Reviewer: Tracy
Just One Spark (Just One... #1) by Jenna Bayley-Burke
Series: Just One... #1
Also in this series: Just One Spark
Publisher: Entangled: Lovestruck
Publication Date: April 9th 2018
Format: eARC
Point-of-View: Third Person
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 260
Add It: Goodreads
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Series Rating:

Hannah Daniels reads steamy romance novels to forget her last trip on the love roller coaster shredded her heart and tossed it like confetti. Her instincts about men stink, but at work they’re on point. Only her busy schedule means she reads whenever she can make time. Like at the laundromat while sitting on top of a washing machine. Don’t judge.

Firefighter Mason McNally has searched his whole life for a woman who stirs his soul. When he finds her, she’s nose-deep in a racy paperback atop a vibrating washer. Her beauty, boldness, and raw sensuality ignite his interest. But there’s a problem. He’s forgotten he’s wearing a wedding ring.

No amount of hasty explanations that it’s for his brother’s psychology experiment convinces her to give him a chance. But he’s rushed into fiery situations before, and this woman is totally worth the risk. He’ll just have to prove to her that first impressions can be wrong and their spark of attraction is oh so right.

Hannah is in the laundromat when she meets Mason.  Unfortunately Mason had been participating in an experiment for his psychologist brother and was wearing a wedding ring.  Hannah tells him off for hitting on her and even though Mason says he’s not married, she doesn’t believe him.

Hannah had been dating previously but then found out that the guy was married with a family and she was crushed by what she thought of as her own stupidity.  She doesn’t trust men in general right now and is just interested in her career.

Mason is determined to talk to Hannah once again so he basically stalks her until he can find her, but fails.  It’s through Hannah’s married sister that she ends up meeting Mason’s brother and then is re-introduced to Mason.  They find out that they are neighbors in the same building and he lives right above her.  Despite Hannah’s decisions to take things slowly they can’t seem to keep their hands off of each other.  For Hannah, however, this is just the beginning of what might be a lasting relationship.  For Mason this is the beginning of forever. He wants her and he’s not about to let her go.

This starts off as a decent story, although Mason’s stalking is a bit creepy.  Unfortunately all I ever really felt for this couple, as the book moved on, was awkwardness.  I never felt comfortable with the pair and I think it was because of Hannah.  I found her to be incredibly irritating.  She was stubborn, grated on my nerves and at times she was down-right mean to Mason.  He had his issues but overall he was a nice guy who seemed to truly care about her.  He deserved way better, imho.  Throughout the whole book Hannah never tells Mason she loves him.  Never.  I found that extremely odd in a romance.

There were some parts of the book that were better than others but I found them few and far between.  I didn’t realize as I was reading the book that I had read it before.  I think I must have blocked it, or something because only one part really made me think, “Have I read this before?”  According to Goodreads I read it 4 years ago but sadly I didn’t like it any better this time around.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Just One…