Song of the Fireflies

A tense police standoff flashes back into a meandering story replete with poor decisions, dangerous codependency, and a frankly unbelievable ending in bestseller Redmerski’s standalone new adult romance. Warning bells go off with the introduction of Bray, who’s so “intimidating and pretty that the other girls know they had better befriend her or else end up her enemy.” Although they’ve loved each other since childhood, Elias and Bray have settled for being friends with benefits rather than admit their feelings. Elias thinks Bray is “too bold for her own good” and suffers from an “inability to form bonds with other people,” but when she’s implicated in the death of another young woman, he plots their escape. On the run, they careen from one bad decision to another until there’s nowhere left to go. Fortunately for them, Redmerski (Killing Sarai) resolves all with a leap ahead to a shiny happy future in which painful payback and healing are behind them. Romance fans will be disappointed with this dark melodrama of desperate characters and toxic faux-love. (Sept.)