Reviews - Like a House on Fire

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466 reviews for:

Like a House on Fire

Lauren McBrayer

3.86 AVERAGE

melrodriguez2's review against another edition

4.25

emotional medium-paced

carolinebrooks's review

4.5

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

elipinski's review

4.25

emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

charliepope's review

3.75

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tbretc's review

5.0

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

ravengoodwoman's review against another edition

5.0

"I did think, let’s go about this slowly.
This is important. This should take
some really deep thought. We should take
small thoughtful steps.

But, bless us, we didn't."

The quote above is featured during the prologue of this novel. Because of this, I was expecting a must faster romance to happen and was preparing myself for an almost instant love. So imagine my surprise when I ended up reading the slowest of slow burn sapphic romances that I’ve read in a while.

And I loved it! Both Merit and Jane felt like real life characters with real motivations and struggles. I didn’t mind that the romances didn’t kick in until 75% through the novel because McBrayer spent so much time building the enmeshed friendship between the two main characters that their romances almost seemed more ineffable, more so that their relationship had always been building to this, something that has always been there, rather than a next step to a story that the author had to write. The story felt natural to the characters, rather than the plot happening to the characters.

This story is about the fluidity of love, the strength of staying true to yourself versus what is expected of you, wanting to do what is best for your family versus what is best for yourself.

An amazing debut.

This novel is perfect for readers who like: adult fiction without cheesy tropes, the slowest of slow burn romances, sapphic romances with happy endings, age gap romances, coming out stories with older adults, adult fiction with no sex scenes, and adult bisexual characters.

sarahmariereads_'s review against another edition

4.0

This was a very well-written story - I really enjoyed the writing style. I could feel Merit’s indecision and anguish with her feelings for Jane but her commitment to Cory. I’m not a fan of infidelity so that put me off a little, as did Merit’s almost disregard for her children through most of the book. Being a mom myself, I get the overwhelm and difficulty in being a working mom, so I definitely related to that - but Merit’s case felt a little different. I think character-wise, Jane was my favorite. I also enjoyed the architect aspect of the book. Overall, I’d say this was a pretty good read!