They’re the best of friends or the worst of friends. Neither one is letting go.THE FLAMEHere lies Louchana Valentine. She was a homeless, orphaned virgin.I never cared what my gravestone would say until I landed in deep with a powerful gangster. Lucky for me, my best friend happens to be ruthless too. I should feel guilty that he’s forced to turn on the man who’s been a father to him. Except … man who’s been a father to him. Except I’ve always known that Wren’s soul wasn’t as black as he claimed.
He was good.
He was beautiful.
He was mine.
He just didn’t know it yet.
And with Wren keeping me safe, I’ve got time left to rewrite the end of my story. But if he has his way, virgin is already carved in stone.
THE MOTH
I’ve never known anyone as alluring as Lou. Or as frustrating. Since the night she saved my life and stole my wallet for her troubles, I couldn’t stay away.
She became my onus.
My light.
My…anyway.
With nowhere to run, I’m forced to trust someone I never expected. At least with Lou safe in Blackwood Keep–far away from me–I’ll die with my conscience intact. Because she no longer looks at me with friendship in her eyes. Those iridescent blues shine with a different need entirely, and I’ve never been able to deny her.
This second installment in the When Rivals Play series is a continuation of the events that occurred in The Peer and the Puppet. Content suitable for ages 18+.
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4 Stars!
The Review:
Lou and Wren are two characters who needed a damn hug! Shew…
Both of them have tragic and painful pasts. They meet in a well written but unusual way. She’s fifteen and he’s seventeen. The sparks were instant and their friendship was unbeatable. And when the “more” hit, I was blown away.
I loved their story!
The chemistry. Whoo, that chemistry! The slow, SLOW burn towards something more. The angsts. Oh my, the freaking angsts! The torture of wanting, and NEEDING them to get together. Both of them doing the whole give and take, push and pull. All of it. It was both intense and exhilarating! I really liked watching them fall.
Wren totally jumps over the grey line of being a bad boy! He does some really questionable things. His life isn’t ideal, and he doesn’t think he’s worthy. But his devotion and his absolute need to protect Lou had my heart in full-on “feels” mode. He’s got that whole “alpha male, I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure you’re ok” personality, and I swooned over it! As for Lou … I adored her character. And I hated her. But mostly loved her. She was selfish at times. But her past was riddled with pain, so I understood it. She was vulnerable and damaged. Some of her actions, and in return Lou’s reactions, hurt my heart and caused me to give my e-reader the stink-eye a time or two. But at the same time, I enjoyed the tummy flutters and the pull to keep reading.
This book was beautiful at times and trying at others. And that’s why I loved it so much. It pulled me from my everyday grind and shoved me into a friends-to-lovers romance done right! I love this author. She knows how to set the bar high on this kind of romance, and toss the reader right over that bar, giving us all the things we love in a read. Emotion. Great characters. Intense feels. And a story that’s sweet, sexy and fun.
Enough can’t be said about how BB Reid pulls her stories and series books together. She gives you more of the familiar, while also giving you something brand new. Her writing feels fresh and alive. She slowly pulls back the layers of her characters and their secrets and keeps you invested and guessing all the way through. And I love how we got to see characters from “The Peer and the Puppet” – which I LOVED – so it was awesome seeing them on the pages of this book too.
A great book, with amazing characters, a wonderful story and enough angsts and feels to suck you in and hold you captive until the very last page! A must read.
Rating: 5. Stars
“WHATS MINE IS MINE FOREVER”
This BOOK. This freaking Book.
The slow burn and all the feels. Daaamn
This book was everything I love and look forward in a book. From the start to the end it was perfectly done.
I would have read this book more than a dozen of times in just a year. It’s my go to book.
I loved this book! Lou and Wren’s story was everything I hoped it would be. I loved seeing all the characters from the Rival world. The plot was fast-paced. The angst and emotion were so real I could taste them. I can’t wait for more from this world.
I am so loving this series! Wren and Lou are hot hot!
Wren and Lou go on a quite the adventure and uncover more secrets of Exiled. Wren is so protective of Lou and does what he can to keep her out of trouble while she is determined to get into trouble. After being bounced around foster homes Wren is the one constant Lou has and falling for him seemed inevitable. You can tell he is holding back and when it is revealed why and the secrets that come out afterwards I was blown away! Great friends to lovers read!
Love this group and look forward to more from them!
The Moth and the Flame is Lou and Wren’s story and an angst filled one at that.
After Lou and Wren’s paths cross they become fast best friends even with so much desire between them. Wren would do anything for Lou except anything that will cross the line because he owes her a lot. Lou wants Wren and she’s willing to do anything to get his attention and try to convince him to run away from the life he’s leading. When facing danger Wren becomes allied with someone he never thought he could trust. Secrets unfold while Lou and Wren are both in danger. Things definitely heat up fast. Hearts will be shattered when the truth comes out….
The Moth and the Flame was such a good read that took me way to long due to other reading obligations but I can say it was well worth reading and I can’t wait to read more about these bossy men and the women who rule there hearts.
I didn’t know if I would care to read Lou and Wrens story. Since they were only a blip in book 1, I wasn’t really as invested in their story as the other characters. However, after reading I have come to the conclusion I was an idiot and should have read it sooner. I love this addition to the series, and I adore Wren and Lou. Being best friends and denying themselves what they really want for varying reasons at various times. The inherent drama of a friends to lovers romance, it’s just so delicious. I loved everything about their story, and of course I loved seeing my faves from the first book. Well written and utterly intoxicating.
Another masterpiece by the awesome B.B Reid
Oh damn people, this is a must read!
The moth and the flame is the 2nd book in the series and it’s definitely as good as the first one
It’s about two teenagers that were dealt a hard life but found comfort in each other… and some gang stuff
So much love and so much angst
But not only the story got me all hot and bothered – the characters were so hot
Wren comes off as hard and kinda strict to his best friend. But BB has a real talent writing her male heroes with just enough hard shell and a lot more soft, sweet, emotional inside
Lou was also kinda closed off… But I really felt her pain and understood her so much.
And I just gotta say that I love her and Fours friendship – got me even more excited about Evermore
I gotta say, that I really fell in love with Wren and Lou!
I listened to this book on Audible. There were many layers to the relationship of Wren and Lou that kept the story unique. I enjoyed watching the relationship grow and change over the years covered by this book. Neither of these characters had a life I could relate to, yet B.B. Reid managed to help me understand where they were coming from and how their beginnings shaped them into the people the are. There were several surprising developments as well as a few turns I saw coming, but overall it was an enjoyable ride.
***4,5 “What’s mine is mine forever!!!” stars***
“I’m the moth to your flame, Lou. I’d rather be burned a thousand times than be free of you.”
B.B. Reid knows very well how to write beautifully perplexed and intriguing stories!!! And this series has that intriguing air surrending it!!!
She is marrying new adult with mystery and gang life very well!!!
I enjoyed the first book very much, but this one was even better!!!! And the way that the characters from both books are connecting is blow minding!!!!
“Maybe it wasn’t just a coincidence that we met in the first place.”
“What else could it be?”
“A cruel twist of fate.”
To be totally honest with you, i didn’t like it a bit when i found out that the second book was about Wren and an unknown girl!!!!
Why the hell??? I was wondering!!! I need Jamie and Vaughn’s stories!!!!
Why i have to read for someone that i don’t care????
Well, now, i can tell you that i love Wren and his pain in the ass, Lou and they were fitting really smoothly and good in the story!!!!
“That’s the basis of human nature, kid. We crave the things we can’t have. Knowing we shouldn’t just makes our desires that much more enticing.”
Wren was a member of Exiled, a gang that Ever had joined in the previous book as well… Wren’s life is dark and hopeless… He is bad and that is by choice… And then, one stormy night, Louchana is tumbling in his way and everything are changing for him…
Lou is an orphaned who is in the system… She likes to pickpocketing from strangers and she enjoys runaway from home at every chance she gets…
One day, she is meeting Wren Harlan and he is becoming her home, her best friend, her… everything…
“She was the magic filling me with light, and I was hopelessly bound to her flame.”
“There was nothing angelic about Wren Harlan. He was too powerful. Too fierce. Too potent. He could have been my white knight, but his armor didn’t shine, It was shrouded in darkness, and it was only a matter of time before it swallowed him whole…”
Their story started one very cold night more than two years before and from that moment, they are best friends… Or not???
They are loving each other very much, but they are bumping heads all the damn time and the reason for that, even though they don’t acknowledge it, is their mutual attraction for each other…
Unfortunately, they have put a lebel in their relationship and it’s impossible accepting to be something else than friends with the danger of ruining what they already have!!!!
“Lou was my Onus. My light. The very last tether to my soul. I couldn’t risk losing her. It was out of the question. She meant so much to me than a hot, dirty fuck. I needed her, more than she needed me.”
“Something invisible, unbreakable, and incurable had a hold on us, drawing us in like moths to a single flame. Could we one day break free of it, or would it choose to break us instead?”
The truth is that Lou was provoking Wren all the time and she was trying really hard to seduce him…
Wren was dying a slow death by blue balls because of her, but he couldn’t risk to become something more for her… He had his reasons for that and he was trying so hard to stay unaffected by her charms…
The truth is that they were so funny and good together and the slow burn between them was driving me crazy…
So what will happen with those two??? Is there a chance for them to be together, especially when there are so many shits happening around them affecting them???
“I’ve done some bad shit, and if you knew, you wouldn’t forgive me. So now I have to pay the price, Lou, and my penance is never to have you.”
“I was prepared to risk my heart, my sanity, and my future for this. For him.”
Well, i loved both Wren and Lou…
Wren’s devotion toward her was sooo… amazing!!! Lou was the only bright spot in his life and he couldn’t jeopartize it!!!! Wren could do anything for her and i don’t know how really good was doing that to her!!!!
Lou from the other hand was still very young and she was acting like one!!!! She didn’t care about the consequences of her actions and she was often very reckless… She could do anything to get Wren’s attention… or to protect him!!!
Those two were acting like a couple, long before they became one… They belong together. Period.
“I love you. That means that I don’t want any of you if it’s not all of you. The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful…”
Now, how the rest of the crew is connecting with them???
Well, i can’t really say, but they are growing closer with this couple and i liked it!!!!
And now, I’m dying for my crazy Jamie and his Barbie’s turn!!!
I’m also very curious for some things that had happened in here!!!
Please, B.B. don’t take your sweet time for the next book!!! I might die waiting!!! LOL!!!
“Falling is easy… Sometines it’s even painless. It’s getting up and walking away that cripples us.”
Wow! Lots of twists I wasn’t expecting in this book! Wren and Lou were explosive. They were both very dominant personalities. I love a heroine with a solid backbone. She reminds me of Four in that sense. B.B. Reid is a great writer and I’m so excited to dive back into Four and Ever’s story in Evermore!
This book drew me in like a moth to a flame! 5 stars
After reading the first book in this series, The Peer and the Puppet, I wasn’t sure why Wren Harlan and Louchana were getting a book (we meet them briefly in the first book). I was so wrong, because this book was everything I didn’t know I needed! I was pulled into the story right from the beginning like a moth to a flame, and it never let me go. The slow burn of friends to lovers was excruciatingly beautiful especially with the secret Wren holds. Wren and Louchana are 2 beautifully broken people who fit perfectly together. I loved seeing Four, Ever, Jamie, Vaughn, Tyra and Barbie from the first book, and I would suggest reading it before reading this book. I highly recommend this book and series, because it kept me turning pages like a moth to a flame!
I am seriously enjoying this series immensely. I absolutely loved The Peer and the Puppet and I knew that I was going to love The Moth and the Flame just as fiercely and boy did I!
I’m not a big fan of slow-burn friends to enemies kind of books because I feel like the chemistry takes way too long to kick in but with this book, the plot itself had me hooked and I didn’t even care much for the whole sexual acts to come into action. When a book grabs me from the beginning all I care about is what is going to happen and actually I don’t even need the erotic part in the book because the plot is just too damn good.
B.B. Reid killed it with this characters. I didn’t think they could top Four and Ever but I guess I was wrong. This series is definitely a favorite of mine and am looking forward to the next book in the series.
I never saw that coming!
Wren really surprised me! I wanted to hate him because he was such a jerk! But he was really a prince.
Lou a sweet lost soul is what I thought of her, but she proved to be way more than even Wren thought.
I loved their story!
I can’t wait for the next book
Jesus. Christ.
I. Can’t. Even.
B.B. Reid has done it again.
Blew my mind.
Blew my life out of water.
I’m kinda speechless (weird for me i know) but damn i really don’t know what to say.
What do i say?
Nothing and i mean nothing i say would do this book justice. It’s just.. I’ve got nothing is more than words can say. More than my heart beating a solid rhythm in my chest.
Wren and Lou.
Holy. Fudge. (Censored for review purposes)
The sexual tension was like nothing I’ve ever read before, the relationship they have was just something.
Seriously i just can’t get over Wren. He was HAWT.
Basically I’m rambling because i have nothing to say that would make any sense, it would be just a series of sighs, squeals and other weird noises i could make to tell you how utterly beautiful this book was.
If you’ve made it this far pat yourself on the back for reading my crazy rambling thoughts and reward yourself with a book. Preferably this one.
*gets forcefully pushed off the soapbox*
What an amazing story this turned out to be.
Firstly THE MOTH AND THE FLAME, cannot be read as a standalone. I finished the first book and immediately dove into this one, THE PEER AND THE PUPPET, didn’t exactly finish on a huge cliffhanger but I certainly had a lot of unanswered questions.
THE MOTH AND THE FLAME, however, began with two completely different characters and I was feeling a little confused until it all came together. These two books are like one big puzzle and little by little the pieces slot into place.
An epic teenage best friends to lovers story, a slow-burn, two characters who’s backstories unravel gradually. BB Reid had me chomping at the bit for answers.
Wren is a gang leader, he becomes not only Lou’s best friend showing up at times when she needs him most and Lou is the lost teenage girl, living in care after the death of her parent’s. Lou is rebellious, feisty, she pickpockets and has a lot of backbone, you wouldn’t think she would need someone to look out for her but Wren injects himself into her life and she becomes addicted to him, she calls and he comes, they become each others obsession and addiction.
I loved the incremental ascension of this book that took you right up to where it all comes together, the connections to the other characters in the previous book, twists, and turns, the friends to lovers romance between Wren and Lou. Wren’s push and pull with Lou, his secrets and his feelings of not being good enough for her. I couldn’t get enough and when I finally got to the end I still wanted more.
What made this a high ranker for me was the intensity of Wren’s character, the epic gradual love story, the bad boy Wren and the softening of his heart for only one person in his life.. Lou, I love this kind of romance.
Now the pieces are finally in place I cannot wait for the next book, the other characters also had me curious to what had gone on in their lives, there are still twists and turns coming and I cannot wait, especially for Jamie, I am hooked.
Holy cow! This book is everything! I love it!! It’s so full of angst and tension. I never thought I could love two people as much as I loved Four and Ever, but Lou and Wren are just as mesmerizing!! Their love hate relationship is divine! Hands down one of the best series ever! I can’t wait to read The Punk and The Plaything next!!
“Sometimes I forget that letting me take care of you meant you’d be taking care of me, too.”
Oh, Wren, you stole my heart!
A great second look into the suspenseful plot of young adults figuring out their parent’s secrets. If you haven’t read The Peer and the Puppet, be sure to do that before reading this one.
I wasn’t a fan of the first book, but this one had me, Awwww-ing and Ohhhhh-ing. Wren with his bittersweetness. Sigh. I usually like my romances more edgy, dark, to be exact. But I loved the innocence and longing in this one. Definitely a slow burn romance with enough suspense to keep you on your toes! Surrounding characters were key to this story coming full circle and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
A slow burn, friends-to-lovers romance that will leave you with questions, yet a smile from ear to ear.
Gosh, the chemistry is off the charts and BB Reid is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors. Lou and Wren have this intense connection that it’s inevitable they will become each other’s everything. Like Wren says, he is the moth to her flame and man, is it scorching!
Do you even have to ask.. I mean was it ever really a question? BB gets all of my stars. All. Of. Them. This story is no exception. I will say this book had a very different vibe in my opinion. I don’t really know how to explain what I mean either, especially if you haven’t also read the Broken Love series. But this book felt different even from book one in this series. I am so very glad I listened to the audio of The Peer and the Puppet as a reread before jumping into The Moth and the Flame. Because there were times that I had to stop and calculate while I read this book and I think I would have been really lost without the reread. This is my first time having to wait for each book as BB writes it and it is killing me.
This book follows along with the events from book one but a new couple. Though you still get other characters here from The Peer. You actually only meet Wren and especially Lou briefly in The Peer. Both seem to be up to no good and this is their story. I will say I wasn’t expecting the slow burn… like at all. Given what I’ve read from BB in the past and this being a friends to lovers story, I was bracing for the instalove. I much prefer the slow burn to the instalove. I loved Wren and I really liked Lou. Though, she grated on my nerves a couple of times. I had trouble buying her attitude and her nativity from time to time. Like how can you have been through all this and still think this… but she is young and I tried to remind myself of that. But this story’s real wow factor for me was the suspense. Like, I was just expecting a romance but no honey. All kinds of suspense! My only critique would be that I wish the time lines had been a little more clear. I felt like I was jumping all over. In reality it really wasn’t that bad but it could have flowed just a little better or been a little clearer. Then again, I was reading this story and picking it apart as I went because I was looking so hard for clues. So it could have been reader error. Regardless, I still give Wren and Lou five stars. I really like the way each book of this series is a different trope. We had enemies to lovers and then friends to lovers and next up is second chance romance. And there has been so much build up to Jamie. My heart is so ready. If you read this series for no other reason, let it be to hear Jamie’s story. I recommend BB to any and all. Her Broken Love series is for sure for a certain audience. But this series, I believe all romance readers will enjoy. I for am a BB fan for life and plan to read all the words she wants to write. I just think that highly of her story telling. I don’t feel like I am reading the same old stories with different character names when I pick up a BB Reid book. She brings the freshness.