REVIEW: Firecracker by Claire Foster [a surprising debut]

Beau McAbee thinks he has his little sister’s firecracker of a best friend all figured out. His southern-boy charm doesn’t always work on Tessa Jennings, but after a chance encounter at a swimming hole, the two are drawn towards one another.

Things become rocky when their summer romance is threatened by Tessa landing her dream publishing job. She packs her bags and moves to Houston, crashing at Shep McAbee’s place – Beau’s older brother. Things should be simple enough… if Shep wasn’t desperate to escape the friend zone.

Tessa must navigate her opportunities of career, love, and friendship in this first installment of the Forever McAbee series.

Tropes: Small town, Best friends brother(s), Love triangle, He falls first

Read Firecracker here:
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My first ARC review and debut novel review on this blog! A quick thank you to The Author Agency as well as Claire Foster for giving me the opportunity to not only read this novel before it’s initial release, but also be apart of the team who get to promote and share such a great start to Claire’s writing career. I’m so excited to share my honest thoughts on Firecracker.

I have to admit, Firecracker is a book I’ve been anticipating for months – since I got back into bookish content creation. Claire promises a steamy but heart-warming small town romance between a fiery main character and her best friend’s brothers. Add in splashes of pining-since-childhood, some second chance romance, and a heavy dose of he falls first, and you have some high expectations for this novel.

At least, I did. And I’m happy to report that despite initial skepticism of fitting so many tropes into a debut work, I was extremely impressed by Claire’s ability to make it happen.

Can I Understand the Main Characters?

Not to get ahead of myself in this review, but this is the one place where I’m knocking a bit off my rating. Stick with me! I definitely understand the main characters – Tessa especially. In fact, I was plesantly surprised by the fact that I begun the novel not understanding her at all, but through her interactions and inner monologue I felt like I was her from time to time.

When it comes to Shep, I would argue that he was the easiest to understand. Aside from the fact that he is the first POV we get introduced to, I felt like absorbing his view not only on life but on his connection with Tessa was done so incredibly well, it was basically transparent. That aspect was the exact reason why I began rooting for Beau – seeing Tessa the way Shep saw her was eye-opening for the rest of the story. I would argue it was one of the most impressive elements to me while I was reading.

My slight dip in rating goes to my understanding in Beau. I will say that as you get further into the story, Beau’s heart is both stark on his sleeve and on the pages. But when the novel first began, I was struggling to connect with him and truly grasp his feelings for Tessa. For me this threw the story just a tad – considering that the foundation of it is his feelings for her.

Like I stated, though, once we get into the heap of it Beau’s thoughts and feelings are clear as day. I just can’t help but wonder if the first kiss of the book would have impacted me more if I understood Beau from the very beginning.

Is it Written Well?

I would say yes! I’ve stated before on this blog that when it comes to typos, grammatical errors, etc. I’m a lot more forgiving to indie and self-published authors because it’s unfair to hold them to the same standard of a Big Five publishing house. So yes, there was the occasional typo here or there, but nothing worth knocking an author who is so obviously talented.

What I loved most about Claire’s writing is her ability to sell sell sell the chemistry between her characters. To be frank, I don’t think this is something that can be easily taught to just any romance writer. And to think that she is able to do it so effortlessly on her debut novel? I was shocked. Flabbergasted, in the best way possible.

Beau and Tessa are written in a way that despite the fast-paced, head-first start of their relationship, the chemistry between them is so palpable it didn’t feel like an insta-love sort of situation. I want to emphasize how impressive this is to me because we jump RIGHT IN to the good stuff, and with limited background on the connection the two of them had. Yet, with how they were written, I could still feel the history between them and why it created the tension that it does.

This alone is worth so much praise to me. I’ve read so many novels where both main characters were interesting on their own, but fall flat when with one another. Beau and Tessa are the exact opposite – I don’t know whether I like them better as a couple, or as individuals. They both shine so well in each circumstance.

Is It Special?

Did you read the last two to three paragraphs?

I’ve discussed this novel with a friend who also received an ARC, and we both talk about the characters and the McAbee universe well past the last page. It stuck with both of us and left us highly anticipating the next installment in the series.

I also want to note that I fell deeply (DEEPLY) in love with one of this story’s side character’s with literally two sentences. Two! If that isn’t a testament to Claire’s skill at making her characters jump off the page and into your hearts, I’m not sure what is. And that itself is special.

(The character is Jesse by the way. I love him so much. Do I know anything about him? No, other than the fact that I really want to kiss him on the forehead. For me, that’s enough.)

I think it’s safe to say that I was highly impressed by this debut. Even with my expectations, I was pleasantly surprised from start to finish. Firecracker is a such a fun read that was nearly impossible to put down. If this is how Claire Foster begins her career, then I can’t wait to see what other characters, stories, and journeys she’s able to produce as time goes on.

★★★★★