From Smoke to Flames by A.M.Hargrove

IT'S LIVE!

 From Smoke to Flames by A.M.Hargrove

Blurb:

From USA Today Bestselling Author, A.M. Hargrove, comes the 3rd stand alone book in the West Brothers Novels.

They say there’s a fine line between love and hate. Ours was a mile wide.

To put it bluntly, my life sucked.
When I finally got up the courage to divorce my jerk of a husband, never in a million years
did I imagine his prick of an attorney would gain him full custody of my daughter.
My scant two weekend visits per month killed me.
And my ex made it as difficult as possible on me every single time.
So imagine my shock when said attorney’s name appeared at the top of the list
at the in-patient substance abuse clinic where I worked as a counselor.
My list.
The first thing that occurred was I completely lost my Zen.
Then my blood boiled.
Then his chart flew across the room and slammed into the wall.
How could this possibly be happening?
Karma couldn’t be this cruel.
How in the world could I be an empathetic abuse counselor to the cocky Pearson West, who destroyed my life?
I would rather become an addict myself, or better yet, strangle him first.

This is a full-length, contemporary, single-mom, enemies-to-lovers, romance. 


 I struggled a lot when I was writing this review and I must admit that it was close to getting three stars but as I loved reading it and really enjoyed reading it on the whole, I ended up with four stars.

The Wests are an amazing family who take care of their own and who are reliable, warm and always there when someone needs their help. So, naturally, when Pearson West, the third of the West brothers is in rehab trying to be free from his addiction to painkillers ...and everything that came after them, his family is there for him as well. Though it's not only his family but also Rose, his counselor, who is at his side, well, at least when they got over their (very) rocky start... It's not every day that the man who has helped your ex get full custody of your child turns up as your patient in an in-patient substance abuse clinic. Being friendly and empathetic is not very high on your list in a situation like this.
Fortunately, Pearson is a West and a trustworthy and honest as the rest of the family and things change. They might even change for the better.

I loved to read about Pearson's battle against his addiction and his way to sobriety. It was good to see him find his way and to see the support he got, not only from his family but from many others as well. Getting sober was never easy and as a character he was authentic and strong, despite his weaknesses.

What I struggled with though, was the lack of professionalism when it came to Rose and his relationship with her, be it as his counselor or in private. Yes, they tried to maintain some kind of distance and so on but honestly, there shouldn't have been a relationship of any kind at this point and of course, Rose's attitude at the beginning wasn't right either. She should never have accepted him as a patient.
The other part that really annoyed me were the clickety shoes. Yes, it was sweet and funny at the beginning, well, right at the beginning when it was Grey's story and it was also funny when it was mentioned the first time in From Smoke to Flames but, honestly, it was simply too much. Those shoes and the terrible dancing were mentioned far too often and with everybody laughing about the girls or being upset, it just didn't feel right.

Despite all that, I enjoyed the story which was once again well-written and captivating and I'm really looking forward to the next books by A.M.Hargrove.

★★★★

Do you want to know more about the West Brothers?

We first get to know them in Grey and Marin's book  From Ashes To Flames

and

From Ice To Flames was Hudson and Milly's story.