A forbidden attraction grows even more complicated when the guy Lane Jamison has crushed on for years suddenly becomes her step-brother in this sexy and gorgeously written debut novel about the lines between love, desire, and obsession. What happens when the boy you want most becomes the one person you can’t have? Lane Jamison’s life is turned upside down the week before her senior year when … week before her senior year when her father introduces her to his new fiancée: mother of Grey McIntyre, Lane’s longtime secret crush. Now with Grey living in Lane’s house, there’s only a thin wall separating their rooms, making it harder and harder to deny their growing mutual attraction–an attraction made all the more forbidden by Grey’s long-term girlfriend Sadie Hall, who also happens to be Lane’s friend.
Torn between her feelings for Grey and her friendship with Sadie–not to mention her desire to keep the peace at home–Lane befriends Sadie’s older brother, Connor, the black sheep of the strict, evangelical Hall family. Connor, a metalworking artist who is all sharp edges, challenges Lane in ways no one else ever has. As the two become closer and start to open up about the traumas in their respective pasts, Lane begins to question her conviction that Connor is just a distraction.
Tensions come to a head after a tragic incident at a party, forcing Lane to untangle her feelings for both boys and face the truth of what–and who–she wants, in this gripping and stunningly romantic debut novel.
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“We fell into the stars. They funneled out of the darkness and seeped into my senses, overlapping and infinite, distant and impossibly close.”
This book will char your heart, then set it aflame again.
I don’t think there is a better way to describe Gibson’s TOGETHER WE CAUGHT FIRE as one long and beautiful, devastating yet hopeful poem. Her characters were marvelous and made the lyrical journey addictive. I absolutely adored Connor and his sister Sadie.
TWCF was so dark at times that I swear I could taste ash on the page, and then Gibson kindled a new fire in her character’s lives, and the pages burned with renewed hope.
Rating:
Fantastic storytelling!
This book had a ton of angst, so much it was almost painful. Despite all the angst I still liked it. The characters are well thought out and the places are described beautifully. The book is about a girl named Lane Jamison, who just turned eighteen at the end of the summer before her senior year. Lane’s mother killed herself by slitting her wrists in the bathroom when Lane was five years old. Her Dad recently got married and his new wife has a son Lane’s age who just happens to be Greyson McIntyre, the boy Lane has been crushing on forever.
Not only does Lane have to see the guy she has loved for years and not be able touch him, but she is now his stepsister. To make things worse, Sadie, Grey’s girlfriend is religious and nice and happy all the time and they plan to get married right after high school. Sadie and Lane have become friends so they all hang out together sometimes along with Sadie’s brother Connor who is gay and has a boyfriend named Paul.
Connor is very interesting and cool. According to gossip at school, he was kicked out of his home by his straight laced father who is a preacher. He was kicked out at sixteen for being Gay and he lived on the streets. He learned how to fight and nearly starved. Now Connor is living with Paul in a huge warehouse that they turned into a workshop where different types of artisans go to work on their art.
The main room is full of easels for painters to work and the rest is a maze of rooms dedicated to different types of art. There is a room for pottery and ceramics, beading and engraving, metal works, woodworking, and fiber arts including a loom for weaving. At home, Lane helps her Dad’s organic soap and lotion business and they sell their goods at a farmers market. She also helps by knitting and crocheting, so she likes what she sees at the warehouse. Connor and Paul have a huge room in the back as an apartment of sorts.
Connor works with metal, making jewelry and other things. He is designing and making wedding rings for Grey and Sadie. Lane starts to spend time at the warehouse as a way to escape from Grey. I won’t give away anything else but there is angst everywhere. Lane and Connor become friends and they each have terrible stories from their past.
The story and the girl are tortured in parts. It is hard to see her yearning for Grey. Lane has other issues as well and isn’t in the best state of mind. She has to balance wanting Grey, being in close contact with him, being friends with him, a sister and also she likes Sadie, who is a bit superficial but genuinely a good person.
Towards the end, Lane was waxing poetic about everything in her life and filling it all with imagery, symbolism an metaphors that were dark and a bit hard to grasp at times. Also, a few places throughout the book the author used huge words for things that would better be explained in plain english. I actually had to use the word lookup a few times. It is one thing if the protagonist is supposed to be a genius, but really no need for it when she is barely making it through high school. For example, lapidary, which is engraving and pranayama which means yoga breathing techniques. Overall, it was good and held my interest throughout.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Together We Caught Fire – Eva V. Gibson
June 24, 2021
4/5 stars
In Eva V. Gibson’s debut 2020 novel, Together We Caught Fire, we follow the storyline of Lane Jamison and the utter catastrophe that is her life.
“We fell into the stars. They funneled out of the darkness and seeped into my senses, overlapping and infinite, distant and impossibly close.”
Not only has her crush, Grey, moved into her house the week of her senior year, but her father MARRIED his mother, making them step siblings. Their forbidden mutual attraction grows with their impending friendship, but ultimately is deterred by Grey’s long-term girlfriend, Sadie Hall. Sadie, however, is a great friend and introduces Lane to her brother Connor, the metalworking artist with a troubled past. Throughout this story, we follow Lane and her undeniable attraction for Grey, the surprising connection that forms with Connor, and the issues that live in her head rent free.
This book deals with mental health issues and warns readers of references to death, suicide, self-harm, substance abuse, childhood trauma, PTSD, homelessness and more.
Now, we’ve gone through the summery, here’s what I thought:
This book almost ended up on my DNF (Do Not Finish) list, but captivated me somewhere around a hundred pages in. The beginning had me a little confused, but almost as soon as I expressed my confusion out loud, I found answers on the next page.
Gibson wrote this particular book in the first person past-tense which is my preferred form of reading typically. Her descriptive diction took my right along with the characters no matter where they went. I felt like I was watching a movie more than reading a book as I read this one. It was exciting, full of love and trauma, healing and growth, messy friendships and secrets… overall, a fantastic debut novel, and a go-to recommendation for older teens looking to read a raw emotional drama.
This, for sure, was one of the better Young Adult Contemporary novels I’ve read.
If you’re a fan of WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart, you might just find yourself falling in love with this book, too.
If you read this book, let me know what you thought!
Together We Caught Fire was a delightfully surprising read for me. When I requested the novel, I expected there to be some aspects of forbidden love, even a possible love triangle, of which I am not particularly. However, what I found was an exquisitely written novel about the effect profound trauma has on deeply flawed characters, written in gorgeous prose. It is a fully immersive read and you don’t find that very often.
However, please, if you have certain triggers, do head the warnings at the beginning of the novel. The mental illness rep is strong but it doesn’t pull any punches.
Elaine “Lane” Jamison, our protagonist, is a complex and talented young woman in her senior year of high school Her father marries the mother of her long-time crush, Grey McIntyre. They are now forced to grapple with their attraction in the intimate space of their homes. This are further complicated by the fact that Greyson is dating her close friend, Sadie Hall. As she struggles with having her love interest under her roof, the narrative introduces Connor Hall, Sadie’s brother, a misunderstood artist who seems to be able to do what no one else in this story can do – see Lane for who she really is.
Lane is intense. She is independent, smart and full of heart. But she can also be a bit abrasive and she is not sure who she is. She has to come to terms with so many things – her impending adulthood, her depression, and her confusion over who, ultimately, she should love.
I really loved this story. Gibson’s writing is lyrical and gorgeous, the beautiful prose enhancing the reading experience for me. This novel is also excellent for learning the find art of writing round, complex characters. There are no throwaways in this novel – craft-wise, everything is absolutely precise and well done. Based on the sheer brilliance of the writing, I’m going to be keeping my eye on this author
ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Originally posted at https://serataino.com/bookshelf-together-we-caught-fire-by-eva-v-gibson
This YA Contemporary was heavy. I ended up really liking it. It is poetic in ways even though it is prose. It is edgier and grittier than usual YA Contemporary but I like that. I loved the realism Gibson presented in an unapologetic way looking at the effects of depression and suicide wrapped up with the unflinching way people are shaped by those experiences.
While Together We Caught Fire is about a) a love triangle and b) a fairly nightmarish situation for a teen, it’s also a complex novel about overcoming tragedy and finding your place in the world.
Lane Jamison has had a major crush on Grey McIntyre since a young age, but now it seems the worst possible thing has happened: Lane’s dad is marrying Grey’s mother. Now with her crush in the same house—and just on the other side of the wall—Lane is in a bit of a tailspin. As if it weren’t bad enough that Grey is now her brother, he’s also the boyfriend of Sadie, a very nice girl who becomes one of Lane’s close friends.
But even with the best of intentions, Lane can’t stop obsessing over Grey and the slow-burn romance is almost too intense to turn away from. Add into the mix Sadie’s artist older brother and the complications in Lane’s life just keep getting greater. The writing is dark and raw, you can feel Lane’s pain and the hollowness left behind by an early trauma. There is a painful culmination of events in which Sadie, Grey, and Connor force Lane to confront her past and address her true feelings.
Together We Caught Fire is a wonderful, healing novel by Eva V. Gibson that shows no matter how far gone you think you are, you can find yourself again.
I think Together We Caught Fire is one of those books that people are either going to love it or hate it with very little middle ground. While I won’t go so far as to say I hated it, I landed somewhere on that side of the line. I went into this one expecting a love triangle as the blurb suggested, but this really isn’t that. It is a whole lot of teenage angst and drama, and after so much of it, the teenagers in this story started to get on my nerves. The author employs a lot of pretty language for such serious topics. Not that I mind pretty language, but when the subject matter warrants, I feel like speaking plainly would have a more powerful impact. I realize that my opinion is in the minority here, but it is what is. I think it’s mostly a matter of this one just not being my cup of tea. The author does have talent, and I would read other books by her, this one just didn’t do it for me.
*****5 ++++ Stars #MustReadRecomendation*****
“It wasn’t a kiss so much as an ignition— the sun lost behind the moon, the white-hot melt of flame and silver. It was the world flipped sideways, tilting us into chaos.”
Together We Caught Fire is one of the most wonderfully surprising reads that I’ve experienced in a long while. The writing is EXQUISITE, the characters so perfectly imperfect. With a plot well thought out and executed, Eva Gibson delivers a story that demands your all and left me with a book hangover in the best way.
Elaine “Lane” Jamison is a complex young woman with a guarded heart and tortured soul – and a voice to match. In her senior year of high school, she finds herself a step-sister to the boy she has long crushed on, Greyson. Her feelings, hidden and unrequited, are further confused by their growing connection and his unavailability. The implications would be disastrous, but then a new person enters the equation, forcing Lane to re-examine what she believes about love.
We spend all of the story trying to understand where she’s coming from. I loved and at times dreaded being in Lane’s head. She’s independent, compassionate, rebellious and funny. And also quite a bit lost. We are with her as she turns eighteen and begins to find herself at odds with the mess of her emotions. What she’s always believed is challenged by this beautiful young man, artist Connor Hall. He sees her, truly see’s her, and the connection they share is magical. But Lane doesn’t always make the best choices.
“So sudden, the way our world had turned to flame. So wrong, how I couldn’t help but let us burn.”
I just wanted to reach through the pages and hug her. She’s been grieving for years and even though she’s tried to deal with the trauma she experienced as a child, she’s a very emotional and passionate individual, and we see that she has more healing to do. There are some heartbreaking and scary moments in this story and being in Lane’s head was incredibly hard. I assure you the empath in me felt each and every moment. As the ending neared I was very nervous, but it was sublime and absolutely heartwarming.
I’m so thrilled that Eva Gibson found a publisher and pushed this beautiful story out to the world. I finished the book almost a week ago and it’s still with me. As I began y review and looked back at the highlights I made, I found myself absorbed in the story again and doing a re-read. It’s even better the second time. I encourage EVERYONE to read this story. It’s that wonderful and I’ll be looking out for her next book. 5+++ Stars #MustReadRecommendation.
Together we Caught Fire had a real weird dynamic going on. Meet our cast of characters:
-Lane: our heroine; in love with Grey; new stepsister to Grey; hangs out with Sadie but doesn’t seem to like her? flirts with Conner
-Grey: new stepbrother to Lane; dating (engaged??) to Sadie
-Sadie: Grey’s girlfriend; weirdly religious; claims Lane is her best friend (although they never hung out before Grey became Lane’s stepbrother)
-Conner: Sadie’s brother; kicked out by his parents when he came out as atheist; flirts with Lane but is a dick about it??
So take that in, if you can. And all these characters? None of them are good human beings. Grey, Conner, and Sadie are all mean spirited in some of their dealings with Lane, with some good old-fashioned slut shaming. Lane isn’t much better, although I can forgive her more since she’s needed some therapy for a long while (thanks for not paying attention to your child’s cry for help, Lane’s dad!).
Overly dramatic prose with a uncomfortably choppy plot, Together We Caught Fire had potential but didn’t work for me.