Release Date: August 13th 2013
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 528
Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

Rating: 4 out of 5

Synopsis: 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…

Review: Fire With Fire starts off exactly where Burn For Burn left us (which was a nail biting place to leave us hanging at the end of book 1 by the way!). Lillia, Kat and Mary have exacted their revenge on Reeve but with devastating results when he ends up breaking his leg in an injury that sees him missing out on football for the rest of the season, and potentially affecting his future with college. Mary confronts Reeve about what he did to her when they were both younger, and instead of receiving the apology she thought she might get from Reeve, she ends up feeling even more crushed. That’s when the girls decide they’re not done with Reeve yet. Knowing he has a thing for Lillia, they plan on breaking his heart like he did to Mary - but with shocking results.

This is one of those series where there is SO much happening, it’s somewhat baffling to pick a place to start, and very tricky to review without spoiling the whole series for people that haven’t read it yet. The first book had me a little overwhelmed with the amount of characters, however it paid off as the second book had me completely spellbound the entire time. Where there is a lot of characters, expect a lot of drama and subplots - and that’s exactly what Fire With Fire delivered.

The biggest difference between this second novel and the first in this series is primarily the stage of life the teenagers are at now. They’re in their final year of high school and there’s a big emphasis throughout this book of college applications and applying to different schools. Some are bowing to pressure from their parents and doing what’s asked of them. Others have set their expectations more conservatively. This is happening amongst all of the revenge plots we saw in the first book as well as continued day to day high school drama.

We take some leaps and bounds with the characters in this book… when I think of how I felt about certain characters at the end of Burn For Burn and then think about how I now feel about them at the end of Fire With Fire, I am astounded at how much my feelings have changed just in the one book.

Reeve was the standout character in this book, and the one I changed my feelings about the most. I hated him in the first book, and then I saw many different sides to him throughout this book. He is a multi faceted character and I was really challenged by him at times. There were times where I thought he was such a jerk, but then he’d show a really vulnerable and tender side to him that you didn’t even know he had. I felt as though I experienced the same emotions that Lillia was often feeling with him as we went on a rollercoaster ride with him.

Alex… Oh poor Alex. Am I the only one here that just wants the nice guy to catch a break? My heart breaks for him.

Lillia is probably the main protagonist of this story I would say. Whilst chapters alternate between Lillia, Kat and Mary, I felt like Lillia was the main story teller. I’m not sure I know how I feel about Lillia. I don’t dislike her. I feel like she’s following her heart, but at the cost of everyone around her - especially Alex, and this makes me sad.

Kat is badass. My feelings about Kat haven’t changed at all from the first book. Still love her. Love that she had some really vulnerable moments where she broke through about her mother in this book. She gets past some real emotional hurdles in this installment, and I really enjoyed it.

Mary. What the hell. I don’t even really know what to say about Mary, and to be honest, I am really confused especially after what the last three chapters of the book uncovered. I am intrigued and now doubting everything I read in this book. And I am tempted to re-read it to see if what I read even happened. The last three chapters CHANGE EVERYTHING GUYS! I can’t say. But I do expect the third book to answer a lot of these questions that I have.

And Rennie. Well. What a nasty piece of work. The ending of this book left me a little bit stunned and skeptical as to what’s going to happen in the third book. And I want to be empathetic, but I am not sure that I am that good a person.

So much drama. Such a great series. If you haven’t read Burn For Burn yet, you’re definitely going to have to before you get into Fire With Fire, just because of the amount of characters and sub plots. But trust me, it’s a highly entertaining series and I am heavily anticipating the third and final book when it comes out next year.