Review- Up In Flames by Nicole Williams

Summary-

One small town girl with a bright future. 
One smokejumper with a dark past. 
One summer that will forever change them both. 
They’re going . . .

Up In Flames. 



Elle’s life couldn’t possibly get any more small town than it already is. She was raised in the same home as the two generations before her were, her family owns the iconic downtown cafe, and she’s been dating the pastor’s son since she was allowed to go on her first date at sixteen. 

Cole’s life couldn’t possibly get any larger. He’s tried. Roaming from town to town for the past three summers as a smokejumper, Cole dreads the thought of putting down roots. The only thing he avoids more than that is settling down with one woman, especially when there are as many willing women as there are trees in the forest he jumps out of planes to save.

Elle Montgomery’s life is going one way. And Cole Carson’s is going the opposite. There’s no reason their paths should ever intersect, even in a small town in central Washington. 

But summer in the Methow Valley has other plans for Elle and Cole. After an awkward run-in at the local swimming hole, Elle tries to keep away from the guy who looks at her like she’s already lying beneath him in bed. She fails. Cole is about as successful at staying away from the girl who seems immune to his charms.

As the summer heats up, and tensions between Elle and Cole run high, he begins to realize there’s more he’s attracted to than Elle’s body, and she discovers there’s a lot more to the man that jumps out of planes into raging forest fires than meets the eye.

Review-

Up In Flames is not the first book I've read by Nicole Williams. I'd read Crash and Clash and I found them to be okay reads. But I am so glad to have picked up Up In Flames because it seemed like this book was a vast improvement from her previous books. Maybe I enjoyed it more because it is New Adult but to me it seemed more realistic and the characters didn't get on my nerves.

Elle is a small town girl. She's the town's sweet heart. She has the perfectly safe boyfriend whom everyone thinks she's going to marry soon and then live in town like the two generations before her. What everyone doesn't know or see is that Elle feels suffocated in the small town. She finds her life incredibly predictable and boring and she wants so much more.

Cole is a smokejumper. He dreads the though of putting  down roots anywhere and likes the way he lives his carefree life. Settling down with one woman is the farthest thing from his mind. But then he meets Elle and he can't keep away from her. Cole has never met a girl immune to his charms and that is what makes Elle all the more attractive to him.

Cole and Elle together were combustible. The title Up In Flames is seriously apt for them cause you can actually feel their chemistry sizzle whenever they're together. I loved all the romance and the tension between them. It was intense. The only thing I didn't like was the cheating aspect. Logan was a really nice guy who truly loved Elle and what was done to him was wrong. But Elle and Cole both feel enough remorse for their actions that they don't come off as flaky characters.

There was one time when I felt that the misunderstandings between Cole and Elle could be sorted out by simple means of communication but that just didn't go with their personalities. But it was still an enjoyable read. Up In Flames has quite a bit of similarities with Abbi Glines' The Vincent Boys so if you enjoy these kinda stories like me Up In Flames should definitely be a book on your list.

Janhvi