/Traditional boy meets girl both not looking for a relationship, but you can't deny the sparks between them and the connection. They aim to avoid the signs but you can't stop fate.

✍️ One Sentence Synopsis: Your roommate gets in an accident (kinda your fault) and so you naturally become her nurse…and take care of ALL her bodily needs?

💭 Overall Thoughts:
I truly thought I would love this. I love friends to lovers and have enjoyed Helena Hunting’s books. This one though was a big miss for me.

To be fair, the writing style itself is descriptive and engaging. There is some positive mental health representation normalizing seeking help.

Biggest thing here, I felt icky reading it. Like truly cringing feeling it in my body kinda icky. The way they “got together” left me feeling uneasy and I think from there it was hard to turn things around for me. I couldn’t help but feel they didn’t have real chemistry and it was a weird forced attraction with almost a power differential.

I also appreciated the mental health and trauma aspect, but I felt like Declan in a way strung her along while he tried to figure out his own stuff. The timeline of the ending based on his needs also felt rushed to me. If you have that significant of a history, I feel you would need more time to work through it.

It just wasn’t for me.


What I Liked:
👍 Writing style
👍 Mental Health normalization

What I Didn’t Like:
👎 Forced chemistry
👎 Can’t get behind the way they “got together”
👎 Timeframe for the ending


⚠️ Content Warnings: family dynamics, infidelity, traumatic accidents, bereavement

Thank you to Net Galley and St Martin Press for the opportunity to read with request for review.

Avery Spark shares her condo with her best friend Declan. When Avery is in a bad car accident, Declan feels responsible because he should have been with her, but instead broke his promise. When Declan decides he should be her sole caregiver while she recuperates, her sisters are busy running their business Spark house. While caring for Avery, Declan realizes that his feelings run deep, but wonders if Avery feels the same way.

This is a great friends to lovers story with wonderful characters and storyline.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to read Helena Hunting's newest book. I have enjoyed many of Ms. Hunting's books from KU to print versions of her series as she is strong in her game for romance plots, snappy dialogues and characters with real flaws. If you are a fan of Helena Hunting's work definitely add this to your TBR pile or definitely consider if you are interested in contemporary romance books.

This book was so cute! A quick fun read and i loved watching the relationship blossom. I love friends to lovers trope and this didn’t disappoint!

I've been able to read a few books by this author, and have enjoyed most of them. I struggled to get through this one, and I am labeling it as a miss. Nothing jumped out to me, the storyline was boring.

Avery Spark owns and runs an event hotel with her two sisters. She doesn’t really have time to date. She spends her time when she is not working with her best friend and roommate Declan.

When Avery has a car accident and Declan feels responsible, the two end up spending more time together than they ever have. Eventually, the chemistry between them is undeniable. This best friend to boyfriend romance really hit the mark for me.

I tried really hard to get into this book! I'm usually a huge friends to lovers fan, but this one just could not hold my attention. I put it down one day because I was kind of bored and just could not convince myself to pick it back up.

While the friends-to-lovers recipe of this book is familiar to many romance readers the addition of an accident adding to both emotional and physical challenges for the characters and the overall character development of the book including attending therapy and taking time to work through the issues worked for me.

While still relatively predictable there is enough love, heat, and conflict that it makes for an engaging read.

Friends to lovers. This was a very heartwarming story that was just what I needed to read at this time. The writing was beautiful and the plot was good.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Avery is one of three sisters who has been running a non-profit called Spark House, and finds that all her projects and plans to expand the business start falling apart when she's in a car accident.

Declan is her roomie and BFF, and is in part, the reason that she's in this mess. He was scheduled to give her a ride the morning of her accident, but the night before brought home a random hookup and left his car at the bar where he met her.

As Declan is helping Avery recover, they end up together, and he finally reveals that he's always had a thing for her.

Great friends-to-lovers story but this one dragged on a bit for me and was harder to finish than other books. Helena Hunting is one of my fav authors, but this was a little flat compared to others.

As someone who doesn't love friends to lovers, I adored this book. I finished it in a day, and am going to get my friends to read it soon. Although I did find it pretty predictable, it was a very fun read. I think that if you are looking for a fast paced romance to get you out of a reading slump, this is the perfect book for you.

I finished When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting yesterday and it was an adorable friends-to-lovers read! The perfect book for a rainy October day. Thank you to my friends at @stmartinspress for my copy. 😊 This one is out now, so grab yours today! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A quick, fun romance.

Avery owns and works at Sparks House with her two sisters. After losing their parents in a car accident, they pour their heart and soul into the family business. As the business is struggling Avery takes point on brining in new customers to help off set the cost of renovations.

Declan is Avery's roommate and best friend, meeting during their college years. They live together, spend all their free time together and both ignore potential romantic feelings toward one another.

After Avery is involved in a car accident and is unable to work or take care of herself, depending solely Declan for all her basic needs, things begin to change with their relationship.

I found this book to be a fast read, slightly predictable, but highly enjoyable. I would recommend this book if you are a fan of Mary Kay Andrews or Jayci Lee, this would be a great book to pick up and read!

From Lala’s Book Reviews

Can I say that I’m so glad that I’ve finally finished this book because it’s all I’ve been able to think about while working and my short time home before going back to work. The last time I had read the synopsis was earlier this year when the cover reveal came out, so need less to say that I really didn’t remember when I started reading it last week.

There’s a reason why I love the friends to lovers trope and think that it’s a highly underrated trope. It’s also one of those tropes that I think need to have certain things occur in order for it to be *chef’s kiss*. Like I said a couple of seconds ago, I basically went into this book blind and when I say Delcan’s name as the POV of that chapter I about flipped my lid from happiness to see and friends to lovers book.

When Sparks Fly is my first book that I’ve read by Helena Hunting (although I’ve been a long time fan for a while now), and I can honestly say that this is far from the last book I’ll read from her. I know that Helena writes a variety of romance books from the cuter ones like this one to some with heavier storylines based on the covers and synopses.

Avery and Declan have been friends since freshman year of college when they met and a school event and have basically been inseparable since, so much so that they’re renting an apartment together after graduating from college.

Declan is something else (in a good way). He doesn’t do relationships in any form because of his parents toxic relationship and doesn’t want to put himself in a position where something like that could happen to the person he’s dating or himself, so he just have meaningless hook-ups. But to his friends and Avery, he’s loyal almost to a fault.

When it comes to relationships, Avery is the complete opposite to Declan. She wants that relationship with another person before starting anything physical. And because Avery and Declan know each other so we’ll, I think that’s one of the reasons why they’ve unconsciously friend zoned each other.

She had to grow up early after her parents died in a car accident leaving her grandmother to take care of Avery and her two younger sisters.
Avery now works with her sisters at Sparks House which is like a hotel type place that hosts different events which has become all of their lives as they each have their own specialty that makes the place so special and unique.

Soon after the book begins, Avery is involved in a bad car accident that leaves her in an arm and leg cast. After much discussion and her sisters’ dismay, Avery goes back home with Declan since he is able to work from home and is physically able to help Avery.

As time passes, Avery and Declan relationship changes from friends to something else, but is it because they have the equivalent of cabin fever or are they finally starting to come into their feelings for the other? And, will this change in relationship status be able to withstand reality and their close friends and Avery’s sisters when it comes time?

What a fabulous story!!
I loved Avery and her sisters! They lost their parents in tragic circumstances and since then , have always been there for each other.
They work for Sparks which is Avery’s baby really.

Avery lives with her best friend Declan who is a womanizer but an awesome flatware/ friend.

Declan’s poor decision changed Avery’s path….
Even though it was not his fault, Declan was determined to be the best friend ever by staying by Avery’s side at all time …. But what happens when the friendship line disappears?
Will it affect the friendship group?

This story was exactly what I needed and I have so much love for Declan… the turmoil, the love and conflicts… I felt it all!!

Another brilliant read from HH

I've read a few of Helena Hunting's books and have always enjoyed them - this book is no exception. I loved the friends-to-lovers theme.

Avery and Declan are best friends who live together and have never had any romantic involvement. Avery runs a hotel/events center with her sisters, Harley and London. She's always just been one of the "guys" and hangs out with Declan and their friends, Jerome and Marcus, on a regular basis. However, that changes when Avery is involved in a car accident that requires her to rely on someone to assist her during her recovery. And of course, who better than Declan?

I really enjoyed the story and seeing Declan slowly come to terms with his feelings for Avery. Avery realized much sooner that she was in love with Declan whereas it took him a while. Both have some emotional baggage that makes them cautious of relationships.

Of course, you can't get a HEA without some conflict causing them to split and Avery moves out. Declan has to work on himself to overcome his past and how he views relationships. As Declan works through his issues with the help of a therapist, they eventually start to rebuild their friendship. They start "dating" without seeing each other physically. I loved their "dating" phase and the way Declan showed Avery his love for her.

The pace was good for me and I enjoyed seeing Avery's relationships with her sisters. I'm hoping Helena writes a sequel for each sister so we can see them get their HEA as well.

I'm sad to say I didn't love this book. I've listed some reasons below, but I honestly couldn't finish because I had such a hard time connecting with the characters

*Despite the friendship between the protagonists, they had no romantic chemistry.
*The hero was hypocritical, acting like a manwhore, but faulting the heroine for flirting with another guy
*The setup was frustrating and unrealistic.
*The romance was the opposite of swoon-worthy

Helena Hunting is an auto-read for me so I was really excited to snag this one. A friends to lovers trope that was easy and quick.

Was it one of my favourites? No. It was light hearted with some serious bits that kept me interested. Declan and Avery’s friendship was sweet and their relationship did evolve but I guess I was just looking for more.

Would love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read this story!

I really enjoyed the first half of this friends to lovers story but the second half lost me a little. It felt as though the two main characters did and said things that were uncharacteristic of their personalities, and those actions drove the last part of the story.