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Old Flame
Hannah Sullivan has spent the past three months stalking her ex-boyfriend, lurking in the bushes and hiding behind fake social media personas, convinced she can eventually rekindle the love they once shared. But when she meets Marc, who is everything James never wanted to be and more, she begins to wonder if she’s got it all wrong.
Hannah must come to terms with her own demons before she can decipher between her delusional mission and the man of her dreams.
Hannah must come to terms with her own demons before she can decipher between her delusional mission and the man of her dreams.
- GenresNew Adult
35 pages, ebook
First published January 13, 2014
11 people want to read
About the author
Annabelle Blume
9 books40 followersAnnabelle is a Science Fiction and Urban Fantasy Romance author. That is, when she's not checking homework or begrudgingly cooking dinner.
She's also the author/personality of The Bombshell Mommy at Vitacost.com, where she expounds her knowledge of being a vixen clad in sweatpants.
She's also the author/personality of The Bombshell Mommy at Vitacost.com, where she expounds her knowledge of being a vixen clad in sweatpants.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 27, 2014
This reminded me of the amazing night spent chatting into the early hours with my now husband.
Beautifully written, Old Flame was a very honest and moving tale of falling in love with real love.
I honestly loved this.
Beautifully written, Old Flame was a very honest and moving tale of falling in love with real love.
I honestly loved this.
February 22, 2014
Once upon a time there was a girl who was hopelessly in love with her ex. The problem? Her ex had long ago moved on to someone new. Hence the beginning of the story that is Old Flame by Annabelle Blume.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started in on Old Flame. I knew it was short (which novellas are typically not my thing, let me just say) but then I said what the heck, give it a try. And boy, let me just tell you how glad I am that I took the novella jump…and that Ms. Blume gave all other novellas I ever read in the future a huge bar to live up to.
Hannah is in college, a little broken over her ex, and even more obsessed with stalking him in all the ways she can. Yes, I said stalk. Now how does that make for a good story that doesn’t go into the creepy zone? Let me get to that. Hannah is not creeper. Hannah is absolutely hilarious with some killer one liners, making you forget that she’s a girl with a broken heart. She’s the kind of heroine that makes you giggle in the middle of the night, waking up your husband while he sleeps next to you. Hannah does everything she can to see what the ex is up too. Creating fake profile names online, making sure she knows his class schedule, so on, so forth. But along the way, she happens upon a guy. A very sexy, waiter guy in fact. The kind of guy that might just get her over the ex…that is if she opens her heart long enough to let it happen.
There was something so incredibly endearing about this heroine that I can’t quite put my finger on one reason why I thought that way. It wasn’t just her humor, but her way of looking at life in general. Carefree, yet guarded, fun, yet a little bit on the unsure side as well. Hannah was a real person that a lot of everyday woman could relate to. That to me makes a story great in itself and, in turn, made me fall all sorts of in love with Old Flame.
If your looking for a sweet, new adult novel that doesn’t have abundance after abundance of overly dramatic, annoying angst, then Old Flame is the perfect book for you. An amazing heroine, a sexy love interest, and a newer, refreshing plot makes Old Flame a book you don’t want to miss out on. Well done Ms. Blume. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for me next
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started in on Old Flame. I knew it was short (which novellas are typically not my thing, let me just say) but then I said what the heck, give it a try. And boy, let me just tell you how glad I am that I took the novella jump…and that Ms. Blume gave all other novellas I ever read in the future a huge bar to live up to.
Hannah is in college, a little broken over her ex, and even more obsessed with stalking him in all the ways she can. Yes, I said stalk. Now how does that make for a good story that doesn’t go into the creepy zone? Let me get to that. Hannah is not creeper. Hannah is absolutely hilarious with some killer one liners, making you forget that she’s a girl with a broken heart. She’s the kind of heroine that makes you giggle in the middle of the night, waking up your husband while he sleeps next to you. Hannah does everything she can to see what the ex is up too. Creating fake profile names online, making sure she knows his class schedule, so on, so forth. But along the way, she happens upon a guy. A very sexy, waiter guy in fact. The kind of guy that might just get her over the ex…that is if she opens her heart long enough to let it happen.
There was something so incredibly endearing about this heroine that I can’t quite put my finger on one reason why I thought that way. It wasn’t just her humor, but her way of looking at life in general. Carefree, yet guarded, fun, yet a little bit on the unsure side as well. Hannah was a real person that a lot of everyday woman could relate to. That to me makes a story great in itself and, in turn, made me fall all sorts of in love with Old Flame.
If your looking for a sweet, new adult novel that doesn’t have abundance after abundance of overly dramatic, annoying angst, then Old Flame is the perfect book for you. An amazing heroine, a sexy love interest, and a newer, refreshing plot makes Old Flame a book you don’t want to miss out on. Well done Ms. Blume. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for me next
February 8, 2014
Title: Old Flame (The Hearts Aflame Files)
Author: Annabelle Blume
Publisher: Roane Publishing
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Reviewed by Brandi
Heat Level – 2 Flames - Warm
4.5 Stars – Recommended Read
One of my favorite lines from the book: “High on her subversive victory, she believed—though she couldn’t be certain—a more brilliant person than herself had never graced the UCSB campus.”
I totally lost myself in this book while reading it. Ms. Blume has a style of writing that sucks the reader in and keeps them interested from the beginning to the end. From her descriptive settings, to the emotions of the believable characters she’s created, to the witty sarcasm of her heroine that made me chuckle, I was hooked.
For more go to: http://thetalentcavereviews.weebly.co...
Author: Annabelle Blume
Publisher: Roane Publishing
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Reviewed by Brandi
Heat Level – 2 Flames - Warm
4.5 Stars – Recommended Read
One of my favorite lines from the book: “High on her subversive victory, she believed—though she couldn’t be certain—a more brilliant person than herself had never graced the UCSB campus.”
I totally lost myself in this book while reading it. Ms. Blume has a style of writing that sucks the reader in and keeps them interested from the beginning to the end. From her descriptive settings, to the emotions of the believable characters she’s created, to the witty sarcasm of her heroine that made me chuckle, I was hooked.
For more go to: http://thetalentcavereviews.weebly.co...
June 11, 2014
Three and a half stars
A review copy was provided by the author in return for an honest review.
Hannah has been obsessed with James ever since they broke up. She just cannot let go. So she secretly spies on him, alters her own schedule hoping to meet him face to face once again. She doesn’t. Instead, she meets gorgeous waiter Marc while dining with her friend Annie at Pecorino’s. Marc feels an instant attraction towards Hannah and asks for her phone number. She gives it to him, thinking that he might hook him up with Annie later on. But that’s not how things will work out in the end.
Annabelle Blume has written a very short novella. It is so short, indeed, there was no time to develop the characters at all, hence the concept of love seems to be misplaced. While real love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship, it can also be born in a moment, and it will be just as strong and lost lasting as the former if certain criteria are met. But that’s not the point that Annabelle failed to make in her story. I felt all along that she rushed the characters’ relationship, and maneuvered them towards a premature ending. She painted a canvas in front of the reader’s eyes, pointing at her every stroke, explaining her technique, instead of showing the magic of the final product and letting the reader discover its secrets.
I also found that by the end of the story I couldn’t figure out what Hannah really wanted, or if she really knew what she wanted, even though the author listed the heroine’s inner thoughts about her past life as opposed to her new existence.
What also distracted me was the repeated occurrence of typos and syntax errors. Where on earth were the editor and proofreader?
Having said all that, Annabelle’s novella does deserve your attention. It is well written, sweet, and it depicts feelings that are so familiar to many of us. We have all been through deception, suffering, we all had a broken heart, and most of us found it hard to let go. Annabelle has a gift at capturing all these feelings, and the female behavioral response to an emotional loss. I commend her for that.
‘Old flame’ is a pleasant read that I would not hesitate to recommend.
Sophie's Book Reviews
http://sophiedufort.blogspot.com/
A review copy was provided by the author in return for an honest review.
Hannah has been obsessed with James ever since they broke up. She just cannot let go. So she secretly spies on him, alters her own schedule hoping to meet him face to face once again. She doesn’t. Instead, she meets gorgeous waiter Marc while dining with her friend Annie at Pecorino’s. Marc feels an instant attraction towards Hannah and asks for her phone number. She gives it to him, thinking that he might hook him up with Annie later on. But that’s not how things will work out in the end.
Annabelle Blume has written a very short novella. It is so short, indeed, there was no time to develop the characters at all, hence the concept of love seems to be misplaced. While real love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship, it can also be born in a moment, and it will be just as strong and lost lasting as the former if certain criteria are met. But that’s not the point that Annabelle failed to make in her story. I felt all along that she rushed the characters’ relationship, and maneuvered them towards a premature ending. She painted a canvas in front of the reader’s eyes, pointing at her every stroke, explaining her technique, instead of showing the magic of the final product and letting the reader discover its secrets.
I also found that by the end of the story I couldn’t figure out what Hannah really wanted, or if she really knew what she wanted, even though the author listed the heroine’s inner thoughts about her past life as opposed to her new existence.
What also distracted me was the repeated occurrence of typos and syntax errors. Where on earth were the editor and proofreader?
Having said all that, Annabelle’s novella does deserve your attention. It is well written, sweet, and it depicts feelings that are so familiar to many of us. We have all been through deception, suffering, we all had a broken heart, and most of us found it hard to let go. Annabelle has a gift at capturing all these feelings, and the female behavioral response to an emotional loss. I commend her for that.
‘Old flame’ is a pleasant read that I would not hesitate to recommend.
Sophie's Book Reviews
http://sophiedufort.blogspot.com/
March 1, 2014
Wow does Hannah have some issues! I felt sad for her in the beginning when she was literally stalking her ex-boyfriend. Creeping around, making sure her next semester's classes lined up with him so she could catch a glimpse to actually parking her car on the street to spy on him during the night. Sadness quickly turned to wanting to slap this character upside the head for being a creepy stalker. I got to admit, though, the whole thing sparked emotion in me which is a good thing. Kudos to the author for that.
When she meets Marc--a waiter at a restaurant--she decides to cozy up with him, though she STILL pining for the other guy. Her roommates are no help to her mental illness either over her mad James fascination. They seem more obsessed with partying than seeing what she's become. They were merely flies on the wall to her crazy existence.
I wanted to see Hannah wake up from her obsessive behavior regarding James. When she woke up in the morning in her car across from his house, I thought she'd snap out of her stalking drama. Not really nor did I feel like she fully healed from it. It's throw in that she bounced from boyfriend to boyfriend after James and the immaturity of them all. Maybe this older guy Marc would be more mature (HAH! He's a guy! Not happening!). I didn't really care for that kind of thinking, really.
She has a wild weekend of doing the nasty (closed door) with Marc which, considering her turmoil of James, I found that she was sort of using Marc to screw away James' memory. So, while she had her regrets and got mentally prepared that it was a one night stand, it turns out it wasn't. This guy had been into her for a bit which is lovely.
The story ends with me wondering what will become of this relationship, mainly because I think Hannah enters it for all the wrong reasons. I would have liked to see her not compare Marc to James and see him for the man she wants. Sure, it's what a woman would do, I just didn't want the 'norm'. Besides, as I noted before, older doesn't mean they're more mature in nature. Though Marc was a successful business man, that shows maturity of an intellectual level, not emotional. I also would have loved this story to be bigger and see Hannah's struggle with her addiction to James with more of a brutal lens. He's painted as quite the douchebag and it's believable.
Even with this, I found it to be a sweet short romantic story with very good writing from the author. I liked it and would recommend it to those who enjoy a straight romantic novel.
When she meets Marc--a waiter at a restaurant--she decides to cozy up with him, though she STILL pining for the other guy. Her roommates are no help to her mental illness either over her mad James fascination. They seem more obsessed with partying than seeing what she's become. They were merely flies on the wall to her crazy existence.
I wanted to see Hannah wake up from her obsessive behavior regarding James. When she woke up in the morning in her car across from his house, I thought she'd snap out of her stalking drama. Not really nor did I feel like she fully healed from it. It's throw in that she bounced from boyfriend to boyfriend after James and the immaturity of them all. Maybe this older guy Marc would be more mature (HAH! He's a guy! Not happening!). I didn't really care for that kind of thinking, really.
She has a wild weekend of doing the nasty (closed door) with Marc which, considering her turmoil of James, I found that she was sort of using Marc to screw away James' memory. So, while she had her regrets and got mentally prepared that it was a one night stand, it turns out it wasn't. This guy had been into her for a bit which is lovely.
The story ends with me wondering what will become of this relationship, mainly because I think Hannah enters it for all the wrong reasons. I would have liked to see her not compare Marc to James and see him for the man she wants. Sure, it's what a woman would do, I just didn't want the 'norm'. Besides, as I noted before, older doesn't mean they're more mature in nature. Though Marc was a successful business man, that shows maturity of an intellectual level, not emotional. I also would have loved this story to be bigger and see Hannah's struggle with her addiction to James with more of a brutal lens. He's painted as quite the douchebag and it's believable.
Even with this, I found it to be a sweet short romantic story with very good writing from the author. I liked it and would recommend it to those who enjoy a straight romantic novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2015
This book starts out with Hannah still completely hung up on her ex boyfriend. During her craziness, she meets Marc and actually starts to move on, surprising everyone, including herself. I liked this story ver much, but just wished there was more. I loved Marc and Hannah together and wished their story went on longer.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews