Review: Great conclusion for Hunter and Leafy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 7, 2014
This review originally appeared on my blog, In Patti's Imagination. I received this book for an honest review. On the 5-star rating systems, it gets 4 stars from me. On my blog rating, which uses 10-star ratings, it gets 7.5 stars. I'm rounding up because I think that this was an excellent conclusion to Hunter and Leafy's story and I want to recognize that. But there were some issues that made this my least-favorite entry in the series.First, my annoyance at some of Hunter's attitude in Fury carried over to Flame and multiplied. When he was 100% in protect-Autumn/rescue Jessie mode, he was under a lot of stress and I guess I forgave his behavior more. But here, the worst is over and his attitude is all because of his insecurities and his inability to deal well with his past. Okay. I get it. He's damaged. It was hard to feel sorry for him when he was a HUGE jerk to Autumn more than once. I won't spoil it by saying why, but there were several moments early in the story where I wanted to slap him. For her part, Autumn experiences even more growth than we saw from her in Fierce, so I can't complain about her story too much.Second, there are a few things in this series that stretch believeability for me - things that are maybe not impossible but are highly improbable - but though they're not enough to make me dislike the story, they are also more obvious once we get to this segment. The narrative moves slower and is more character-driven, so perhaps that's why the improbability becomes more evident. When you're blazing through action, you notice less flaws - sort of like flying through on a bullet train compared to a slower locomotive. The faster you move, the less you can see of the weird stuff on the side of the tracks. Where Fierce and Fury were more like a bullet train, Flame was like long-distance commuter train. It still moved, but I could see more as I passed.That said, there was one thing that absolutely redeemed the story for me by the end and bumped up its rating, and it was the fact that both characters grew. I don't mind the rougher characters, the ones who are not perfect book boyfriends, as long as they grow. Likewise, the stereotypical heroines have to stretch, too. Here, I loved that geeky Autumn embraced her sexuality and Hunter tempered his sexual beast and they were able to meet in the middle. That's a good metaphor for the emotional changes they undergo as individuals and as a couple. He gave her the love she needed and found that he was stronger than he believed, and she grew to love herself through his eyes. And as I always say, give me characters I can stand behind, and I can overlook a lot of other issues.Clarissa has said that there may be other stories in the future for Jessie or maybe Jaret, but for now, this is the end of the Fierce Series, and I'd guess, given the ending, that it's probably the end of Hunter and Leafy's story told from their POVs. It was a nice conclusion to the series, and I'd recommend that you sit down and read them in sequence. You'll be rewarded with a lovely ending.