Fire with Fire

Title: Fire with Fire
Authors: Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian
Series: #2 in the Burn for Burn series
Pages: 517 (hardcover)
Published: August, 2013, by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
(All links below lead to it's respective Goodreads' page unless otherwise specified)

Summary: Lillia, Kat, and Mary had the perfect plan. Work together in secret to take down the people who wronged them. But things didn’t exactly go the way they’d hoped at the Homecoming Dance. 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...

My Thoughts: What a great sequel to Burn for Burn! Even though it took me a while to finish this book, every time I picked it up I felt like I was flying through it. That might be because of the short nature of the chapters but I think it's mostly because the plot was always moving and never felt stagnant.

I think I might have said this before about Burn for Burn (link leads to my book review), but when point of views change in a book, it can either work wonderfully or fail completely for me, there is no in between. The same logic, in my opinion, applies to dual authors, too. However, with these books, it's effortless. Jenny Han's and Siobhan Vivian's writing blends so seamlessly and it words so well with the multiple POVs in this series that I couldn't imagine it written any other way.

The characters were more complex and fleshed out in this book, as well. Kat and Lillian become more understanding of those that they were seeking revenge on and they were less blinded by their bloodthirsty cause.  When a character is only defined by a revenge plot, it can get boring and tired fast, so it was nice to see most of the characters shift their focus from time to time. This also led to more of a fulfilling plot, in the end.

I also loved how the series is crossing genres midway through the series, but once again, it's quite seamless. You're given a small glimpse of this crossover in the first book, but it comes to fruition in this installment.  With the new genre, comes a breath of fresh air as well as more possibilities to be surprised by the story, and I love that about these books. They always surprise me and I'm left wanting more.

The reason why this novel didn't get a 5 out of 5 stars is because it became a little predictable for me near the end, even with the genre switch and the big twist at the end. I found myself skimming those parts just so I could get on with the story. But I will definitely be continuing on with this series and reading Ashes to Ashes in the near future. I need to know what happens to this dramatic and insane trio!
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars