Melissa Brayden’s latest book, Sparks Like Ours, dealt with competitive surfing, job pressures, pregnancy worries, and of course, relationship problems. This is what I love about her books. She places her characters in many different realistic situations with dialogue to match. The key word here is realistic, especially in terms of life, and in this story, competition. The two characters spotlighted in this story were Elle and Gia, who were initially ranked first and second. However, they were not perfect, and that, in itself was okay. The constructive message I felt Ms. Brayden conveyed throughout this story was as follows: Life is not perfect, the people we love are not perfect, but if we deal with life’s situations in a positive manner through communication, respect, and love, we will always be winners. This book is definitely a winner!

Lovely story, I LOVED the friendship, the dialogue was fantastic and realistic. I did however feel like the drama was kinda un-called for but it all worked at the end for the book. This is my second book for the author and I really think I'm starting to add her to my favorite writers Highly recommended

thank you for the Author/the publisher and Netgalley for giving me free copy in return of my opinion.

*I received an ARC for my honest review of this book*

4.5 Stars. I really enjoyed this book, it was good from beginning to end. This book is about Gia Malone, number two surfer in the world, and Elle Britton, the number one surfer in the world. They wind up in an add campaign where they have to spend a lot of time together, which changes their opinions about one another as they get to know each other. This story is interesting as it has a lot of tension between the two and they start to become friends. They both had the wrong impressions of each other, as they had never spent any time together before.

I loved the tension and confusion between the two main characters. Elle is dating a man in the beginning of the book, and assumes she is straight. I love the straight girl books where they realize aren't anymore. Elle's confusion just adds to her character and helped develop her. This book had a lot of character development and gave Gia a fuller personality than she had in the previous books. They both evolve as the book goes on and I love where this story goes.

I would recommend this book, it is a great Melissa Brayden book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it as a great book. I couldn't stop reading it and kept wanting to know where it goes next.

I want to start this review by saying how glad I am that this is not a trilogy. There is one more and oh how I cannot wait for Hadley. Don’t get me wrong Hadley’s story is going to be outstanding but aren’t all of Brayden’s stories. Let me tell you Gia Malone and Elle Britton bring the heat. Hell yes they do, the heat they bring is hot, smoking hot.

Gia and Elle are fierce competitors. Elle is the currently the number one female professional surfer. She has adoring fans and is the face of women’s surfing. Gia is number two and is doing everything in her power to get her points total to top Elle’s. They don’t hate each other but there is some definite tension. Ooooh, don’t you just love the tension and the whole got off on the wrong foot/rivals scenario, Lord knows I do! Two elite athletes that are both fierce competitors, you know right off the bat that Brayden is going to give you some fabulous angst mixed in with amazing dialogue, light-hearted fun, and characters that steal your heart.

Gia is driven, ambitious and solely focused on being the very best female surfer. She loves surfing for the pureness of it and to fuel her competitive spirit. Catering to sponsors and being friendly with reporters is part of her job but something she is less than comfortable with. Elle gets under Gia’s skin because she not only knows how to play the game, she has reporters, fans, and sponsors eating out of her hand. This peppy people person drives her mad.

What draws you so much to these Gi and Elle is that they act like real people. They are flawed, they make mistakes, they get tipsy on margaritas in a bar and blurt out something that they shouldn’t. Perfection is boring. Brayden makes them come alive right off the page. You love them for their missteps and their triumphs. You love them because she makes them feel real.

We aren’t reinventing the wheel here folks. Brayden has her formula and by golly, I am so glad she does. It works and it’s not good, it’s great. I for one, think my lucky stars that Melissa Brayden writes lady loving books because she is one of the very best and takes it to the next level every single book. She writes the stories that you come back to. Not once, or twice, but time and time again because they give you all of the feels. Isn’t that why we love romance? Those little flutters that pull of your heartstrings, that paragraph that makes you smile, the joy of a first kiss. Her books are the ones you cherish.

An easy 5 stars!

Sparks Like Ours continues the Seven Shores Series romance series with Gia as the star of the show finding love in the most unexpected and inconvenient place. Elle Britton is the currrent female world surfing champion and Gia is hot on her heels at number 2 and whoops, they fall for each other when they are brought together to work on an ad campaign featuring their rivalry. Workplace romances are common and their situation is no different than any other 2 people falling in love at work, but yet it is so much more complicated when in direct competition in a professional sport under the scrutiny of the press and fans. I really liked how both characters were written with their devotion not just to their sport, but their drive for excellence in what they did for a living. As their romance builds, it is definitively predictable that there will eventually be a conflict that both the reader and characters can see from far off. Part of the fun and suspense was trying to figure out how it was going to play out and to what conclusion our characters would come to see. Along the way, we are gifted a few Easter Eggs to enjoy that will make you smile. The ease that these characters live and play together has made it worthwhile to spend time in their beach town and I look forward to more of their stories.

What really amazes me with Melissa Brayden’s books in general is her magical ability to write dialogues! I have a big problem with long dialogues in the books because usually to me they seem kind of forced and artificial, without a natural conversational fluidity, but that is simply not the case with Melissa Brayden! The woman is a Goddess for friendly banter, eloquent flirting between characters and charming replies to provocative teasing! I just love reading her books! LOVE THEM! Again, she scored perfectly with Sparks Like Ours! I love loved she had included the characters from her previous books, so it makes you feel like those people really exist! Basically - Melissa Brayden writing a mediocre book - there is yet to be seen - if that EVER happens, considering how brilliant she is in romance genre!