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spanglish_literature_karina 's review for:
Barn Burner
by Anastasija White
Aaaagggggg.....I wanted to rate this book higher. Now I am questioning everything! What to do, what to do? I gave [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484] a solid 3 rating because I couldn't bring myself to give it more. The story was decent, but the execution lacked writing experience. I thought that, as time went on, the next books would only get better. I've just finished [b:Barn Burner|148445929|Barn Burner (Sinners on the Ice)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1706657641l/148445929._SY75_.jpg|163404674], and I don't know if I just wasn't feeling it or that [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484] was actually better, but I can't rate this one more than it's predecessor. What do I give it? A 2-star rating? Maybe a 2.5 and I round up to a 3 for the purpose of GoodReads? Maybe that is what I will do. But please know that this is not a 3-star rating for me. I don't think [a:Anastasija White|29668972|Anastasija White|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1697043041p2/29668972.jpg] evolved as a writer. I actually think this story lacked even more than the first installment of Sinners on the Ice.
[b:Barn Burner|148445929|Barn Burner (Sinners on the Ice)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1706657641l/148445929._SY75_.jpg|163404674] takes place five years after [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484], and the guys (Colton, Drake, and Clay) are all now NHL pro players. They were originally on different teams, but Drake finally got traded unexpectedly to the same team as Colton. Colton and Ava are still together, have their son Michael, and are living a happy married life. Drake is recently single, thanks to his trade, hanging out with his best friend, Colton, and Ava, and settling into his new city and team. He has an unfortunate encounter with his neighbor, Evangelina (Angie). We know she is an ex-model, so she is beautiful, and she now owns her own bake shop. She has a complicated relationship with her ex-boyfriend and needs Drake's help to be her fake boyfriend to get her ex to leave him alone. We can all imagine how the rest of the story goes.
Here is what I thought was good and what I didn't like. Actually, let me start with what I didn't like because I struggle to actually find things that I like.
1. We know from [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484] that Ava and Drake have known each other almost their entire lives, and they have a great friendship outside of the relationship that Ava has with Drake's sister, Layla (her BFF). We saw that, as [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484] went on, the relationship between Drake and Colton grew stronger from teammates/captain to actual friends. In [b:Barn Burner|148445929|Barn Burner (Sinners on the Ice)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1706657641l/148445929._SY75_.jpg|163404674] I felt that the friendship between Drake and Colt was stronger than the friendship with Drake and Ava. That doesn't mean I got the sense that the friendship was close, it was just closer. Drake was not transitioning to the new city as well as he might have thought, and he was lonely, felt like a burden, and maybe a little depressed. Evangeline helped him through that but his close friends, Colt and Ava, didn't help quite as much. I would have liked to see more of that friendship circle/found family feel more than what I did.
2. With that said, we also know that Drake and his sister, Layla, have a great relationship. We see them maintain contact, but when Layla finally did visit Drake, I think there was a total of 4 sentences dedicated to her visit and barely any of it actually showed their interaction. We also did not see the interaction between Evangelina and Layla or Maya, which is odd as Drake puts so much importance on family. By the time this part of the story came up, the plot was already dragging on so the ending needed to be rushed.
3. I didn't connect with Drake and Evagelina's relationship. I didn't feel the chemistry, the tension, or the attraction. It went from an awkward first encounter to being civil neighbors to fake dating and then attraction/sex and feelings, but that jump from fake dating to more was just dropped on us. The attraction was so fast and surrounded by weird bonding moments that I didn't feel it.
Speaking of bonding moments, what was with binge-watching One Tree Hill together? I noticed that [a:Anastasija White|29668972|Anastasija White|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1697043041p2/29668972.jpg] incorporated a lot of pop culture into her writing, but some of it is "recent" pop culture and others is pop culture from almost 20 years ago, which makes me wonder if the MC of the story would have actually been at an age to enjoy some of those references.
4. Evangelina - I don't really know what to say about Angie. I didn't connect at all with her. She tried to avoid her ex; we know she has her tattoos because of the scars he left on her, and she briefly skimped over the details of what their relationship was like, but we never got the full details, her feelings, or any of the experience. We know that she had a great relationship with her brother but not her sister, but again, the information we were given was very superficial on both of those relationships and we didn't really get a deep thought process into her feelings about the relationship with them. It was also mentioned that her father was a legendary football player and her upbringing and his reputation played into her mentality and relationships with others, especially potential boyfriends. These are all valid "trauma" points for her character but [a:Anastasija White|29668972|Anastasija White|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1697043041p2/29668972.jpg] didn't really dive deep into any of them...everything was addressed on a superficial level.
Our next book is Roman and Naveah, who were introduced in this book. We got to see glimpses of their attraction and the possible upcoming conflicts. It looks ok but I'm not too excited to start it today...maybe later next week. I am excited for the 4th installment of the Sinners on the Ice series. I am curious to see what happened between Clay and Layla and how they make their way back into each other's lives.
[b:Barn Burner|148445929|Barn Burner (Sinners on the Ice)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1706657641l/148445929._SY75_.jpg|163404674] takes place five years after [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484], and the guys (Colton, Drake, and Clay) are all now NHL pro players. They were originally on different teams, but Drake finally got traded unexpectedly to the same team as Colton. Colton and Ava are still together, have their son Michael, and are living a happy married life. Drake is recently single, thanks to his trade, hanging out with his best friend, Colton, and Ava, and settling into his new city and team. He has an unfortunate encounter with his neighbor, Evangelina (Angie). We know she is an ex-model, so she is beautiful, and she now owns her own bake shop. She has a complicated relationship with her ex-boyfriend and needs Drake's help to be her fake boyfriend to get her ex to leave him alone. We can all imagine how the rest of the story goes.
Here is what I thought was good and what I didn't like. Actually, let me start with what I didn't like because I struggle to actually find things that I like.
1. We know from [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484] that Ava and Drake have known each other almost their entire lives, and they have a great friendship outside of the relationship that Ava has with Drake's sister, Layla (her BFF). We saw that, as [b:SIN-BIN|123013822|SIN-BIN (Sinners on the Ice #1)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1710703785l/123013822._SY75_.jpg|144302484] went on, the relationship between Drake and Colton grew stronger from teammates/captain to actual friends. In [b:Barn Burner|148445929|Barn Burner (Sinners on the Ice)|Anastasija White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1706657641l/148445929._SY75_.jpg|163404674] I felt that the friendship between Drake and Colt was stronger than the friendship with Drake and Ava. That doesn't mean I got the sense that the friendship was close, it was just closer. Drake was not transitioning to the new city as well as he might have thought, and he was lonely, felt like a burden, and maybe a little depressed. Evangeline helped him through that but his close friends, Colt and Ava, didn't help quite as much. I would have liked to see more of that friendship circle/found family feel more than what I did.
2. With that said, we also know that Drake and his sister, Layla, have a great relationship. We see them maintain contact, but when Layla finally did visit Drake, I think there was a total of 4 sentences dedicated to her visit and barely any of it actually showed their interaction. We also did not see the interaction between Evangelina and Layla or Maya, which is odd as Drake puts so much importance on family. By the time this part of the story came up, the plot was already dragging on so the ending needed to be rushed.
3. I didn't connect with Drake and Evagelina's relationship. I didn't feel the chemistry, the tension, or the attraction. It went from an awkward first encounter to being civil neighbors to fake dating and then attraction/sex and feelings, but that jump from fake dating to more was just dropped on us. The attraction was so fast and surrounded by weird bonding moments that I didn't feel it.
Speaking of bonding moments, what was with binge-watching One Tree Hill together? I noticed that [a:Anastasija White|29668972|Anastasija White|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1697043041p2/29668972.jpg] incorporated a lot of pop culture into her writing, but some of it is "recent" pop culture and others is pop culture from almost 20 years ago, which makes me wonder if the MC of the story would have actually been at an age to enjoy some of those references.
4. Evangelina - I don't really know what to say about Angie. I didn't connect at all with her. She tried to avoid her ex; we know she has her tattoos because of the scars he left on her, and she briefly skimped over the details of what their relationship was like, but we never got the full details, her feelings, or any of the experience. We know that she had a great relationship with her brother but not her sister, but again, the information we were given was very superficial on both of those relationships and we didn't really get a deep thought process into her feelings about the relationship with them. It was also mentioned that her father was a legendary football player and her upbringing and his reputation played into her mentality and relationships with others, especially potential boyfriends. These are all valid "trauma" points for her character but [a:Anastasija White|29668972|Anastasija White|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1697043041p2/29668972.jpg] didn't really dive deep into any of them...everything was addressed on a superficial level.
Our next book is Roman and Naveah, who were introduced in this book. We got to see glimpses of their attraction and the possible upcoming conflicts. It looks ok but I'm not too excited to start it today...maybe later next week. I am excited for the 4th installment of the Sinners on the Ice series. I am curious to see what happened between Clay and Layla and how they make their way back into each other's lives.