Fireworks Every Night is a poignant and powerful coming-of-age novel that doesn't hold back in its portrayal of the struggles faced by those growing up in poverty in America. Beth Raymer's protagonist, C.C., is a remarkable character whose resilience and determination are matched only by her dark wit and humor. Through her eyes, we are introduced to a world of chaos, abuse, and dysfunction, where family ties are both a source of comfort and a burden.

One of the strengths of this novel is its honest portrayal of the structural and cultural barriers that make it difficult for people like C.C. and her family to rise above their circumstances. Raymer does not shy away from the harsh realities of poverty and the role that systemic inequality plays in perpetuating it. At the same time, she recognizes the agency and ingenuity of those who are dealt a tough hand, and the ways in which they are able to carve out a life for themselves in spite of the odds.

Another standout feature of this book is the richly drawn cast of characters. From C.C.'s grifter father to her drug-addicted sister, each member of her family is vividly realized, with all their flaws and contradictions on full display. The relationships between them are complex and fraught, with love and resentment often battling for supremacy. Through it all, C.C. remains a beacon of hope, a young woman determined to make her own way in the world and chart a different course for herself than the one her parents have set.

Overall, Fireworks Every Night is a deeply moving and thought-provoking novel that tackles some of the most pressing issues facing our country today. It is a book that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of hope.

Bless this young lady and her younger self- as we meet each one through alternating timelines we can’t help but say that. CC, named after her dad’s favorite bourbon, doesn't realize as a child that things aren’t normal. She doesn’t know any different. But things are far from normal, and her survival can be credited to her optimistic attitude and resilient sense of humor.
CC is the youngest of two girls. Her dad is a car salesman, her mother is a beauty queen wanna-be. Their dealership, which includes their trailer home, burns to the ground. Dad loads them in a car, gets lost, ends up at a new subdivision site, and is told if he doesn’t mind the rattlesnakes (while the man has a dead rattlesnake under his shovel), the place would be perfect for raising kids. Sold. Just like that. In record speed, they build a fancy home, complete with a swimming pool, hot tub and slide. All from the insurance payouts for what may have been arson. But CC doesn’t see all of that. She sees the turquoise of the pool. Her entire life is seen through these shaded glasses. Even though she is learning that life was wrong, unfair, brutal to her sister, tough for her, and all because she was born to horribly dysfunctional parents, CC still perseveres.
This book is about growing up in unfathomable living conditions, but you’ll still snicker and smile as you see life through CC’s eyes. You’ll want to cry for her, but she won’t let you quit smiling.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date was June 27, 2023.

Fireworks Every Night had me from the first few chapters. This is not a love story, or like anything I have ever read before. I found a lot of similarities within C.C. and found her growth and development very inspirational. I sometimes can struggle reading from differing timelines but I found the pace and flow of the writing to be really digestible. This is not necessarily plot-driven, but character-driven in the way that we get to know why the main characters are the way that they are.

This book was out of my comfort zone but was an exceptional read. I would read anything Beth Raymer writes, and I am excited for the next one!

This was a beautiful written coming-of-age novel about a woman trying to escape the traumas family, but still being depressed and having her past affect her future regardless of how much she's trying to run away. I commend Raymer for writting a terrifying sad book about a highly dysfuctional family. You can't help but root for CC and despise everyone else in her family.
The writing was fluid and elegent, and even though not my reading style, I was still able to enjoy it very much!
Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me read this wonderful ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Look for it now in your local and online bookstores and libraries.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After their car dealership burned to the ground in Ohio, C.C. and her family move to Florida. At first, it seems like her childhood is going to be a typical, middle class upbringing. They move into a lovely new home, complete with a swimming pool and hot tub. C.C. excels at sports, especially basketball, and she is popular. Gradually, things deteriorate. Her father can’t hold down a job, her mother behaves as if she’s a teenager, and her sister begins rebelling.

The story begins at C.C.’s engagement party, which is being thrown by her very wealthy future in-laws. The timeline then switches to C.C.’s childhood in Florida. The back and forth timeline continues throughout as we learn more about C.C.’s dysfunctional family. I really liked this book even though it’s tough to read at times. It’s an unflinching look at poverty, substance abuse, domestic abuse and abandonment. Ultimately, C.C. has to choose between saving her family or saving herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed FIREWORKS EVERY NIGHT and highly recommend it for fans of coming of age stories. CC is a fascinating protagonist, a character whose story is narrated with a sophisticated wit that belies her relatively young age. Even when people let her down, CC keeps on trucking. She figures out a way to make things work, no matter the circumstances. We are cheering for her to create a better life for herself. Poignant but never sentimental, this novel will stick with you.

Fireworks Every Night is a fine first novel from Beth Raymer. Coming of age in a dysfunctional family in South Florida almost sounds like a genre of its own, but this one is both dark and funny. This family fled Ohio because of the criminal behavior of the father. Twelve-year-old C.C. is the only one in the family with common sense and aspirations which make being part of this bunch quite a challenge. As she narrates her story, the reader roots for her all the way to a satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended.

Beth Rather has beautifully created a story of CC, a young woman whose life was fraught with sadly dysfunctional family. CC's parents made terrible life decisions that caused their children to live through really tough times. I found my self irritated with some characters but rooting for them as well. Thanks #NetGalley

An under the radar win! Fireworks every night is a wonderful ode to life in the 9os, which resonates with me, and resilience and coming of age vibes. The main character CC is so well written, so very vivid and you just want to hope for more for her than she is given with a hurtful and unhealthy childhood (content warnings for family dysfunction, addiction/abuse) and yet this is a story that is richly written and layered with complex themes. While the topics are hard, Raymer writes with respect and affection for CC, honors the challenges she encounters and does not make the adult CC storyline one of simple resilience (generational trauma themes are important to think about in a book like this).

Thank you to Random House for the kindness of a review copy, this is great book for book clubs open to complex and darkly themed character studies. There are a lot of good talking points in this book.


NOTE, I read this in June but laptop issues limited my chance to post a review sooner, my delay doesn't mean I didn't value the early review copy! I am a fan of this book!

Fireworks Every Night is strong portrayal of a dysfunctional family which addresses issues like alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, and emotional abuse. But I can’t say I was the biggest fan of this book.
The writing style was good and although it took me a few chapters to get into the book, I became interested in this highly dysfunctional family. The dysfunction was written well and was raw and tough. CC did frustrate me though. I wanted her to realize how her family treated her and to tell them they were wrong, and to grow and learn from it. Instead it seemed like she saw them through rose-tinted glasses and continues to accept responsibility for everyone.
I got confused a few times as to how much time had passed in between chapters, specifically when it switched back to the present from the past. The ending also left a lot to be desired IMO, it just felt incomplete and left me feeling gloomy and frustrated.
If you like a good dysfunctional family story this is told well, it just didn’t necessarily work for me.

Fireworks Every Night is my kind of summer read: a story about dysfunctional messy family life filled with memorable characters. I found myself rooting for CC and enjoyed it up to the rather abrupt ending.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this ARC.

This was an interesting read. Somewhat depressing and sad, I think it needs to come with a disclaimer that some of the topics might be triggering. It deals with alcoholism, addiction, and highly dysfunctional families. We get CC's story from her growing up days in the 90s in Florida and from her being older. It tells of how having highly dysfunctional parents and sister leads to her choices along the way.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely

Fireworks every night is a modern coming-of-age novel. C.C. Grows up in Florida in the 1990s with a grifter father, an emotionally immature mother, and a sister spiraling with an addiction. The novel traces C.C., and her coming-of-age as she learns to grow up and navigate the convoluted family life of which she finds herself a part. Florida itself play a major figure in this story and almost becomes a character. The setting is the most richly invoked part of the novel. The plot is at times both heartbreaking and funny but I personally found it somewhat hard to get into the plot fully.

Thanks to publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This isn’t exactly a fun read, but it’s pretty well crafted and it certainly inspires a lot of sympathy for the protagonist, whose early life is one no one should have to endure.

It’s tough to relate to books like this for a lot of readers, and I do think there’s something to seeing how the proverbial other half lives to inspire understanding and sympathy. That said, it’s tough to truly “like” a book where the primary emotion then reader feels toward the protagonist is pity, even if it’s also a well-crafted story shedding light on just how hard it is to pulls oneself up by one’s bootstraps.

I actually liked the protagonist here, which helps mitigate some of the pity and certainly inspires a healthy heap of outrage towards her horrid parents, who seem to be in an endless battle over who can be more awful at raising children.

Raymer does a nice job of showing the snowball effects of how quickly and severely life can deteriorate (especially for a kid) when the adults responsible for them start making poor decisions.

This isn’t a fun read, but it’s certainly thought provoking.

Almost unremittingly depressive, Fireworks Every Night has its strong points too. C.C., the main character is seen in the 90's in the present and as a young wife married to a man with family money. What makes this novel only three stars for me are two factors: I can't buy the fact that C.C.'s marriage fails because she cannot enjoy the freedom from want and poverty that Alex's inheritance provides for them. I can tell you from experience that growing up poor does not preclude you from enjoying the benefits of not having to pinch pennies and wear hand-m-downs. In fact, it is all too easy to acclimate to not having to worry where your next meal is coming from. And luxury, it might take as long as a week to give into and enjoy. That doesn't mean that you lose your empathy and need to help those less fortunate than you have become.

C.C's father, an expert car salesman, moves his family from Ohio to rural Floriday. Her mother has never worked and is dependent on her husband. He is a drinker and philanderer. Her mother, if such she can be called, is an immature and inattentive parent. The older sister becomes a drug addict, leaving home and living off her mother's Ohio relatives. She ends up in jail, with a child who is taken from her.

It's not clear to me how C.C., with her second- or third-rate education, becomes so involved in rescuing zoo animals and writing so well. I also could not see how she continues throughout her life to be so giving and supportive to her messed up parents and sister.
AlthoughAlmost unremittingly depressive, Fireworks Every Night has its strong points too. C.C., the main character is seen in the 90's in the present and as a young wife married to a man with family money. What makes this novel only three stars for me are two factors: I can't buy the fact that C.C.'s marriage fails because she cannot enjoy the freedom from want and poverty that Alex's inheritance provides for them. I can tell you from experience that growing up poor does not preclude you from enjoying the benefits of not having to pinch pennies and wear hand-m-downs. In fact, it is all too easy to acclimate to not having to worry where your next meal is coming from. And luxury, it might take as long as a week to give into and enjoy. That doesn't mean that you lose your empathy and need to help those less fortunate than you have become.

C.C's father, an expert car salesman, moves his family from Ohio to rural Floriday. Her mother has never worked and is dependent on her husband. He is a drinker and philanderer. Her mother, if such she can be called, is an immature and inattentive parent. The older sister becomes a drug addict, leaving home and living off her mother's Ohio relatives. She ends up in jail, with a child who is taken from her.

It's not clear to me how C.C., with her second- or third-rate education, becomes so involved in rescuing zoo animals and writing so well. I also could not see how she continues throughout her life to be so giving and supportive to her messed up parents and sister.

AlthoughAlmost unremittingly depressive, Fireworks Every Night has its strong points too. C.C., the main character is seen in the 90's in the present and as a young wife married to a man with family money. What makes this novel only three stars for me are two factors: I can't buy the fact that C.C.'s marriage fails because she cannot enjoy the freedom from want and poverty that Alex's inheritance provides for them. I can tell you from experience that growing up poor does not preclude you from enjoying the benefits of not having to pinch pennies and wear hand-m-downs. In fact, it is all too easy to acclimate to not having to worry where your next meal is coming from. And luxury, it might take as long as a week to give into and enjoy. That doesn't mean that you lose your empathy and need to help those less fortunate than you have become.

C.C's father, an expert car salesman, moves his family from Ohio to rural Floriday. Her mother has never worked and is dependent on her husband. He is a drinker and philanderer. Her mother, if such she can be called, is an immature and inattentive parent. The older sister becomes a drug addict, leaving home and living off her mother's Ohio relatives. She ends up in jail, with a child who is taken from her.

It's not clear to me how C.C., with her second- or third-rate education, becomes so involved in rescuing zoo animals and writing so well. I also could not see how she continues throughout her life to be so giving and supportive to her messed up parents and sister. I also felt the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.

Although I only gave Fireworks Every night only 3 stars, there was enough evidence of good writing and thoughtfulness that will perhaps result in a 5 star winner in future efforts.
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It would be an understatement to say that C.C. comes from a dysfunctional family. At the beginning of the story, she’s getting ready to marry into a “good family, one with money and class. And yet…she can’t help but feel like a phony. And she just can’t seem to leave the stink of her turbulent past, or her chaotic family, behind.
Told in both the present, and in flashbacks, we can see how tight the ties are that bind C.C. to the people that have been dragging her down her whole life. Hard as we might root for her to leave them all behind and start fresh, there’s no evidence to suggest that C.C. is capable of it; or that she believes in happy endings.
This book was a captivating look at the messiness of family, and how pervasive those relationships are in terms of affecting everything else.
I can’t lie though, I was hoping it would turn out differently.
Thanks to #netgalley and #randomhouse for this #arc of #fireworkseverynight in exchange for an honest review.

CC's father is a car salesman who moves his family from Ohio to Florida. Once they get there and use the insurance money they got when CC's father burned down his car dealership in Ohio, the family starts to unravel, slowly at first and then with increasing intensity. Trying to keep her head above water, and save her parents and her sister from themselves, CC finds herself failed by them at every possible turn.

The story of a family falling apart at the seams, this is beautifully told and bittersweet. I rooted for CC but honestly, given the lives her family ended up with, I just wanted her to end up alive and not on drugs. Her family set the bar so low, it was easy to expect things to turn out so much worse for CC. I felt like the book was realistic in a lot of ways and appreciated the truth in the writing and story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available June 27, 2023.

Rounded up to 4.5 stars!

Wow, what a debut novel! My only complaint with this book was that it wasn't longer. I wanted to know more about the family members and C.C.'s story, but in doing so, the book wouldn't have given such a punch.

I'll start by admitting that I'm a sucker for bleak, coming-of-age stories rife with family drama. I want all the emotions and grittiness that come with the human experience. No HEA needed.

I loved Raymer's prose, it was authentic yet easy to read. The parallel between C.C.'s upbringing and her experience in wildlife conservation was interesting, and I appreciated the details giving the reader real insight into rural South Florida circa 1990s.

I will absolutely read Raymer's next book. Fireworks Every Night is a current contender for one of my favorite reads this year.

This coming-of-age story felt a lot like an indie-festival flick - full of horrible people doing horrible things, but set against the beautiful backdrop of a Florida sunset. Our protagonist, C.C., struggles to stay sane as her family life spirals out of control, and in flash-forwards, we see how she’s still dealing (or not) with the trauma of her childhood.

I liked a lot about this story, but ultimately it left me cold because it just didn’t go anywhere. I’m all for books with no plot and just vibes, but a book with a lot of plot that ends with a shrug is a miss.

Fireworks Every Night is a coming of age novel about a young woman growing up in Florida in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Seven year old C.C. and her family left Ohio for Florida after a fire wiped out their home and the family business. Her father is a charming sweet talker that immediately secures a new job as a used car salesman job and buys his family their dream house. But despite living in a beautiful home and having a successful high school basketball career the cracks in her family are beginning to show. Her sister Lorraine is rebelling, her father sinks further into the bottle and her self-centered mother betrays her in the worst possible way. Now years later an adult C.C. is working as a zoo educator and despite their estrangement she is forever tied to those three people and Florida.

Fireworks Every Night is a dark family “drama-edy” about complicated relationships and how we never can completely leave our parents and siblings behind. I loved the pacing (I finished it in a day) and the humor (Florida is a rich source of comedy) but there is also additional detail about generational wealth (and trauma) and global warming.

I highly recommend Fireworks Every Night to anyone that enjoys reading about the good, the bad and the ugly about American families and living on your own terms despite your past.

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️