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Flashed is a delicious, slow-burning wish fulfillment slice of romance of the highest order. Beauty and the Beast with a skosh of Cinderella, it’s comfortable yet spicy, heartbreaking yet gladdening. It will be a delicious bit of catnip for anyone who’s willing to be enchanted by its embrace.
Former soccer player, book cover model, stripper (there’s an employment history you don’t read about every day) and actor Patrick – Pat – Halloran is an action star mainly known for his physical beauty and wild party boy antics. But drunk and running from a fistfight with his brother after his birthday party, he’s involved in a three car pile-up, that partially paralyzes his brother and leaves Pat heavily scarred. Pat’s anxiety, self-loathing and PTSD have left him a shell of his former, outgoing self, trapped alone in the bedroom of his family’s Montana house and only coming face to face with his close friends and assistants.
College student and art major Magdalena – Lena – Martel is a perky nerd who talks to the Porg stuffy she has dangling from the rear-view mirror of her junker (It’s called Leia Porgana, just to brace you for the awesome levels of “the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one” we’re about to get here). Forced into poverty thanks to her stepmother’s shopaholic ways, Lena is desperate. Answering a Craigslist ad for maid service, she arrives at Patrick’s house and is informed by his best friend Scarlett that her duties will include cleaning the rapidly dilapidating place and cooking for Patrick to his exacting taste. Lena needs the money for tuition, to pay the debts racked up by her stepmother and to support her teenage half-sister, so she agrees to the terms, but cannot resist trying to communicate with gruff Pat through the closed door of his room.
Just like Belle and the Beast, they get off on the wrong foot. When Pat sees Lena, he’s struck by her beauty but is determined to close himself off from her; he belittles her but doesn’t mean to be cruel. Lena stands up for herself, pushing back and shoving him out of his comfort zone, forcing him to confront what he doesn’t like. She charms him with her perfect cooking; he seduces her over the phone (and vice versa). She comes to realize how deep his grief is, and how hard it is for him to integrate himself back into society. Through the sheer force of her personality, she starts luring him back out into the light. But when she learns the truth about the accident and Pat is asked to trust Lena, will they stay together?
Flashed is one of those books that manages to combine sexy barn-burner moments of high emotion with humor and sensitivity and family drama. It’s damn good at what it does, and it’s easy to become absorbed in its storytelling.
Lena starts out as a shade mousy, but she soon finds her footing. The book is a long process of watching her get gumption and courage and learn how to stand up for herself against the people who victimize her. She grows up and the book does a pretty good job of making her maturation into an adult realistic. Flashed is also good at embroidering her memories of her mother and childhood into the book. She’s half Latina, and the author weaves small, beautiful details about her background into the prose (Adobo!).
Patrick comes off like an alpha type, but as stormy and angry as he is, he’s filled with sadness and remorse and has a sometimes goofy sense of humor. The book’s exploration of PTSD is very good and beautifully understated, and the fact that he needs therapy and that his friends are as important to him as Lena was a wonderful twist.
Pat and Lena’s romance is hot and angsty but also laced wonderfully with humor – Pat mistaking an IUD for a WMD made me cackle; also big ups to this novel for having the hero and heroine discuss birth control on page. This is an age gap romance – she’s about ten years younger than he is, but Lena is no shrinking violet. Even better, she’s no pre-orgasmic virgin, hallelujah! Though I must add that there’s nothing sexy about the hero thinking to himself that the heroine looks innocent while sitting there covered in his ‘fluids’.
Minor character-wise, I loved Patrick’s friend Scarlett who’s done with his crap in general, and his doctor Kayli. Lena’s half-sister, Ari, feels appropriately teenager-ish, and I liked the gumption shown by Lena’s best friend Mari. And yes, all of Pat’s friends (and the heroes of the previous books) do appear as he struggles to make amends with them and reach out to apologize for his reckless ways.
The only part of Flashed I didn’t enjoy (aside from the whole ‘you’re so sexy covered in my fluids’ line) was the somewhat clichéd evil stepmom Lena has to deal with. The book doesn’t give her any depth at all, and she’s very much a cardboard villain. Sometimes relatives can just be like that, but she felt like every other wicked stepmother I’d ever read about.
Overall, Flashed weaves a lovely tale that gives you pulse-pounding love story and weaves an enchanting romantic landscape. It’s an excellent romance with spice and a ton of emotional layers, and gets a solid recommendation.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
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Grade: A-
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 31/08/19
Publication Date: 08/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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Dabney, I think it starts about 6 months after the accident. The lacerations would have healed, but the scars as described are pretty horrific sounding. But even though I kept thinking about all the treatments he wasn’t getting, I was still able to enjoy the story.
I read the first book. too, and I liked this one a lot more. But yeah, $10 is a lot for an ebook.
Yeah, It’s unfortunate that the publisher thinks this is a good idea TBH. It’s a great novel, even works pretty well as a standalone, and could help them rake in the cash had they not chosen to do this.
Hold up.
$9.99????
Not saying it’s not worth that…but that’s steep for a Kindle book & an author I haven’t tried before.
I’ll wait.
Will they get it at your library? That is a lot (now I’m regretting I didn’t request it at NG! But the first one was a B read for me so I haven’t continued the series)
I checked and no, it isn’t in the catalog as a hard copy or ebook. I also wish I requested it at NG! It’s a bummer – that price is really prohibitive for book readers on a budget.
I saw the price when I was getting the buy links and was really surprised. I know romances are generally undersold, but this seemed like a huge hike.
This review is so tempting! I think I have to read it!!
SPOILERISH COMMENT AHEAD*******************
I liked this book a great deal too, due in no small part to the narrators of the audio book, Carmen Vine and Teddy Hamilton. The story was engaging and unusual, and the various threads of dramatic tension were carefully and slowly woven in, making the reveals of same highly anticipated. My only quibble was that I kept thinking that if someone were really that heavily scarred he would have received plastic surgery and scar-prevention therapies, especially on his face. I mean he never even used any creams on his scars! Of course that would have ruined the story, but my ‘real world’ brain just wouldn’t shut up about it. Otherwise, it’s a very good story and a nice slow-burn romance.
I figured that the lack of going to the surgeon stemmed from Patrick’s stubbornness; otherwise yep, makes no sense!
I kept telling myself that he was trying to punish himself, but I still couldn’t get it out of my head. In the real world he’d have worn compression devices, had multiple surgeries, used scar-minimizing creams, etc. But other than that I liked the book. They audio version is very well narrated, too.
Exactly, and that wouldn’t even be a cosmetic issue – it’d be to keep him from getting deep infections in the tissue of his head and face.
How much after the accident was the story set?
@Dabney – as Kester said, about six months. His brother’s still in rehab for the injuries he got from the accident.