Blog Tour Review + Giveaway: Bullets and Bonfires by Autumn Jones Lake

The one man she’s always wanted is now the sexy sheriff of their hometown.
Battered but not broken, grad student Brianna Avery returns to the childhood home she abandoned four years ago. With her abusive ex behind bars, Bree needs the summer to relax and recover before returning to school. But her overprotective brother decides she needs someone to babysit her in his absence, and he picks the one person guaranteed to drive her nuts.

She’s the one woman he can’t have.
Telling Bree no has never been easy. Four years ago, Liam Hollister did it to preserve his friendship with his best friend—Brianna’s brother. Now, no matter how she tempts him, he’s determined to do the right thing. As deputy sheriff of their rural area, Liam is torn between protecting Brianna and wanting her for himself.

Take a risk or lose the chance.
Spending so much time alone together challenges them both. Old feelings and hurts resurface immediately. With each hot, sweaty day it’s harder to deny their attraction.
It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

Romance is always the genre I turn to when I’m in a dark mood. Reading about a HEA always cheers me up even if the journey to that HEA is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Those HEAs are one of my favorite parts of reading a romance novel. I also love “watching” the two characters fall in love and getting to know them. The scenes involving the novel’s OTP are usually my favorite scenes to read of a romance novel and I love seeing how these two characters interact. The characters and their chemistry really make the novel and if either of those fail for me, I’m usually not moving forward with the story or I’m left disappointed.

Luckily, my latest romance read Bullets and Bonfires by Autumn Jones Lake did not disappoint! The story contained two of my favorite romance tropes: the “protector/bodyguard” trope and of course the “forbidden love” trope which I couldn’t resist. I was very lucky to have the opportunity to obtain an eBook ARC of this novel through InkSlinger PR and participate in this Blog Tour in exchange for an honest review of the book. While I received this eBook ARC for free in exchange for an honest review, this in no way influenced my thoughts on this book. Read on below for my thoughts and for the giveaway hosted by the author!

*Trigger Warning: This book does deal with an abusive relationship and one scene in the book does exhibit this type of relationship*

Ownership: ARC of eBook
Genre: Contemporary Romance   
Series: Standalone (with characters from Lost Kings MC series making an appearance) 
Published: 2017
Pages: 302 pages
Places to Buy: Amazon | B & N | GoodReads | iBooks | Kobo

Synopsis:

The one man she’s always wanted is now the sexy sheriff of their hometown.

Battered but not broken, grad student Brianna Avery returns to the childhood home she abandoned four years ago. With her abusive ex behind bars, Bree needs the summer to relax and recover before returning to school. But her overprotective brother decides she needs someone to babysit her in his absence, and he picks the one person guaranteed to drive her nuts.

She’s the one woman he can’t have.

Telling Bree no has never been easy. Four years ago, Liam Hollister did it to preserve his friendship with his best friend—Brianna’s brother. Now, no matter how she tempts him, he’s determined to do the right thing. As deputy sheriff of their rural area, Liam is torn between protecting Brianna and wanting her for himself.

Take a risk or lose the chance.

Spending so much time alone together challenges them both. Old feelings and hurts resurface immediately. With each hot, sweaty day it’s harder to deny their attraction.

It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

~

Ugh with a summery like that how could I not resist requesting this book for review?!

I ended up reading this book in one day! I haven’t read a ‘couldn’t put it down’ book in a while and I was excited that I was glued to this story.

Bree and Liam had a lot of great chemistry, but even better than that these characters had depth. Bree has had a rough time of it growing up under her alcoholic mother. She and her brother Vince would escape to Liam’s house to get away some nights when they were kids. Bree vowed never to return to her town and her family home once she left, but when her boyfriend turned abusive Bree packed up and went to the one place she didn’t want to go. Of course her ex wasn’t keen on the idea and ended up sending Bree to the hospital. But Bree being the strong character she is pressed chargers and her ex-boyfriend landed in jail. Bree’s character was such a great point of view to read from. She’s a bit battered, but definitely not broken. While she’s embarrassed to be home and that she ended up in an abusive relationship, it doesn’t stop her from healing, getting even stronger and moving on with her life. I loved watching her grow as well as her interactions with Liam!

Liam was definitely the protective type, but I think it had a lot to do with already being half in love with Bree anyway. Sometimes I wanted to shake him since he kept deeming Bree ‘off limits’ since she was his best friend’s sister. I totally get it, but on the other hand I’m like ‘you’re an adult! you already love her! ugh do something!’ haha. Other than that, Liam was such a great character. I loved that Lake wrote the story in alternating points of view in order to peek into Liam’s mind. It was nice to see him not only struggle through his attraction and feelings, but also see him grow and heal in his own way as well. I loved how both of these characters healed and grew better because of each other. This story wasn’t all about the sexy times (which of course were fabulous!), but also about two characters finally finding each other, then growing and bettering each other together.

The little interactions between the two had my heart melting!

Of course a ‘protection’ romance story couldn’t be without some suspense! Lake did a great job of keeping the tension of Bree’s situation going throughout the novel. There were some suspenseful moments that kept me gripped to the story even if I saw some of them coming. Intertwined with the suspense, Lake did a great job with the pacing of the novel. I never felt like the story stalled. As I said above, I read this in one day and couldn’t stop reading once I started! I was very enamored not only with the characters, but the story as well!

There are so many little scenes and actions between the characters that I loved and I so wish I could share, but of course, no spoilers here! 😉 I will say that I loved the little interactions between Bree and Liam and how their former relationship growing up together really showed in their present relationship. I just loved seeing them fall in love.

I also have to shout out to the secondary characters in this novel as well! While Vince was PIA and had me ‘shaking my head’ for most of his appearances, I’m sure there’s a story in there somewhere that (hopefully) Lake might share with us one day (please! 😉 ). Liam’s friends were also fun to read about and definitely lent some humor to the story. Each friend was distinct and definitely had me urging to have their stories and HEAs too! Of course, Bree’s new friends were just as fun to read about as well and I was glad she was able to connect with some people during her time back in her hometown! Basically I just want Lake to play matchmaker for everyone so that I can devour more of her stories! This was my first novel written by Lake and I’m definitely going to go back and read her first series the Lost Kings MC because I enjoyed this story so much!

I’d definitely recommend this novel to romance lovers, especially those who love a second chance romance or the forbidden love trope! Liam and Bree’s story was a delight to read about and I’m so glad I got to meet these two characters and see them & their relationship grow!

About Autumn Jones Lake:

Autumn believes true love stories never end. She’s easily amused, a procrastinator and loves romances with true alpha heroes who cherish the sassy women they fall in love with. Her past lives include baking cookies, slinging shoes, and practicing law. Playing with her imaginary friends is her favorite job so far. Autumn prefers to write her romances on the classy side of dirty, and she’s a sucker for a filthy-talking, demanding alpha male hero. The bigger the better.

Connect with Autumn!

Website | Facebook | Twitter | IG | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Newsletter | Bookbub | Personal Facebook Group 

Enter Autumn’s Giveaway:
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What do you think about Bree and Liam? Are you adding Bullets and Bonfires to your TBR? Have you read anything by Lake? What’s your go-to romance story? Let me know in the comments below! 

Happy Reading!

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