Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Hopeless

Amount of spice: 🔥🔥🔥
Explicitness: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes/Themes:
❤ Fake Engagement
❤ Small Town Romance
❤ Fun Family Dynamics
❤ Age Gap
❤ No Third Act Break Up (In my opinion)

I stand by what I said all of these books need to be at LEAST 100 pages shorter. I really enjoyed this one but like every other Elsie Silver book I’ve read, it just didn’t quite hit the spot, potentially with the exception of Summer and Rhett who are still my faves. The family dynamics as usual, were great, it was a super easy read and the fake engagement trope always hooks me in. It does have a slightly different vibe to the previous books and was probably most similar to Powerless in my opinion.

I thought it started really well and I liked their dynamic and back and forth but as I read on Bailey began to feel a little juvenile and it made the age gap feel a little icky. It was also so clear that Elsie has clearly done very minimal research on PTSD before writing this because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a psychiatrist prescribe good sex as a treatment for PTSD. I did enjoy the spice more in this book than the previous books. It feels like Elsie got more and more tame with the spice in each book and I kind of liked that (I’m a vanilla gal).

Also, the whole bar thing at the end was so unnecessary. There was absolutely no reason he had to be the one owning the bar and it was too obvious this was thrown in at the end for some conflict

I would recommend this if you love a small town, cutesy, heartwarming romance and a fake engagement trope.

Content Warnings

readingduckling's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad fast-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

4.0

I liked this book and this series in general. I really love Elise Silves writing style an I think I will read other books of her in the futur.

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kat7794's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad 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

4.0

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sdupont's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

Start to finish this series has been *chef’s kiss* Elsie Silver can do no wrong! I really enjoyed Beau and Bailey’s story. I just love when fake dating/engagement are never really that fake because at least one of the MCs has real feelings. Bailey and Beau are well matched- she calls him out and keeps him on his toes, and he provides her love and care that she never had had. They are a couple you will root for. Theirs is a bit of a slower build up than some of the other books but it suits them and their story. This book is great for someone looking for an emotional romance with some spice.

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sami_leigh's review against another edition

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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

5.0

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
🌶️🌶️.5/5

“Trust your struggle, Beau…If we’re struggling, we’re still in motion, yeah? Heading somewhere better.”

We sit on the riverbank, side by side. Both of us practising being okay with not being okay — together.

“I’m scared of you becoming something I can’t live without.”

“Still not letting my guard down. Not when I’ve got you to keep safe.”

This girl has brought me back to life without even trying.

“You’re not used to anyone showing up for you, Bailey. This is what that looks like.”

“You asked me who I wanted to be once, and it’s this. Me. Right here. Right now. With you.”

☕️ First person dual POV
☕️ Series (can be read stand alone)
☕️ Age gap
☕️ Fake engagement; he wants his family off his back, she needs a new last name around town
☕️ Ex-military / bartender
☕️ His family are well known & loved around town, hers are the opposite
☕️ Protective MMC who is a cinnamon roll for her
☕️ He falls first
☕️ Well established secondary characters; Harvey & Cordelia, Cade & Willa (Book 2), Rhett & Summer (Book 1), Sloane & Jasper (Book 3), Winter & Theo (Book 4), Gary, Grant (hoping for a book 🤞🏻)
☕️ MC growth; communication, risking a relationship, military trauma & childhood trauma, self-worth/being worthy of love.
☕️ Epilogue
☕️ My comfort read series (and author) 😍
☕️ Elsie Silver is an instant must-read author for me

⚠️ Parental abandonment (past), toxic relationship (family), childhood trauma/verbal abuse (minor), fire injury/injury detail (explicit, revisit injury on page), war/military (past, revisited on page), medical trauma (past, revisited on page), PTSD (Moderate), death of a parent (past), pregnancy (not MC), sexism/sexual harassment.

Content Warnings

rustedtulips's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Beau is an Eaton, Chestnut Springs royalty and a military hero with a tortured past. Bailey is an outcast, daughter of the most hated family in town. They strike a deal to fake an engagement to get his family off his back and to help restore her reputation.

I am not going to lie. I had high hopes for this one and I love Beau, but this just fell flat for me. It seemed to be rushed and quality that was present in the rest of this series, just wasn't there. I'm sad to say that this was my least favourite, but there was SO much potential!

I loved that all of the other characters were intertwined within this story and we got some of the dad's wild humour.

I appreciate how sensitive Silver was with the the discussion of PTSD and Beau's injuries. That said, the book barely goes into detail about what happened to him. Exploring his past would have given so much more depth to the story.

I don't understand the "bet" angle. There wasn't really a bet, it was more of a deal or a pact.

Beau gave me whiplash. I guess that was the point, since that is what Bailey is experiencing, but how does he switch to such extremes?

Bailey was hypersexualitized throughout the whole book. It was like her whole personality was an outcast virgin. There was SO much focus on the fact that she was a virgin by Beau and she was so hyperfocused on sex, that it became pretty much the entire plot!

Something that really annoyed me was this idea of love conquers or cures all. Both of these characters have serious mental health issues and PTSD that they don't deal with. There is the underlying theme that their relationship is going to cure all their issues, it's not. Both of these characters should be in therapy. I don't understand why there had to be an anti-therapy angle to this book.

Tropes: fake engagement, age gap, virgin FMC, tortured MMC, small town

Content Warnings

dianaschmidty's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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