Reviews - Where There's Smoke...

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69 reviews for:

Where There's Smoke...

Aricka Alexander

3.86 AVERAGE

heavens_angel96's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

noveltea_13's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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: No

honestlyread's review against another edition

I know I know. I could’ve just finished it but honestly, I was bored by pg 130 and was just skimming at this point.

SPOILERS 🚨
Positives:
1)The spiciness is on point. Love the spicy scenes. The detail and the body positioning. Each encounter felt different and hot.
2)The romance is cute. Phee had bars. The way she first flirted was so good. Even I was quivering at the thought of someone towering over me and I’m 6’1”!
3)I love a good couple with chemistry. Angel and Phee had it. In spades. Both were great characters. Really fun and interesting.
4) The dialogue (at times) was on point. Loved the way they spoke to each other. The way they flirted was sexy and made me giggle a few times.

Negatives:
1) There really isn’t a story here. What is the plot? Two women fall in love. Ok but how? They already liked each other and just kept on liking each other. No build up or escalation of feelings or emotions.
2) There was a firefighter that didn’t fight fires! How?!? This was a missed opportunity to give Phee some depth and Angel an emotional ride as someone who loves a first responder. The one time they did have a fire it was lackluster as best. Was it a blaze? Was the room on fire? Or was it just a smoke alert. The lack of description in the ONLY action event was so confusing. So much could’ve been done with this.
3) Zero obstacles for them to fight through. I’m not saying they needed to break up or a misunderstanding or anything but something needed to test them to bring them closer. Angel pushes Phee away after the fire and then is upset when she wasn’t there. Again, a missed opportunity to explore their emotions surrounding guilt.
(Nate and his moment wasn’t really an obstacle. More of a backstory reveal.)

It was just a series of moments that didn’t really push the story forward. Just served as more examples of Phee and Angel’s love for each other. I kept thinking “why are we here?” so many times. Nothing haooened in the world around them that didn’t involve them together. Phee was meeting up with Angel, Angel was meeting up with Phee. They both had lives but were rarely involved in them.

4) The dialogue got repetive very quickly. While I love couple affirming each other and not holding back how they feel, this is all Pher and Angel do. Over and over and over again. They hardly ever talked about anything else.

I really wanted to like this. I did. It’s always hard to find black sapphic book and I jump at the chance to read one. I just couldn’t get into the story. There wasn’t anything keeping me hooked enough to stay.