Spitfire Series Book 2
I really loved the first book, but I have to be honest, I didn’t get the same feels on this one. I think it’s because the plot sags a bit, and I lost a certain amount of empathy for Skylar.
We’re straight into some heavy angst, and I advise there are triggers warnings regarding abortion. It could have been gut wrenching, but somehow it didn’t quite touch me as deeply as I would have expected. The thing I didn’t understand was why Skylar didn’t speak to someone. She made the decision all on her own, despite having supportive family members and a good friend whom she could have talked to. While I liked her desire to solve her problems herself in the first book, here it felt like too much, like she went through the whole thing alone out of stubbornness. Plus, I’m not one for not telling baby daddies about their potential offspring, regardless of the circumstances, but that’s just my personal opinion.
So, after loving Skylar in the last book, her actions at the start tainted my feelings about her. We just know Brandon’s going to flip if he ever finds out, which I suppose is excellent foreshadowing on the part of the author. However, it makes Skylar a bit of a hypocrite after she walked away, claiming she couldn’t have a relationship with someone who kept secrets. We also later find out that she did discuss it with her best friend, but this dialogue seems to have been cut from the story and I can’t understand why. If I had more insight into Skylar’s internal battle, and what she went through while making the decision, I may have felt more empathy for her.
While the author touches on the emotions involved regarding the abortion, and it’s not handled insensitively, I wanted it to be deeper and I felt it should take more recovery time both physically and mentally. It was like Skylar made the decision, cried and mourned for a few hours, then it was done and behind her. Then she drags out telling him, and kept rolling my eyes at every attempt where she had the chance, but chickened out.
As a result of not being fully behind the characters, I noticed a lot more things that I overlooked in the first book. There’s lots of unnecessary repetition of backstory. I’m not talking about just stuff from the first book, but stuff that’s repeatedly mentioned in this book alone. There’s also some niggling proofreading errors and questionable plotting.
The middle sagged as Skylar drew out telling him the truth. The author also loves a huge description dump whenever there’s a new location. Again, this didn’t bother me so much in the first book because the pace remained brisk. In this one, the format got a bit dull to the point where I felt like skipping those paragraphs to get back to the action and dialogue.
I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this book, but I didn’t love it as much as the first one. The heat levels are just as high and steamy, and there’s plenty of sexy times. I just didn’t feel the same buzz as the story continued. I will read the final book, but I’m not sure if I will jump straight in this time.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Heat: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
