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 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝑩𝒖𝒕, 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒚, 𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒆. 𝑰𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒎𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒚, 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒍.

The novel begins with C.C., named after her father’s favorite drink Canadian Club whiskey, at her fiancé’s family home to celebrate their engagement party. A house with sweeping views of Long Island Sound and a harp once owned by Marie Antoinette, the showcase of wealth alone makes her feel out of place. C.C.’s feelings of worthlessness overwhelm her in the presence of the Wellmans’, but it’s the horror that they have invited her estranged mother, Mary Kay, that sends doom throughout every cell in her body. C.C. hasn’t seen her mother since she was seventeen, the idea of being in the presence of wealthy strangers as they witness the unwanted reunion is more than her mind can bear.

Moving back through her past is her first impression of Florida after moving from Ohio, ‘everything was sweet and free’. With their insurance money from her father’s car dealership that burned to the ground, her mother and father buy a lot in Loxahatchee, a place he just knows smacks with opportunity. He has a job at a Ford dealership in no time, a born salesman. The family lives in a pop-up tent trailer getting to know families just like them, from somewhere else, while their house is being built. It’s a fresh start, she, her mother and sister strolling about in matching bikinis, relaxing by the pool, befriending people from all walks of life, and then the highlight, as the youngest she gets the best bedroom in their new home. It’s thrilling at first, the wildlife, all the other kids to play with, even the flood seasons were exciting, kayaking to the grocery store! Her mother assures C.C. that her father is an excellent provider, but the cloud of deception behind the fire of his former dealership is a hard pill to swallow. Worse, her mother’s open hostility over her father’s philandering.

For a time, money is no object, the trips, the cars, the food, the ocean, nothing is too much! But it all falls apart, her beautiful big sister Lorraine doesn’t fit in, her ’emotions controlled the house’ with her warring personality. Their father works more to avoid the drama, her mother can’t cope and C.C. escapes through sports. Loraine goes through a transformation, sinking deeper into the abyss after a ‘scandal’, their parents doing nothing right to help her. Their mother tries to punish her while their father sees it as typical teenage angst, spoiling her, in time she is high on drugs to cope with the trauma. Her mother’s rage is directed more about how she looks, not so much as to why her eldest child is acting out. C.C. survives by staying on a sports team, but it’s not enough to stop the destruction of her family. Her father’s drinking gets worse, her mother feels trapped without a career of her own and her behavior alternates between controlling mother or ridiculous teenager herself. Her parent’s fights are volcanic eruptions, through them all C.C. tries to remain positive, but her mother begins to consume the life C.C. has been building as her own. She crosses a boundary that leaves C.C. shocked, and locking her feelings inside.

The family dysfunction grows like a cancer and it’s revealed in chapters how C.C. ended up estranged from her family, and the reality of the inescapable fear of ending up like them. How can her relationship with Alex, someone who has grown up with the privileges of the elite, survive her past, her feelings of worthlessness and guilt? How did her father’s vision of opportunity leave them bankrupt and C.C. flailing for stability? Her father may be a master manipulator but her mother is no angel. C.C. and Lorraine are the casualties of their parent’s love.

Florida is a character in this novel too and anyone who has grown up here can likely relate to parts of the novel. It’s a depressing story, readers familiar with family dysfunction can attest that the past can get its hooks into you, the question is, can you cut yourself free or are you stuck with that mirror, seeing the people you try to escape forever staring back at you? How much do you owe your family, especially those who left you to rot?

Yes, read it, but don’t expect happily ever after. With parents like these, who needs enemies?

Publication Date: June 27, 2023 Available Today

Random House

For better or for worse, our families shape us. We take those little (and not-so-little) moments that often came with no intention of making a lasting impression and find they've become the foundation of our behaviors. Like many of us, C.C., the protagonist in Fireworks Every Night, is working through how to live with these imprints left by her unique upbringing. With C.C.'s lifetime of expertise analyzing her environment to make sure she has a safe space to live, it's no wonder that C.C. becomes a passionate environmentalist at her job at a floundering local zoo.

When C.C. moved to Florida with her family, she was sure they finally made it. They'd left their midwestern town that seemed to eat everyone alive for their shiny new life in the Sunshine State. It was barely worth mentioning that she'd heard whispers about the insurance money her father got from the fire that destroyed his used car dealership and the trailer they lived in on the lot. It was even easier to forget when their custom home was finished and her father landed a salesman job—his specialty—at another car dealership.

Unfortunately for C.C., the good fortune didn't have lasting power. A horrible incident sends C.C.'s quiet sister into a spiral that makes her nearly unrecognizable and leaves C.C. alone to navigate their parents tumultuous relationship. C.C. is consumed with the careful balancing act of choosing the "right" side between her parents escalating war, being there for her family, and finding out how to make her own way without being crushed by unbearable guilt.

Fireworks Every Night opens with present-day C.C. in a state of shock after her well-meaning, almost in-laws surprise her with news that her mother has RSVP'd to her wedding. C.C.'s relationship with her mother has always been complex, but at this point, they've been estranged for the better part of C.C.'s adult life. Imagining her mother at her wedding completely washes her in fear.

Raymer's winds through C.C. past and present to color a full picture of C.C.'s dysfunctional upbringing, giving the reader the sensation of processing its events alongside C.C. as she reckons with their lasting effects on her present day reality. While much of this was effective in the end, I found the flow unbalanced; something with the spacing and length of the time jumps didn't serve the narrative quite as well as it could have. Regardless, Fireworks Every Night is a very readable story with characters that are...rubberneck-worthy, to say the least. Finding redeeming qualities in C.C.'s family is challenging at times, but she's an honest, relatable port in the throes of her own personal storm.

4.5 stars. In a word, Fireworks Every Night is breathtaking. If you like to read deep, emotional, complex character-driven novels, put this one on your list.

After a fire destroys their home and car dealership in Ohio, C.C. (named for her father's beloved Canadian Club whiskey, which should give you some idea of where we're headed) and her family move to swampy Florida, where their father uses the insurance money to build them a new home and a new life. But you can't outrun your demons, and things quickly spiral out of control, leaving C.C. struggling to hold on to some semblance of stability in the chaos of her family's circumstances.

Fireworks Every Night is a heavy book, dealing with topics like alcoholism, homelessness, mental health struggles, abuse of all types (physical, emotional, sexual), addiction, and dysfunctional relationships. Anchoring this story is C.C., caught in the maelstrom of her family's issues, who narrates the story on dual timelines. We learn about her childhood, but we also watch her struggle as an adult with her relationship and career, seeing the impact of her upbringing on her adult life. Her story is mostly one of hope and loyalty: hope that she can rise above the horrors of her childhood (and the determination to do it); loyalty to the family who failed her. Her devotion to them and compassion for them, even as they disappoint her again and again, is both beautiful and heartbreaking to witness.

Fireworks Every Night is a vulnerable and powerful book, an unforgettable portrayal of a collapsed American dream, the (sometimes destructive) bonds of family, and a girl who fights tooth and nail to claw her way out. It's a book I will be thinking about for a long time. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the early reading opportunity.

3.5. Dysfunctional family saga, well written but difficult due to subjects/circumstances.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

CC thought she had separated herself from her deeply dysfunctional family but no- it pulls her back in. This moves back and forth in time to tell her story. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The themes might be familiar but Raymer is a good storyteller who will get you to turn the pages.

There's a lot of potential and the author is a talented storyteller. A good story but I found it very slow and the story didn't keep my attention
Not my cup of tea
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A girl trying to keep her life together as her family (her sister, mother and father) fall apart. As much as she tries to help them, things don't get better and she is in danger of going down with them. Painful to read but a hard book to put down. Well done.