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savvyrosereads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Rating: 5/5 stars
Beau Eaton needs something to bring him back to life…and it might just be Bailey Jansen, beautiful local bartender and Beau’s…fake fiancée?
I feel like I’ve seen mixed reviews on this one, but I honestly loved it. Beau is such a sweetheart, and I adored his relationship with Bailey—the protectiveness, the we’ll-save-each-other vibes, the golden-retriever-but-a-little-bit-darker energy? All perfection, and I truly didn’t want to put this one down.
I know I haven’t shut up about this series lately, but I genuinely loved all of the books, and I’m so sad to see it come to an end—but so glad it got such a beautiful ending with this book! Also, if you have the Bloom editions, you know there are Harvey bonus chapters in each book—taken together, those make up what I consider the sixth love story of the series and I absolutely LOVE them. (If they ever get bound into their own novella I 10000% would buy, just saying.)
Final series ranking: Reckless > Heartless > Hopeless > Powerless > Flawless.
CW: Past child abuse/neglect; PTSD/military trauma; fire injury/burns
Beau Eaton needs something to bring him back to life…and it might just be Bailey Jansen, beautiful local bartender and Beau’s…fake fiancée?
I feel like I’ve seen mixed reviews on this one, but I honestly loved it. Beau is such a sweetheart, and I adored his relationship with Bailey—the protectiveness, the we’ll-save-each-other vibes, the golden-retriever-but-a-little-bit-darker energy? All perfection, and I truly didn’t want to put this one down.
I know I haven’t shut up about this series lately, but I genuinely loved all of the books, and I’m so sad to see it come to an end—but so glad it got such a beautiful ending with this book! Also, if you have the Bloom editions, you know there are Harvey bonus chapters in each book—taken together, those make up what I consider the sixth love story of the series and I absolutely LOVE them. (If they ever get bound into their own novella I 10000% would buy, just saying.)
Final series ranking: Reckless > Heartless > Hopeless > Powerless > Flawless.
CW: Past child abuse/neglect; PTSD/military trauma; fire injury/burns
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, and Mental illness
Moderate: Violence and War
clareasday's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: War and Violence
ciara_fs98's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" finally meets her hero/saviour
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, War, Violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
PTSDbooksgoodformysoul's review
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, and War
Moderate: Violence and Sexual content
ambercunningham's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Violence
rustedtulips's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Beau Eaton is basically the towns perfect prince from a family that might as well be royalty, he’s literally a military Hero who’s been through more than his share of pain, especially in recent times.
Bailey on the other hand, is more like the town reject, a bartender in the small town where everyone looks down on her and nobody shows her respect, except for maybe the Eaton family. Which is strange since their basically her families rivals and the two line absolutely hate each other.
Their family rivalry is kind of funny, since they are fake engaged to each other now. The problem is that they might just each want to be a little bit more than fake interested in each other, but how could that work in the real world when Bailey wants to leave the god forsaken that’s always looked down on her and Beau has his whole life wrapped up in his family, their ranch and everything he loves about the town she can’t wait to escape?
I’m going to be honest, I loved the idea of reading Beau’a story. I knew it would be deep and I knew some of it would be dark. However what I couldn’t see was who his match would be! Which is honestly ridiculous looking back, because obviously Bailey is just perfect for him!
I loved keeping up with all the family drama of the Eaton’s as well as the characters from the previous stories. It’s always enjoyable to really get caught up with characters you love, over and over again.
The writing of these books is also top tier, I never actually see the full twist coming, I saw the hints and had my suspicions but omg that twist had me mad! I was heartbroken for Bailey but so hopeful for things to work out perfectly (like it wasn’t going to! 🤦♀️)
Finally a little note on the spice, because oh my gosh was it spicy! I feel like this book in particular was incredibly full of spice from the beginning, despite the fact they didn’t do the deed for most of the book! Right from the beginning, these two just seemed so ramped up and open about their desires. I absolutely loved that despite being a virgin Bailey was so curious and unable to hold back her desire to know all the answers to her sexual questions that she just blurts them out. It had me howling, while creating some pretty steamy moments at the same time! I think this is a 4 star spice rating for me.
It’s definitely a series I’d recommend if you enjoy spice, because this cowboy spice is something else entirely.
Bailey on the other hand, is more like the town reject, a bartender in the small town where everyone looks down on her and nobody shows her respect, except for maybe the Eaton family. Which is strange since their basically her families rivals and the two line absolutely hate each other.
Their family rivalry is kind of funny, since they are fake engaged to each other now. The problem is that they might just each want to be a little bit more than fake interested in each other, but how could that work in the real world when Bailey wants to leave the god forsaken that’s always looked down on her and Beau has his whole life wrapped up in his family, their ranch and everything he loves about the town she can’t wait to escape?
I’m going to be honest, I loved the idea of reading Beau’a story. I knew it would be deep and I knew some of it would be dark. However what I couldn’t see was who his match would be! Which is honestly ridiculous looking back, because obviously Bailey is just perfect for him!
I loved keeping up with all the family drama of the Eaton’s as well as the characters from the previous stories. It’s always enjoyable to really get caught up with characters you love, over and over again.
The writing of these books is also top tier, I never actually see the full twist coming, I saw the hints and had my suspicions but omg that twist had me mad! I was heartbroken for Bailey but so hopeful for things to work out perfectly (like it wasn’t going to! 🤦♀️)
Finally a little note on the spice, because oh my gosh was it spicy! I feel like this book in particular was incredibly full of spice from the beginning, despite the fact they didn’t do the deed for most of the book! Right from the beginning, these two just seemed so ramped up and open about their desires. I absolutely loved that despite being a virgin Bailey was so curious and unable to hold back her desire to know all the answers to her sexual questions that she just blurts them out. It had me howling, while creating some pretty steamy moments at the same time! I think this is a 4 star spice rating for me.
It’s definitely a series I’d recommend if you enjoy spice, because this cowboy spice is something else entirely.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Fire/Fire injury
torilovesheas's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
It kills me that this one was a bit of a miss for me. I sort of feared this one wouldn’t work for me and while I did really like some parts, it’s definitely my least favorite in the series.
The best part of this was Beau and Bailey as people and how they navigate a relationship when they don’t *really* know what they want to do with their lives. The time they spend with each other is sweet and I felt like that fit as a couple. Truly the best parts of the story are the intimate moments between Beau and Bailey where they’re just talking or making memories together. The age gap + virgin FMC worked for me in this one because Bailey’s reasons for remaining a virgin make sense and it never feels like her virginity is fetishized. (And she really doesn’t give a shit about it, tbh). Bailey is tougher than she seemed in earlier appearances and Beau is a bit softer than I was imagining which I loved! I love that we get to see the areas they compliment each other because it made their relationship believable in a set-up that was a bit non-sensical.
Which leads me to what didn’t work for me. There really was no reason why a fake relationship needed to be here and the reasons behind the fake engagement were very thin. In the grand scheme of things, this would have worked just fine as an age gap between a bartending town pariah and the big shot town hero without a buzzword trope thrown in. I need a trope like that to make sense and it didn’t here. There weren’t stakes high enough to warrant an entire engagement.
And as a final little grievance, if you’re going to have a character that very clearly needs therapy (in this case, due to PTSD from war), having them be totally anti-therapy isn’t going to work for me. And it’s probably largely personal because…living with and loving someone that suffers from PTSD isn’t going to be fixed by a happy relationship.
I am sad the series is at an end and I’m glad to know we’ll be Chestnut Springs adjacent in the next series! (Which I’m really excited for).
Thank you to Elsie for an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!
The best part of this was Beau and Bailey as people and how they navigate a relationship when they don’t *really* know what they want to do with their lives. The time they spend with each other is sweet and I felt like that fit as a couple. Truly the best parts of the story are the intimate moments between Beau and Bailey where they’re just talking or making memories together. The age gap + virgin FMC worked for me in this one because Bailey’s reasons for remaining a virgin make sense and it never feels like her virginity is fetishized. (And she really doesn’t give a shit about it, tbh). Bailey is tougher than she seemed in earlier appearances and Beau is a bit softer than I was imagining which I loved! I love that we get to see the areas they compliment each other because it made their relationship believable in a set-up that was a bit non-sensical.
Which leads me to what didn’t work for me. There really was no reason why a fake relationship needed to be here and the reasons behind the fake engagement were very thin. In the grand scheme of things, this would have worked just fine as an age gap between a bartending town pariah and the big shot town hero without a buzzword trope thrown in. I need a trope like that to make sense and it didn’t here. There weren’t stakes high enough to warrant an entire engagement.
And as a final little grievance, if you’re going to have a character that very clearly needs therapy (in this case, due to PTSD from war), having them be totally anti-therapy isn’t going to work for me. And it’s probably largely personal because…living with and loving someone that suffers from PTSD isn’t going to be fixed by a happy relationship.
I am sad the series is at an end and I’m glad to know we’ll be Chestnut Springs adjacent in the next series! (Which I’m really excited for).
Thank you to Elsie for an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: War and Violence
abicaro17's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I am sobbing rn. Beau is such a grumpy sweetheart and Bailey just gives it right back to him. I was so excited about this book and it did not disappoint! I still think Theo and Winter are the best couple of the series but Beau and Bailey gave them a run for their money for sure. I was kicking my feet and giggling the WHOLE time. I am devastated that this series is over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Pregnancy, War, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Alcoholism, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
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