Not even close.
For now, it looks like they got away with it. All they have to do is move on and pick up the pieces, forget there ever was a pact. But it’s not easy, not when Reeve is still a total jerk and Rennie’s meaner than she ever was before.
And then there’s sweet little Mary…she knows there’s something seriously wrong with her. If she can’t control her anger, she’s sure that someone will get hurt even worse than Reeve was. Mary understands now that it’s not just that Reeve bullied her—it’s that he made her love him.
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, burn for a burn. A broken heart for a broken heart. The girls are up to the task. They’ll make Reeve fall in love with Lillia and then they will crush him. It’s the only way he’ll learn.
It seems once a fire is lit, the only thing you can do is let it burn...
I still remember the last sentence of Burn for Burn. It’s in my brain forever. It was just the perfect last punch. It left me hanging, but not in a way that made me cranky – just in a way that made me very excited to get my hands on the second book. I was definitely looking for some kind of closure in this book, but I should have known I’d leave this book with the same great frustration at another amazing build to the story that cuts away just when it seems I’ll have all the answers. I love these books, you guys. They’re written so beautifully that everything seems understated, even when these girls are going big, and the balance leads to this almost hazy result that makes you wonder if it really happened.
I’ve grown so attached to Lillia, Kat and Mary through both of these books. I just adore the way their relationships have changed and grown. They are three very different girls and I think it’s fabulous that they can manage to be friends (albeit secret friends) and still manage to keep themselves so separate, so individual. I really like that they have different interests, different personalities, and different lives and they can still manage to find comfort and support in each other. Even if their common thread is revenge.
So, if you’ve read Burn for Burn, you know some stuff went down in that book. Kind of crazy stuff. Well, this book deals with the aftermath of those decisions and a lot of the tension in this book comes from wondering whether anyone is going to find out if it was these three girls behind the shenanigans (that went horribly wrong) in the first book. But of course, they can’t leave well enough alone, so they go after Reeve. I loved the John Tucker thing they had going, trying to make Reeve fall in love with Lillia so they could hurt him. Of course you see where that’s going – but when you have Mary who’s been scorned on one hand, and Rennie who’s all over Reeve on the other – it becomes quite the complicated triangle/square – or pentagon if you add Kat, who’s kind of a driving force behind the book.
By the end of this book, my allegiances were all over the place. I had some surprising reactions to certain situations. And I’m really shocked with the characters I kind of ended up loving by the end of the book. And there’s some awesome romance happening here, even if it’s tainted. It’s still pretty (ahem) fiery. That was really the only thing missing from Burn for Burn and it’ll definitely be interesting to see how a romantic relationship that changes everything will play a role in the finale of this series. I was just as stunned by the twist at the end of this book, which was accented by Jenny and Siobhan’s final punch at the end. Because, of course, there’s another end line that’s burned into my memory. I can only imagine what the last line of the entire series will be, because I can only imagine it will be stunning.
