Bright Like Wildfire by Juliette Cross

POV: Dual 1st Person
PoP: 53%
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers; Age Gap; Rom-Com; Slow Burn; Small Town; Series Starter
Series: Beauville Book one
Rate:  5/5 Stars
Release Date: July 12, 2022

Betty is a strong woman with a lack of filter and could give a hoot what people think about her.  She is open an honest. Opinionate and blunt, but yet has an extremely hard time letting people in.   Bennett is small town royalty.  His family is one of the wealthiest in town, but he doesn’t like to use this to his advantage.  He wants to work for everything that he has.  

Betty had a small crush on Bennett when they were younger, but a glitter bomb incident ruined that for her, and she has been holding a grudge.  Bennett has a fascination with Betty because he sees this woman who truly doesn’t care what people think about her, but yet can’t figure out exactly why he rubs her the wrong way.

I love the way Juliette cross creates these characters stories.  They are both extremely driven, but it doesn’t hold them back.  They both have a little bit of baggage, but not so much it bogs them down.  They have a connection that some people never find.  But that doesn’t mean it is all smooth sailing.  Betty almost always is waiting for the shoe to drop, and it never truly does, but she thinks it does.  Bennett puts himself out there, but at the same time doesn’t truly pay attention to some of her cues.  There are some extremely funny moments in this story, and I love the way in which the production of the play that they are doing follows along with their storyline.  I can’t wait to see what other stories we get from Beauville.