secrets of her own. As they grow closer and the truth comes out, can Britton help Avery get over her guilt and can they have something more.

Such a cute and sweet story that had lots of things to keep the characters and the reader on their toes. I contemplated a lot of the dilemmas of both Britton and Avery’s situations alongside them. I completely understood Britton’s hesitations and wariness of her feelings for Avery for fear of loss of the dreams she’d always had, and yet I also understood Avery’s guilt about past events that haunted her and affected her way more than I could have imagined.

There was a lot of heartache and drama surrounding the story, from the past for both Britton and Avery. As these past events became knowledgeable to each of them it helped to form their bond. For Britton, learning of those experiences and having Avery open up to her was clear that was what started to make her feel at home. Avery just accepted her, which when I first met Avery I wasn’t sure she would. I very much judged Avery and thought I was going to spend the whole story taking Britton’s side against all the people making life hard for her in a new place but Avery really surprised me and I loved her as soon as I encountered her first interactions with Britton.

Together, Britton and Avery were sweet and they were total opposites that just worked. Avery was good for Britton because despite all she was carrying on her shoulders, she was strong and confident, encouraging Britton to get past all her fears. But equally, Britton was good for Avery because she provided her the chance to be listened to and work through her demons without judgment or fear of further guilt and blame. I loved the relationship they had both to start and when it further developed.

This is a lovely young adult type story but I loved it, every second and find myself smiling at many of the moments they shared. It was magical in so many ways and proved that unexpected love and good things do happen if you just take a chance and believe they will. This was my first story by Kristen but I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to see what she brings us in the future, including, hopefully, more from Britton and Avery.