Reviewed by Valerie 

TITLE:  Firecracker

SERIES:  Honeybridge #1     

AUTHORS:  Lucy Lennox and May Archer

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  365 pages

RELEASE DATE:  November 29, 2022

BLURB:   

There are three kinds of people in Honeybridge, Maine: The Honeycutts, who know a lot about love and loyalty; The Wellbridges, who think they’re the epitome of wealth and refinement; and the rest of the Honeybridgers, who know better than to get in the way of the centuries-old rivalry between the two.

There wasn’t a time when I didn’t know Flynn “Firecracker” Honeycutt.

He’s been my childhood friend. My high school rival. The guy I couldn’t stop dreaming about, long after I thought I’d left him and Honeybridge in my rear-view mirror.

Now he’s the key to the giant promotion that can make or break my career… if I can just convince the man to give me the distribution rights for his award-winning mead.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.

Flynn’s not the guy he used to be. His gorgeous eyes used to spark with dreams and fire, but now he looks at me with cold fury. And just like Achilles had his heel and Samson had his hair, I had Flynn Honeycutt, the one man I’d never been able to charm, despite an entire life spent winning people over.

I’m not giving up, though. Because I’m not the kid I used to be, either. And because, if the two of us can survive a long, hot summer filled with his family’s crazy antics and my mother’s single-handed determination to keep the Wellbridge-Honeycutt feud alive, there might just be a chance for both of us to get what we want:

A new dream.

The fulfillment of an old town legend.

And another chance to spark Firecracker to life.

REVIEW:   

“No longer was it exhaustion pulling me down but the sheer heavy knowledge that I’d found my person. The man I wanted most in the world, the one who’d carried me with him for years on his very skin.”

Firecracker is a sweet, heartwarming book about misunderstandings and second chances among enemies. It benefits from the strengths of both Lucy Lennox and Archer: writing about love in small towns with their eccentricities and an “everyone knows everyone else’s business” dynamic, for better or worse. Whether it’s in Archer’s Love in O’Leary series, Lennox’s Forever Wilde series, or their co-written Licking Thicket series, it’s all about the family and friends who know you better than you know yourself. And, they accept you with all your foibles on full display.

Flynn Honeycutt and JT Wellbridge grew up together in the tiny Maine town whose name is a portmanteau of its feuding families – Honeybridge. It’s a town where traditions and local legends are foundational. The Hatfields and McCoys  Honeycutts and Wellbridges couldn’t be more different. Flynn and his five siblings were partially raised by their hippie parents – when they weren’t flitting around the world – their grandpa, and often by Flynn himself. Whereas, JT and his brother were born into local royalty, or so their overbearing, super competitive mother likes to think.

JT happily left Honeybridge in his rear-view mirror years ago and built a life in New York City. He wanted to learn his own lessons, make his own mistakes and celebrate his own successes away from his socialite parents’ influence. He needed to gain his independence and live life on his own terms. He hasn’t been back to Honeybridge in the three years since he returned for a Honeycutt funeral. JT comforted Flynn in his grief and they slept together just once before JT returned to NYC amidst a flurry of misunderstandings.

JT works for a beverage distributor and his boss is sending him to Maine to finalize a distribution deal with the owner of Honeybridge Meadery… none other than Flynn. Unfortunately, Flynn now despises JT and won’t give him the time of day. What was supposed to be a short business trip turns into weeks and weeks of summer. A promotion hinges on the success of this deal but Flynn won’t budge. While everyone else in the town loves JT – he was a very outgoing person who could make friends with a potted plant – Flynn can’t see beyond the antagonism. But JT is at fault, too. He can’t understand why Flynn won’t jump at the lucrative offer that would improve the lives of his family. JT truly wants that for Flynn but he can’t comprehend why that might not be in Flynn’s best interest.

Neither man will back down but they do, however, get down and dirty. Flynn assumes JT only wants a casual fling, which is not true, but JT is stymied not knowing how they can be together long-term, especially when stubborn Flynn has erected so many walls around himself. He’s afraid to trust or allow himself to be happy or vulnerable. JT needs to convince Flynn that he doesn’t need to hide any of himself; JT loves all of him.

“Flynn Honeycutt was six feet of walking temptation wrapped in a barbed-wire coating of stay-the-fuck-away-from-me.”

I had no idea I would become so bothered by JT’s manipulative, belittling, controlling mother and one of her Machiavellian guests. I don’t know what they triggered in me but I did not like those parts of the book. Which is to say, the authors did a great job of eliciting those emotions in me and I would imagine many other readers. That was their goal and they nailed it. But I also didn’t care for the misunderstandings between JT and Flynn that kept them apart. I guess I’m just not a drama llama; many of you, I’m sure, will enjoy the heightened animosity. I will say this doesn’t feel like manufactured drama. It fits into the plot seamlessly.

The supporting cast is, as always with these authors, fantastic and such a integral part of the story. Whether it was Flynn’s supportive siblings and his Pop (I loved them all) or JT’s sympathetic brother, Reagan, or even his mother, Patricia, they all served a purpose. Much of the humor in the book is a result of these interactions, although JT and Flynn struggling to deal with their feelings for each other provides most of the laughs.

Overall, this is a great opener to what promises to be a top-notch series. There are so many possible scenarios and future love matches. Reagan’s love story is up next. I’m very excited about all things Honeybridge now. Highly recommended.

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

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