Jasper Vale by Devney Perry

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Title: Jasper Vale
Author: Devney Perry
Series: The Edens #4
Published by: Indie
Release Date: January 31, 2023
Format: Audiobook, Kindle Book
Narrator: Lucy Rivers, Lance Greenfield
Pages: 354
Length: 9 hours and 53 minutes
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Source: Audible
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 2
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ iTunes
My rating:

Blurb:

From Wall Street Journal bestselling author Devney Perry comes a small town, fake relationship romance.

Eloise Eden’s pride and joy is her family’s hotel in Quincy, Montana. Her lifelong dream is to own The Eloise Inn. All she has to do is prove to her parents that she’s the epitome of responsible. That her days of being duped and making reckless decisions are history. She’s so close she can taste it.

Until after one weekend in Las Vegas, she comes home married to a stranger.

Jasper must have put her under a spell with those soul-deep eyes because after a single night together, they woke up husband and wife. Her only hope is to keep this marriage a secret until it’s annulled. Then she’ll pretend it never happened.

Except Jasper begs her to stay married. To fake it for three months so she can accompany him to a wedding. Maybe she’s lost her mind to agree. But her brooding husband seems desperate. It’s only three months, right? Then she’ll say goodbye to Jasper Vale, and with any luck, hello to her new hotel.

My Review:

4.5 stars — This one started off solid, and I definitely enjoyed the wildness that was their night in Vegas.  Things got a little sticky after that for a bit, but I was still enjoying myself.  But at a certain point about halfway through the book it just really shot up, and I loved the way the story progressed from there and how it ended!

Eloise is pretty adorable, and sue me if I appreciate a soft-hearted heroine who probably needs a bit more backbone…I mean, look in a mirror Lenore.  She had great intentions, was hard working and passionate, and I loved her cuddly nature.  She definitely had things to work on in her life, and it was great to see her work through some of that in this story.  Her relationship with her family was definitely complicated, and I will admit I kind of wish she’d had a deeper conversation with her family at the end of it (because while Jasper went overboard in his protectiveness, he had a bit of a point), but what can you do.

Jasper was so much more complicated than I was expecting.  I think part of the reason the story picked up at the halfway point is that the reader is finally let into his past a bit more, and we get to see more parts to him…before that point I was reluctant to give my heart to him because I didn’t know what was behind who he was.  Even though he had the biggest wall around his heart, and he still hadn’t completely cut ties with all the toxicity from his past, I still wanted to see him get the love that he deserved.  Because you could tell once someone made it past those walls, he was fiercely loyal.

Even though their relationship was muddled in uncertainty and misunderstandings at times (which I’m not usually a fan of), I felt like it fit with who they were and the nature of their relationship.  And honestly, they were so cute with one another when they let down their guards.  Oh yeah, and the steamy scenes were pretty amazing.  😉  They just made me so happy for them when they connected, because you could tell they really had each other’s backs.

There’s always a teeny amount of suspense/action in these books, and I was…not as big a fan of the one in this one.  Before things went way off to the one direction with the person in question, I was kinda hoping there would be something more…hopeful for the story.  Ah well.

I will admit that I was kinda bummed at the end that we didn’t get to see Jasper find his new path for himself, which is kinda what I was hoping for for the side plotline above.  But maybe we’ll catch a glimpse of it in the remaining 2 books in the series.

All in all, this one started off solid, but then kept bumping up for me — I LOVE it when that happens!