Review: Cute story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 20, 2014
Where There's Smoke begins with main character, Piper, returning to her home town (after six years). Piper's returns is not for a happy reason, and she's not expecting ex-boyfriend and high school sweetheart Ryland to still be around. Piper left under something of a dark cloud and has a lot of explaining to do.I liked Piper because she was, for want of a better word, realistic. I'm getting a bit fed up of books where the virginal girl is corrupted by the experienced guy and thankfully Elizabeth Lee didn't go down this route. As a teen Piper was the misunderstood 'bad-girl' who corrupted sweet Ryland, and sadly Piper convinced herself this was true.Ryland was very different to my expectations (in a positive way) and I liked how loyal he was. Ryland's relationship with Hadley was really sweet and one of my favourite parts of the story.I don't want to spoil the plot for you and I'm going to avoid rehashing the blurb. I will say there were certain times where I didn't necessarily understand Piper's (and often Ry's) decisions, but for the most part their choices made sense to the characters.I wasn't expecting the story to be as dark as it is in places, but I don't mind a little shade in my romances, as long as there is some light to balance it out. There are some pretty traumatic moments and although I had an inkling where the story was heading, I kept hoping I was wrong. The sensitive issues are handled well and with care and I believe they will be the focus of the next instalment in the series.I enjoyed Where There's Smoke and am looking forward to seeing what happens next. I did think it came to a rather abrupt end and I would have liked to see the main characters developed a bit more. Everything seemed to happen very fast, but for the most part I think their shared history countered this. I also thought the title was very clever and fit the story!4 Stars in my Sky!