Heartland by Sarina Bowen

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Title: Heartland
Author: Sarina Bowen
Series: True North #7
Published by: Indie
Release Date: January 28, 2020
Format: eARC
Pages: 329
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »physical abuse description « Hide Spoiler
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER With Friends
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

Blurb:

An emotional friends to lovers romance full of risky secrets and late-night lessons in seduction.

Dylan is my best friend, and the only person in my life who understands me. He doesn’t mind my social awkwardness or my weird history. The only glitch? He doesn’t know that I’ve been hopelessly, desperately in love with him since the first day we picked apples together in his family’s orchard.

But I know better than to confess.

Now that I’ve joined him at college, I’m seeing a new side of him. This Dylan drinks and has a lot of sex. None of it with me.

Until the moment I foolishly ask him to tutor me in more than algebra…and he actually says yes.

One crazy night sets our friendship on fire. But now my heart lies in ashes, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Heartland is a standalone college romance set in the True North world. Expect: a young, broody farmer, a giant crush, tasty caramels, cute goats and late night confessions.

My Review:

I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — I have a feeling this review is going to be all over the place.  I mean, I LOVED it.  It was everything I’ve come to expect from a True North novel, and I just enjoyed it immensely.  It also hit me hard in a few places and made me cry.  And most of all it left me craving books to come and wanting to reread books in the past (particularly Goodbye Paradise in this case).

I love the way Ms. Bowen writes characters, how you can tell how much time she puts in to making them real and unique and relatable.  There were aspects of Chastity that I 100% connected with her on, and it was strangely about the inability to ask for sex (though I swear I don’t have a cult background).  I just kind of loved that through Chastity’s experiences, Ms. Bowen was able to make a character that has this small attribute to her, and it really got to me.

I also really related to Dylan and the loss of his Dad.  I lost my Dad at the exact same age, and it’s seriously just the worst.  I also loved all the confusion and lack of knowledge about what happened that day, because I can relate to that as well.  My brother was under the wrong impression about something related to the day my Dad died as well, and held on to it for more than a decade before we cleared it up.  It’s amazing how long grief affects you and your life.

Chastity was a dichotomy of so many different things.  She was this naturally sexual woman who had experiences that made her wary of her wants/needs.  But she didn’t let that stop her completely, and I loved how strong and determined she was.  I loved her natural curiosity about the world, and just a love of life.  I appreciated that she wasn’t a naturally strong student and really had to work at that…so many books make college look easy, and it’s not.

I loved that Dylan was both the fun loving party guy who has a LARGE sexual appetite, but also so much more than that.  I appreciated that it wasn’t all a misrepresentation, that while there was a lot of depth going into his avoidance of commitment, it was also just a bit of who he was.  And besides all that, he was fun-loving, sweet, genuinely caring (if a bit clueless), deliciously cuddly (which doesn’t fit the normal player persona) and so mixed up about what he wanted in the future.  He was a perfect college student.

Chastity and Dylan’s relationship gave me anxiety at times because of the strange imbalance to it.  I felt for Chastity and her conviction that Dylan would never feel the same way about her, because based on everything she knew, she was exactly right.  I wanted Dylan to figure his shit out faster, even if that didn’t make sense.

But damn guys, the steamy scenes were fucking unreal!  I was so engrossed and feeling all the things with them (Brett says thanks btw).  They had so much sexual chemistry, the heat just exploded off the pages.  But I also loved their friendship, and how they just worked together.  I loved their venture into caramels, and I really want some now.  Like for realz.

I LOVED the friendship that Chastity develops with Ellie!  It was so adorable, and they fit together just perfectly — two awkward out of place students, but for opposite reasons.  I really hope we get to see more of Ellie at some point, but I have no idea how.

I also ADORED Rickie to PIECES, and I’m SOOOOO excited that he’s getting a book (because you know I looked at Ms. Bowen’s Upcoming Release schedule and saw his name — SQUEEE!!).  He was such a great friend to both Dylan and Chass, and I loved how much you could tell that he cared about them and wanted to help them find their way.  Plus, damn am I curious about his past.  And besides just Rickie alone, I also loved Keith, and how they were all friends together.  They made me laugh, and I loved that.

It was hard to watch Dylan and Griff butt heads, and I’m glad that there was some resolution there.  But I also felt like it was a really realistic sibling relationship, especially with that kind of age difference, and especially given their trauma.

Honestly, I only have two minor negatives.  It was hard to watch Dylan with someone else at the beginning (just a personal taste thing), and the ending felt a bit abrupt (hence rounding down instead of up).  I don’t know if it actually was, but I will admit that I was a bit surprised to turn the page and see the epilogue.  I might just be being greedy though, it’s been known to happen.

So yeah.  I hate wrapping up reviews, I never know what to say.  If you’re a fan of the series, you won’t be disappointed.  If you haven’t read it yet, jump on in — the water’s warm (because Dylan is that hot).