Ugh. I wish I had a better review for this one, but I did not finish it. The two main reasons are the male narrator and the plot. The male narrator did not feel into the story at all. It was like he was bored with the story. And the plot line. I just couldn't with the amount of masturbation and orgasm talk. I don't even think I got halfway through the audio book before stopping and it felt like half of what I had listened to was about giving each other orgasms. Not worth my time to read that. I'm sorry. I rarely DNF a book, sadly this was one.

Loved this charming friend to lovers romance about two college friends that chose to be roommates and when one got in an accident the other felt responsible. Through the Guilt while taking care of the friend, chemistry arises and they realize how much they have feelings for eachother

I really love how their was were two narrators for the main characters it really added to the story and made it come to life

Avery and Declan are best friends and roommates. When Avery gets in a car accident after Declan flakes out on their agreement to drive across the state together, Declan feels immense guilt and becomes her nurse and personal assistant. Loving in such close proximity can only lead to sparks flying between the two. But should best friends get involved?

This is a quick, open door romance with a fair amount of steam.

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC and MacMillan audio for a multiple narrator ALC in exchange for my honest review.

Friends and roommates in social isolation!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Romance: 🖤💜🤎💚💛
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📙📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌍🌏
Character development: 😍😕🙃☺️🤩

The heroine: Avery - owner of a family business with her two sisters. It is a hotel with event capabilities and Avery is the one that deals most directly with the clients and plans the events that are held there. She lives in a luxury condo with her best friend Declan.

The Hero(es): Declan - has been best friends with Avery since college. He and Avery have always gotten along well and any romantic feelings that might have started between them had been pushed aside long ago when Avery went out with Declan’s best friend at the time, Sam. Declan had grown up in a home where his father often cheated and his mother would do the same to get back at him. So Declan has never been interested in long lasting relationships with the women he has dated.

The story: Though both Avery and Declan can afford their own place, Avery likes to live with someone else and it works well to live with her best friend Declan. However, when Declan has a late night out at a bar, brings home a random woman and oversleeps when he was supposed to drive to an alumni meeting with Avery, she goes without him and gets in a car accident.



Guilt-ridden, Declan insists on taking care of Avery as she recovers and the two get closer than ever before and both start to get feelings for each other. Though other things start to get in the way. This is a very good story and kept me interested throughout. It is steamy in parts and funny in others which is so much Helena Hunting’s standard. I loved it.

The narrators were perfect. Stella Bloom was perfect as an intelligent and independent woman who has some anxieties and isn’t a fan of being out of commission while recovering. Jason Clarke is one of my favorite male narrators with his deep and somewhat gravelly voice. He made a great Declan. I am a big fan of dual POV with two narrators. I love to get the Hero’s POV and it is best when he has a deep sexy voice.

I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

I loooove Helena Hunting's books so this was a treat to be able to listen to this one early. I thought it was a great premise for a friends to lovers romance with the added aspect of forced proximity since Avery and Declan live together. This was such an enjoyable read and I liked the chemistry between the two main characters. The only thing that snagged for me was that Avery and Declan were already living together. I would think that if they both had feelings they would have acted on it sooner. I just felt a little bit like why now? I think that if they had been living separately and had to move in together because of her injury, then it might have worked better for me. I'm not sure. But I did really like the moments they had together and the tension building. It definitely paid off! I thought it was interesting to dig into Declan's guilt and how it was affecting him and his relationship with Avery. Overall this was a really cute story and a very quick listen with great narrators. And the epilogue was perfect! I recommend this book to fans of Hunting and fans of romcoms with a lot of steam.

I knew just from reading the description that I was going to like this one and I was not disappointed!

This book has the perfect amount of steam. Some writers can write romance better than others, and I am here to say Hunting can do the thing. I have not read any of her other work but after this I am absolutely going to. Some of the steamier scenes had me holding my breath and maybe even breaking a sweat over the intensity. Loved it!

The characters were fabulous and I loved the story line of Avery being injured and needing to be taken care of. There was such an intimacy and tension between she and Declan as a result and I really enjoyed that.

I would say the only thing I did not like, but it does not detract from the overall rating for me, is when the male narrator in the audiobook read the quotes from Avery. In general it makes me cringe when narrators change their voice to be more male or female reading another character's lines, but in this case I found it very cringey and his voice for her made her sound rather annoying.

Overall, a solid read/listen that I thoroughly enjoyed! Thank you Net Galley for the ALC!

This is Cute Romance. I really enjoyed listening to this book's audiobook, and the narrators was very good. The ending I did not love mostly because I know it was coming, and I know how it would end. The beginning a found very funny, and I really enjoyed the romance. I loved to see the two main characters figured out they loved each other. I also Declan (the player) take care of his best friend, Avery. If you are looking for a Cute (With some Steamy times) then this is the book for you. I was kindly provided an e-audiobook of this book by the publisher (St. Martin's Griffin) or author (Helena Hunting) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

Avery and Declan had been best friends since college. There by each other’s side for everything until a date changes the carefully played relationship they built. A one night stand leading to a broken promise changes their entire world. Not only leaving Avery and Declan questioning their friendship but realizing a simmering attraction was slowly beginning to consume them both. Helena crafts an amazing tale of healing and letting go of the past to find the happiness that will heal you.

Loved, loved, loved, loved, loved this book. Helena Hunting wrote such an emotional friends-to-lovers book. It wasn't all fun and laughs, and there was a lot of heartbreak and emotion in this one, and it was worth every tear, every held breath and every "oh, no, why did you do that" moment.

Declan and Avery have been friends forever, roommates for years, and they've never crossed that friendship line. But when Declan drops the ball as a friend, and Avery pays the price, he needs to do all he can to make it up to her. Along the way, the two of them find out that they've really been in love with each other for years, but their past hurts have kept them from risking their friendship to embrace their love.

What a great story. The relationship between Declan and Avery was such a treat. Sure, at times I wanted to shake Declan and scream "why? WHY?!" but every scene just adds to the emotion and the feelings that you experience with this one.

The audio is so well narrated by Jason Clarke and Stella Bloom. Jason is one of the finest male narrators in romance. He can do anything from dark to romcom, and the one thing you can always count on him to deliver is the appropriate emotion of the moment. Stella gives Avery all of the determination and vulnerability that the role called for, and really does Helena's female lead justice. They were a great pairing.

This book falls solidly in the meh category for me. I'm not particularly grateful that I read it but it was a fine and engaging story that kept me listening. There isn't so much steam in this book as a severe over-use of the word orgasm. If I had this on kindle I would do a search to see how many times the word was used without enough steam to actually back up the over-use (in my opinion). The second half of the book is wholly steam-less as well so do not go into this one hoping for spice.
The characters were not my favorites and fell pretty flat for me. I'm not buying the "we never realized there was an attraction" line with these two and I feel like while they developed it wasn't told in a way that had me invested or caring all that much. I also felt there were some very unhealthy relationship traits that were given a big pass in this one that made me actually yell at the book as I listened.
I enjoyed the female narrator but the male narrator was not my favorite, especially when he was voicing the sisters.
Overall read this if you are a die-hard friends to lovers fan but otherwise I feel like this one isn't really a must-read romance of the year.

The listening experience of this book was terrific. I really enjoyed the pacing and the performance of the narrator. I will definitely recommend the audio book to romance readers!

I enjoyed this book. I liked the story of Avery and her sisters running the Spark house. The car accident and Declan coming to take care of her, them falling in love was romantic. Predictable but romantic. I believe if I read it, I would have enjoyed it more. It felt like the audiobook was a bit slow.

Avery Spark is running an event space that's been in her family for ages along with her sisters. Avery owns a fantastic condo with her best friend from college, Declan. Avery and Declan have a great group of friends and have a non complicated best bud relationship. Everything turns upside down when Avery meets with an accident and Declan decides to take care of Avery when she recovers. With their close proximity, Declan & Avery are forced to realize that they have feelings for each other. Will their feelings mess up their friendship?

'When Sparks Fly' is a cute romance of friends turning to lovers. It was a breezy light read. Doesn't dwell too much into their complicated relationship and baggage. But was a nice feel good book. Overall would rate the book 4 Stars.

I don’t think I can accurately explain how much I loved this book. I absolutely adored Avery and Declan and their friendship and relationship. They were both so raw and real and flawed and fleshed out. Their love story is one of the sweetest I’ve ever read but at the same time, it always felt true to real life. It wasn’t easy, but it was real. And can we talk about how they fought to get back to each other in such a freaking healthy way? I’ve never seen that in a romance book and I wanted to scream for joy. I went to Amazon to order a physical copy (before I’d even finished it) and to check out the author’s other books and saw that she has a sequel coming next year for this book and I immediately preordered! I cannot wait to read more.

When Sparks Fly is a cute easy friends to lovers story. It, of course, has it's conflicts but nothing to heartbreaking. Avery and Declan are roommates and friends. Their lives are intertwined in about everyway except for one; romantically. When a mistake leads to an accident Avery is dependant on nurse Declan to assist her in healing. Their extra forced proximity leads to some fun and steamy moments. Overall a fun read.

This review is for the audio version of this story. A cute, rom com with a lot of depth, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. Avery and Declan are best friends and roommates so we have a friends to romance plot. When Avery is in a car accident and Declan starts taking care of her full time they slip into a couples relationship, however, there are many issues that need to be resolved. Fortunately with the audio narration of duel narrators, it was easy to relate to each character. I had no trouble discerning who was talking. A fun listen and I imagine a quick read also. Very enjoyable.

4.5 stars! I absolutely loved this book. I was hooked right from the start. I don’t see the “friends to lovers” trope too often so that was refreshing and very well done by the author. The main characters were great (minus a few exceptions on Declan’s part), I was rooting for Avery so hard. The narration was excellent and I loved the dual perspective. This book was so close to a 5 star read but I felt the ending fell a little flat for me but otherwise it was an excellent book! I highly recommend checking it out.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a cute romance at times and a bit more hot at others. If I had to choose a theme I would say it's a best friends to lovers theme. Helena Hunting has always had a talent of making her stories serious one chapter and hard not to start laughing in the next. And this one definitely didn't miss out on her talent.

The characters are definitely not perfect or even close to but that's what makes them feel much more real. Declan is your typical playboy, fun character but you also start to see the deep damaged boy that he uses the playboy act to hide. Then you have Avery who is more serious especially when it comes to work related things but still she's able to let loose and be one of the guys. She seemed a bit short tempered and snappy but I think it actually shows her as human. With everything she's going through it makes sense and once again real.

The story itself was a fun, hard to put down read. I just kept wanting to see what would happen next through the roller coaster of emotions. I definitely recommend this for new adult and romance fans. It's another great story of Helena Huntings.




Narration review

I want to start off by saying that these narrators were the perfect pick for the characters descriptions. They definitely brought the characters to life for me. I found it enjoyable to read and listen to. I wouldn't say one is better than the other because they are both done so well. This is definitely one I recommend as an audiobook though at the same time because of how much the narrators brought life into the story that reading the pages just can't in the same way.


I received an advanced copy through netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Ms. Hunting wove a wonderful story about friendship, trust, love and learning how to be the best version of yourself with every word of this book. Declan and Avery weren’t just friends, they were truly everything to the other, without realizing it. Deep down, they both knew they had deeper feelings for each other, but didn’t want to risk the friendship. Avery had already done that, and lost a friend and her boyfriend (and as a result, Declan lost his best friend).

Due to jealousy, which he doesn’t admit to, Declan doesn’t go on a planned trip with Avery. He lets her her down and she is heartbroken because he had never done this before. When he calls to apologize, there is an accident and he fears he might lose her forever. Her sisters are upset with him but he vows to take care of her through her recovery. She realizes that he owes her so she accepts his offer. Little do they know, this will change their relationship forever.

Declan has so much baggage from his parents’ relationship that he doesn’t even realize how messed up he is because of it. Avery also doesn’t know the extent of the damage his parents have done on him. While helping her with everything, they both acknowledge that they want to try for more. Open and honest conversations occur, but life gets in the way and jealousy rears it’s head again. This time, they might not overcome it.

I actually felt bad for Declan because I felt like she was wrong for doing what she did. He did overreact and not give her a chance to explain, but she should have talked to him first. I was happy to see her sisters talk to her and open her eyes to her part in their argument. I was also happy to see him get the help he needed. The way he opened the lines of communication and achieved a second chance was great.

Jason and Stella, the narrators did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life. Not every narrator is able to bring emotion, whether comical or serious, into their reading but I honestly felt so much emotion as I listened to this book.

I loved every moment of this book and can’t wait to read more about the Spark sisters, hopefully more books are coming. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

I received an ARC of this audio-book to listen to through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. When Sparks Fly by Helena Hunting and narrated by Stella Bloom and Jason Clarke is a friends to lovers trope audio-book that I enjoyed very much. The narrators do an excellent job of bringing the characters to life.
It’s not described as being the first book of a series, but the heroine has two sisters and both the heroine and hero are part of a friend group that feature in the book so perhaps it will end up being a series. Avery Spark and her sisters run Spark House a mansion like event hotel. Avery and Declan McCormick who is a financial advisor have been best friends since they met at college 10 years ago and they’ve lived together as roommates for the last 2 years. Avery had made plans to meet up with college friends to see a game at their Alma Mater and she was also going to make a pitch to her alumni association about holding events at Spark House.
Declan was supposed to join her and drive his car but he messed up and she drove herself and on the way was involved in a major car accident, was badly injured and now requires round the clock care as she has multiple casts and is basically helpless. Declan feels hugely guilty about Avery’s injuries and arranges to work from home so that he can be there for her. Neither of them is good at relationships, and Declan especially has sworn never to have a serious relationship, but the weeks and then months of extreme intimacy lead them to begin a sexual relationship, but if they can’t make it work, will it cost them their friendship? I really loved how brutally honest these two are with each other and how they are willing to put the work into their relationship because neither one of them wants it to fail. The angst and steam balance nicely and the strong relationships the protagonists have with the supporting characters made this book one that I highly recommend reading. Steam Level: Medium. Publishing Date: September 21, 2021. #WhenSparksFly #Helena Hunting #ContemporaryRomance #ContemporaryRomance AudioBook #FriendsToLoversRomance #RomanceReader #ContemporaryRomanceReader #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer #MacMillanAudio #NetGalley