Once Burned by Lisa B. Kamps is a contemporary romance.  Ms. Kamps has provided readers with a well-written book.  This is a very angsty read, so if you don't like a lot of angst in your books, this probably won't be your favorite book ever.  If you do like angst, this book will be right up your alley.  

Nick was a teenage alcoholic when he crashed his car with his girlfriend in it.  Since that time he's cleaned up his act and is now a high school teacher.  Mike (or Michaela) is Nick's ex that was badly injured when their car accident happened and is now a firefighter.  Mike and Nick's story is loaded with drama, bits of humor, loads of angst and sex.  

While I enjoyed this story, the angst level was a little to much for me to love it.  I would be willing to give another book by Lisa B. Kamps a try though.  Once Burned is book 1 of the Firehouse Fourteen Series but can be read as a standalone.  This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

The book opens with a wedding ceremony. Yes, you read that right.

Okay, so, fine, it's a pretend wedding ceremony, and the boys are but 10 years old or so, but it establishes from the start what dynamics may be at play.

Max and Aiden are identical twins, with Max being the older brother by a few minutes, which has shaped their relationship for a long time. Max was always the more outgoing, and Aiden, much more introverted, was happy to stand in his brother's shadow while they were younger. Now, with both of them at college, Aiden wants to be more than just Max's brother.

Oliver was their childhood friend until divorce meant leaving with his mother, and his father moving away as well. But now his father has moved back to their old town, and Oliver has come home for the summer. The family dynamics, with loud, overbearing uncles and with parents that still can't seem to stand being in the same room together, has Oliver not wanting to spend much time at his father's house, so he's real happy to run into Max and Aiden again. Introverted like Aiden, Oliver is perfectly content to let Max plan their get-togethers, especially since that allows him to moon over Aiden, his childhood crush.

For the most part, this read like a YA/NA novel, with lots of mooning and crushing and blushing, and not a whole lot of on page action, and characters who on occasion sounded younger than their purported years, but maturity is a sliding scale so I was mostly fine with their portrayals.

What I really liked is that the author primarily explored the dynamics at play between two twin brothers who have been joined at the hip most of their lives, and a boy coming between them when Aiden and Oliver get romantically involved. I loved how Max's jealousy was explored, how it realistically became a roadblock, and how it forced honesty and open conversation between Aiden and Max and allowed them to experience real growth in their relationship. In fact, the book, told from the POVs of all three of the young man, really focuses more so on the relationship struggles between the twins than the developing romance between Oliver and Aiden. While the crush/romance serves as a catalyst to the struggles Max and Aiden go through, it's not the the only focus of this book.

The characters, their portrayals, felt realistic to me for the most part, other than their maturity levels, and that's probably more so on me than the author - I guess I expected a bit more from 20 year olds even if they're twins. Out of the three of them, I would say that Oliver is probably the most mature, which is potentially due to him being a child of divorce, which tends to make you grow up a little faster, and also because he's an only child.

There are some interesting supporting characters as well. The twins' parents welcome Oliver back with open arms, and make him feel like he's part of the family again. They were perhaps slightly too perfect, but meh, I didn't care. I liked them. Oliver's parents are supportive of him, but also don't necessarily create an environment for him in which he feels free, on either side. His uncles and extended family on his father's side are a loud bunch, which introverted Oliver doesn't like so much, and his mother, while supportive, seemed to struggle somewhat with wanting her child have a relationship with his father, and also not realizing that the divorce affected Oliver much more than she thought.

The book ends with a super sweet epilogue, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Quinn Anderson has proven once again that she can write fully fleshed out characters, with realistic, convincing characterizations, and a believable plot and timeline.

Highly recommended.


** I received a free copy of this book from its publisher in exchange for an honest review. **

The Fourteen Day Soul Detox: The Complet...

Jamie woke up with Sarah who was eight in her bed curled up next to her. It was Jamie’s birthday and she would just as soon go back to sleep. Cameron had slept on her coach last night. Cameron babysat Sarah a lot. Patrick was a handsome man and came up to say hi to Jamie and asked if his daughter Kay could have a play date with Sarah. Sarah was a special needs child as she had autism and she was in a special needs class half the day after lunch she had the same class as Kay. At night Jamie worked at her father’s bar that was why Cameron babysat so much. As Patrick and Jamie were walking a woman called out to Patrick and it was Whitney who was talking to Patrick and angering Jamie about the services she “demanded” for special needs children. Jamie told Whitney her husband had died a year ago to stop gossip and Cameron had been her husband Logan’s best friend. Jamie was meeting her sister for lunch then she seen her mother was there and wanted to walk back out. Jamie hadn’t talked to her mother in nine months. Six years ago Logan and Jamie had bought the Coffee Spot’s building. Chris was her baker and a friend and he felt that she should take the offer she had got and sell the Coffee Spot. Chris knew the Coffee Spot had been Logan’s dream. Not Jamie’s. At one time Jamie was in a pop group called Cherry Pie  and they had even made a CD. Chris got a copy of the CD and gave it to Jamie for her birthday. Janie had two very good friends that were a couple Susan and Beser. Susan was Logan’s twin. Susan and Jamie made up a fourteen day soul detox list for Jamie when Susan spent the night with Jamie. Things seemed to be escalating with  her neighbor Clarke and Jamie was getting really scared. Jamie found out Patrick’s father is the person who sued her a couple days after Logan had died. He had basically won and taken everything and the shop had a big lean on it that would take Jamie a long time to pay off if she didn’t sell. Jamie barely paid herself above minimum wage  to manage the shop. Jamie told Patrick Sr. that she would never sell the shop to him and then she went in and told Patrick off also. Then Amy came and spent the night and then decided to make a video to get out the news the elementary school let a special needs teacher go for a full time dance teacher. Then there was an incident with Clarke. Jamie and Sarah have moved in with Cameron and Jamie decided to go ahead and sell the shop and would work for Patrick for one year. Jamie also apologized to Patrick for starting on him and they were working again on being friends.

I was so happy to read this whole serial as I had already read the first part through NetGalley when it was available but now I had the whole story I could read and I loved   it!!!. My heart went out to Jamie with all she has had to endure. But then she decided to work on her life and had the fourteen day soul detox list and was doing her best to follow each step every day. She took this list seriously and grew a lot in this story as she completed day by day her list. I also felt bad what Clarke was putting her and then Cameron through too. This was realistic as far as I am concerned. I loved the plot but there was more than one thing going on in this story yet everything flowed and there was no confusion. I loved Cameron and Jamie as a couple but I felt bad when he seen her list and was hurt and angry. I also loved how the author showed a lot about autism and how an autistic child can act. I tip my hat to the author. I really can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this complete story. It was funny at times and heartbreaking at others and it felt like I was there with Cameron and Jamie. I liked that memories showed that had happened to Jamie and what she had went through I loved Cameron as the man he was and how he was there for Jamie and Sarah, This was just an excellent read. I loved the characters and the twists and turns of this story and I highly recommend.

Lisa B. Kamps’ INTO THE FLAMES is a hot addition to the Firehouse Fourteen Series.  For the past three-month, fireman Dale Gannon, has been suffering from lack of sleep because of his annoying new neighbor’s absence of courtesy by blaring awful music. The last thing he expects when he finally confronts his neighbor is to be attracted to her.  This contemporary romance is suitable for adults.  It is set in Baltimore.

We get to know Dale in Lisa B. Kamps’ ON THIS ICE (The Baltimore Banners, #8).  He is the brother of youth hockey referee, Lauren Gannon, who begins dating Baltimore Banners defenseman, Kenny Haskell, in that story.  I love that these two series crossed over.  In ON THIS ICE Dale’s and Lauren’s little sister Lindsay, poisoned Lauren.  In INTO THE FLAMES, Lindsey is about to go to trial for her crime.  Dale feels guilty for his sister’s action, thinking that if he gave her more attention, she might have not turned out so spoiled and self-entitled.  While you could follow INTO THE FLAMES without reading ON THIS ICE, I highly suggest you read ON THIS ICE.  It is an excellent book, and it gives you the story of what happened prior to this book. 

Dale is a great guy.  He is brave and dependable.  He hasn’t been himself because of the things going on with his sister. His friends and family are worried about him.  He finally starts to come back around when he meets Melanie.  I love that he calls Melanie Smurfette.  It is very appropriate considering how he meets her. 

Artist, Melanie Reeves is a fun free-spirited person. I love that she has a great sense of color, being able to express emotions in her artwork.  I also like, that her artwork evolved throughout the story as her feelings changed. I thought it was cool that both of Melanie's parents are artist.  I love that her mom understands her by just looking at her paintings.

I appreciated that Dale always ends up helping Melanie when she is locked out of her apartment. 

I love that Lauren and Kenny are in this story a lot.  I like that Lauren got along with Melanie and invited her to her first hockey game. 

Lisa B. Kamps did an amazing job with INTO THE FALMES.  The plot was well-executed and believable.  The characters are emotional and evolve throughout the story.  This was an excellent read from cover to cover. 

Complimentary copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Love at Fourteen continues to be a very odd duck.  For the most part it's the sweetest of the sweet, tame, love story between Kanata and Kazuki two 'mature' middle school students.  They're hiding their relationship from their classmates, and always in danger of having it revealed by nosy classmates, mix-ups and other funny situations.

Each volume gives the readers little updates on some of the other characters love lives as well, but of the other relationships only one isn't creepy to me.

First we have Aoi, who also has a crush on Kazuki.  She tries to trick Kanata into revealing that he's not good at math and thereby embarrass him in front of Kazuki and their classmates, but of course, it all backfires and she ends up feeling indebted to Kanata's good natured kindness instead.  I like Aoi and feel bad for her that she keeps pursuing someone who so obviously is not going to return her feelings.

In fact Kanata and Kazuki are so nice and so good, it actually makes the story just slightly boring and a whole bag of sappy.

The kid who names his videogame character OL (office lady) after the random woman he stalks on the bus is at least keeping his distance.  It's a little weird, but not uncommon.

Then we have Nagai and the music teacher.  She is a really creepy lady and should probably be fired from her job.

And in this volume, yet another slightly off relationship is revealed, the class rep is in love with the science teacher.  Spoiler: In the end she returns to the school as a fellow teacher and confesses her love.  (I guess it's good she waited until she was an adult, but still it's a bit off that the author keeps adding relationships between children and adults and making it seem like an okay thing, because it's not okay.)  It's not OK!