Review: Burning Bright - Sophie McKenzie

Burning Bright by Sophie McKenzie, published by Simon and Schuster on 3rd January 2013

Goodreads synopsis:
Four months have passed and River and Flynn are still going strong. But things are not perfect. Flynn continues to fly into unprovoked rages, and when River tells her mum, she is banned from seeing him. Fighting to stay together, they end up being torn apart. Is it all over for River and Flynn?

Review:
This is the second book in Sophie McKenzie's series about the teenage romance between River and Flynn.  Yet again it has a gorgeous cover which is beautiful and made me itch to pick it up and start reading.

The story follows Flynn and River and their volatile relationship.  River loves him wholly and completely but struggles to deal with Flynn's explosive temper.  Her parents and friends don't approve of him either but she can't imagine living without him.  McKenzie depicts the intensity of their relationship which quite often seems to be stifling and claustrophobic.  They are together as much as they can be but don't often give each other any space without one or the other of them feeling jealous.  River trusts Flynn but he doesn't always seem to give her good reason to and some of his actions in the book thoroughly test her patience and her loyalty. 

I liked the realistic aspect of the story, which shows that true love doesn't always run smoothly.  A lot of obstacles are placed between River and Flynn and it was interesting to see how they handled these.  River has to face her mother's disapproval of her choice of boyfriend and Flynn has home problems of his own with his father appearing back on the scene.  He also has to finally acknowledge that he may have the same unpredictable temperament as the father he hates which threatens to come between him and River.

This was a quick read and I finished it in one evening, in part to the fact that the story was so enjoyable I couldn't put it down.  I'm looking forward to finding out what will happen next in the third book in the series 'Casting Shadows'.