Flutters and Flails

Technically this was 3.5 stars for me, but since Goodreads doesn't allow half stars, I'm bumping it up to 4.Blaze of Winter is the 2nd installment in the Star Harbor series. This time we follow the story of the Theo Grayson and Avery Newbridge. Thrown together by "fate" and by fate, I mean chance and a little family/friend interference, we watch as their relationship grows both physically (Theo is YUMMY!) and emotionally. These characters have depth! For those readers familiar with the romance genre, this book offers no surprises. But face it, who reads romance looking for a puzzle? (On a side note, I'm dying to know what the keys are for and it is a brilliant way to connect all the books in the series together, the fact that Seb, Theo, Cole and Val are brothers notwithstanding.) Barrett writes a solid, reliable read that I enjoyed both for the characters and for the writing.Lets talk more about the writing. In her first book, I was a bit disappointed in the style and the amount of extra "stuff". This book is a huge improvement. Huge. The dialogue is realistic, the descriptions aren't excessively excessive and the plot of the story is clearly laid out. It was a pleasure to read and I look forward to reading the next in the series.