The hitch? Their daughter, Avery.īeautiful, popular and cool, Avery is everything Britton is not. But beginning her senior year with new foster parents in a new city, means starting over yet again.

After a lifetime in the care system, she doesn't expect she’ll ever find one. Then the bedroom door flies open, and someone screams her name…īritton Walsh has never had a home. I’ve been waiting so long for it to happen, and finally, it’s going to. She pushes me up against the wall and we kiss harder than we ever have before. The room is dark, except for the streetlights coming through the blinds. I enjoyed When Sparks Fly immensely and am eager to read more of Zimmer's work. There are so many ways it could have gone wrong, so many ways what's sweet and beautiful could have come across as trashy or taboo, that I felt almost as much relief as I did happiness. The slow-burn romance is the highlight here, of course, and I loved how (and why) that developed.

It's a refreshingly relaxed environment, free of any overt bullying or tension, allowing Zimmer to focus on the beauty of photography, the joys of stolen lunchtime moments, and the emotional turmoil of the big dance. Everything about this feels age-appropriate, with high school seniors who look and sound like you'd expect. Strong storytelling, near-perfect pacing, and a sweet romance populated by fabulous characters make uncovering that secret a delight. There's a secret behind their love and acceptance, just as there's a secret behind the animosity between Avery and Spence, and that secret is what challenges the romance even as it propels it forward. I won't spoil anything, but I think this may be the most realistic and loving adopted family I've ever had the pleasure of encountering on the page.

When you add in the romantic complications of Avery, their closeted daughter, you can't help but expect disaster with every twist. They seem too good, too perfect, too loving, and the ways in which Britton tries to maintain her distance breaks our hearts as much as it does hers. Tom and Cate's fostering of Britton is one of those things where convention and cliché make it hard for us to expect a happy ending. Kristen Zimmer doesn't just make us care about these girls, she makes us want to care for them - which brings me to the most surprising element of the story. When Sparks Fly is an impossibly beautiful read that had me on the verge of tears more than once. Britton, Avery, and Spence are such wonderful characters, immediately endearing and engaging, with an overlapping triangle of love and friendship that, for much of the book, could have gone either way.

When sparks fly by kristen zimmer